Kwaidan (sometimes Kaidan) literally means “ghost story”. Given the generic term, there have been several movies that have had this title, but the one we are referring to is Masaki Kobayashi's Kaidan from 1964.
Basically this film is something like a Japanese Tales From the Crypt, containing four horror stories in vibrant color Tohoscope, all set in Japan’s Edo Period.
The first story, ‘The Black Hair’, is reminiscent of Ugetsu, wherein a man leaves his wife to attain social status, only to encounter supernatural ruin. The second story, ‘The Woman in the Snow’ is a haunting ghost story of the kind that is universally familiar. The third story, ‘Hoichi the Earless’, is the longest, but perhaps the best, including a historical recreation of a Japanese naval battle. The final story, ‘In a Bowl of Tea’, is probably the weakest, but it does have some of the best martial arts.
Overall, Kwaidan is full of beautiful set pieces and costumes. The sparse, haunting Japanese music is a stark contrast to American film scores, and really works to give these stories an eerie feel. Winner of a Special Jury prize at Cannes, it’s a cultural experience recommended to everyone, but particularly to American audiences who’ve been turned on to Japanese horror in the last decade thanks to imports like The Ring and The Grudge.
Kagemusha
When talking about Japanese cinema, one sooner or later, inevitably runs into Akira Kurosawa. While Kurosawa needs no introduction, I am constantly astounded at how many people never went to see Ran in its initial release. To read the reviews on the web, it seems like the majority of Americans never saw this film until the re-release in the 2000s! What did they think the rest of us had been gushing over for the past 25 years?
Well, if there are any new converts to that epic Kurosawa masterpiece, I encourage them to seek out Kagemusha (literally ‘Shadow Warrior’), the film Kurosawa made just prior to Ran.
The story concerns petty thief who is hired to masquerade as a deceased Clan Lord, and who turns out to be more true to the spirit of the Clan's Lord than the actual generals who are his handlers.
There is no doubt that this is a flawed gem. The subtitles are verbose, and having to read them takes away from appreciating the cinematography – which is gorgeous. There is also an overabundance of long takes that contributes to the film’s extensive 2 hour and 40 minute run time. But by far the biggest flaw is the music score, which is annoying and repetitious, with a reliance on brass instrumentation, giving it a distinctly un-Japanese (or at least un-Edo Period) flavor.
Still, with all it’s flaws, it’s still excellent, and comes across like a rough draft for Ran.
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