90 - Kwaidan

[captainofbeef]

- Stunning new widescreen transfer, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
- Original theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

[criterionmaster]

Four Japanese ghost stories that are as creepy and scary as any film I have seen. The stories are all based on the works of Lafcadio Hearn. The uses of colors like the bright red and yellow sky create a nightmarish dreamy feel for the film. The atmosphere is constantly creepy but beautiful. Each scene is like a painting.

The first story, The Black Hair, is about a samurai who divorces his wife to marry a rich woman. He soon realizes he misses his old wife and would take her over all the money in the world. The second has two woodcutters pass out in a shack during a snow storm. The one man awakens and sees a woman killing his friend. She says she will let him live if he never repeats what he has seen. The films third story, Hoichi, The Earless, is about a blind musician who is commanded by ghosts to sing for them. The last is about a warrior who is forced to challenge a phantom. The second story was my personal favorite.

The film has a strange realism to it even though it was all shot on a set and has no real elements to it. You can believe the films stories, I never questioned anything. You are drawn further and further from the real world as the stories go.

The soundtrack consists of over exaggerated sounds which work perfectly. It adds a scary feel to all the scenes and made me jump almost every time it was done.

The performances are all amazing. The women in this film really creep me out, looking at them makes me shiver.

A great film that creates and atmosphere and creepy feeling that I don’t think any film can recreate. It truly gave me the creeps.

[ie]

I enjoyed the Hoichi The Earless sequence the most, which also seemed to be the longest.

I enjoyed the first and secent sequences about the same, with a slight preference for the first.

And the fourth sequence was just a let down for me.


Overall, though, worth checking out. Not truly essential, but it's good enough of a movie to watch eventually.

[The Pseudo Cathartic]

I tried to watch this movie several times. And for some reason, I always loose interest after the first story.

I really liked the one with the guy who told his wife a secret. I can't remember which one but boy, that lady scared me, to be honest.