- Director: Masaki Kobayashi
- Writers: Yôko Mizuki, Lafcadio Hearn
- Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe
- Run time: 3 Hours, 3 Minutes
- Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/368DA6E
Kwaidan (1964) Review
Synopsis
This is a Japanese anthology film with English subtitles in four parts.
The Black Hair
We start with long, lingering shots of a walkthrough of a ruined and abandoned old-style Japanese house. A samurai went broke because his lord went broke, and now he’s off to work for a governor in a distant land, leaving Kyoto and his wife behind. This is his last chance, and he won’t let anything stop him. He then marries a noblewoman to advance his career.
He realizes that he loved the first wife far more than the second and realizes that he’d made a mistake in leaving her. The new wife catches on to this, which only makes things worse. Eventually, he completes his term of service and decides to return to the first wife.
He goes back to the old shell of a house, and finds the place literally crumbling. He finds her there, as if nothing had happened; she hasn’t aged a day. He apologizes in shame and promises to stay with her always. She says several things that suggest they only have this one night, but he doesn’t pick up on any of it. She blows out the candle, and they presumably have sex. The sun comes up. He smells her fragrant hair, and looks at her, and see that she’s nothing but a long-dead skeleton…
The Woman of the Snow
There were two woodcutters, and old man and a young apprentice. One day they got caught up in a blizzard. As they trudge through the snowy hills, we see a huge, surreal eye painted on the sky. They hide out in a barn for shelter, and they finally get to sleep.
Suddenly, there’s a woman standing beside the sleeping men. She freezes the old man with her breath, because she’s really a snow demon. She pities and spares the younger man, and she finds him attractive. She swears him to secrecy and forbids him to tell anyone about her, or she will kill him.
Later, he makes it back to his village and his mother. She berates him for being weak. A year passes, and he eventually goes back to woodcutting. He meets up with a girl who has lost her family, and they become friends. He invites her to stay at his house. Time passes, and she gives him three children. The other villagers whine that Yuki never seems to get any older.
After a while, he recognizes his loving wife to be the snow demon but convinces himself it’s not true. He tells her the story, and we all know what’s coming…
Hoichi the Earless
We get a long, Kabuki-style drama that shows us that long ago, two great clans fought a sea battle. One of the clans was wiped out, including the infant emperor. The surrounding area is said to have been haunted for the last 700 years.
The monks take care of Hoichi, who is blind. They all get called away one evening for some kind of ceremony, leaving him alone at the monastery. He hears some strange noises but cannot find anyone there. It’s the ghost of one of the long-dead soldiers.
The man’s lord wants to hear Hoichi recite the tale of the battle, as Hoichi has gotten a little famous for telling the story. The man leads Hoichi off into the woods towards a huge ghostly gate that seems to lead to the underworld.
The monks return and can’t find Hoichi. All his stuff is still there, so they think he’s wandered off. They later find him asleep in his bed and assume he had a good time last night with a girl. The next night, the ghost comes back again and leads him to the other side. The ghost swears him to secrecy, and this continues night after night.
The head monk asks Hoichi what’s going on, but Hoichi won’t explain. We see that he’s been telling his story and playing his tune for the ghosts of the dead, who literally relive the action every time he tells the tale. There’s a huge storm that night, and Hoichi goes out again, but this time, some of the men follow him. They grab Hoichi before the tale is over and drag him away. They explain all this to the head monk, and he has a plan to free Hoichi. Will it work, or will it backfire tremendously?
In a Cup of Tea
We are told by a writer in the year 1900 that some stories have no ending, and there’s not always a reason for it.
He tells us of an old story where an old samurai, Kannai, looks in a bowl of water and sees a younger man reflected in it. He drinks it.
Later, he’s on guard duty and spots a cup of tea on the shelf. As he bats it to the ground, the man he saw in the reflection speaks to him. He strikes his sword at him, but the man vanishes. The other guards laugh at him when he tells the story.
The next night, three men come to the compound looking for our samurai. They say their master will return in one month avenge himself on Kannai. After a crazy battle, Kannai kills all three of them, but they won’t stay dead. The samurai goes mad. The story stops there, and not long after, so the does the film.
Commentary
The title, Kwaidan, simply means “Ghost Stories” in Japanese, and this film shows four of the seventeen tales that were written in the original book in 1904. There’s a large cast of extras, and the nature shots are impressive; the locations look very realistic, even though they were mostly shot in a studio. Some of the shots are very artistic, with snowscapes and alien skies.
All the stories are really slow-paced and are driven more by creepy visuals than by plot. There’s not much background music, so it gets very quiet at times. These are traditional Japanese folk tales, not studio-made, committee-written slasher flicks, and it’s got a very different feel to it.
The most distinctive thing I can point out about the film is just how slow it is. Do not go into this one expecting a lot of action. Instead, plan to enjoy the visuals the slow-paced-ness of it all. It’s a lot like reading a book: Don’t be in a rush, and it’ll pay off. If you go in expecting a modern-style horror movie, you’re going to be bored to death.