Kaidan

1964 [JAPANESE]

Action / Drama / Fantasy / Horror

47
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 91% · 46 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 89% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.9/10 10 23305 23.3K

anthology long black hair folk horror storyteller samurai based on novel or book

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Plot summary

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Director

Masaki Kobayashi Photo
Masaki Kobayashi

Top cast

Osamu Takizawa Photo
Osamu Takizawa as Author / Narrator
Kappei Matsumoto Photo
Kappei Matsumoto as (segment "Kurokami")
Keiko Kishi Photo
Keiko Kishi as Yuki the Snow Maiden
Yôsuke Kondô Photo
Yôsuke Kondô as (segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi")
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.46 GB
1280*534
English 2.0
Not Rated
Subtitles
23.976 fps
3 hr 3 min
Seeds 15
2.87 GB
1920*800
English 2.0
Not Rated
Subtitles
23.976 fps
3 hr 3 min
Seeds 93

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

I'm always a little daunted when I settle

I'm always a little daunted when I settle down in a cinema seat for a film that is 3 hours long - I fear the last glass of wine may have been one too many - but this simply flew by. It is a compendium of four different Japanese "poems" that deal with just about every emotion in the human panoply - love, hate, greed, joy, fear, envy, betrayal... You name it! Each story has a central theme that, perhaps not terribly sophisticated to anyone with a fairly well-centred moral compass of their own, delivers a salutatory lesson in what is decent and what is flawed about human nature, even amongst the best of us. "In A Cup of Tea" - is a wonderfully intriguing story and my personal favourite is "Hoichi" - featuring a blind priest who can sing such beautiful songs but at such a fearful price. The staging is superb, though the fight scenes - especially on the water - maybe a little too studio-bound to be truly effective. The colours and sounds test every range of your senses; ecstasy and despair, bliss and rage and leave you, at the end, feeling as drained and fulfilled, simultaneously, as any film could hope to possibly engender... This really is a glorious roller-coaster of a ride!
Reviewed by KingM21 7 / 10

Ju-On has nothing on this.

This Japanese horror classic is an artistic masterpiece of sound, framing, design, and color. Director Masaki Kobayashi's visuals could often almost be viewed as a painting! Kwaidan is a four-piece anthology, with each tale involving the supernatural. None of them were really frightening but they all managed to be atmospheric, and even haunting at times. I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite but I was quite fond of both Black Hair and The Woman in the Snow (Tales from the Darkside ripped off that one). I also liked Hoichi the Earless (the title reveals too much, I think), though it was a bit dry. In a Cup of Tea was probably the shortest of the four and I really enjoyed the idea behind it. My biggest complaint about Kwaidan is that with the 164-minute length and consistently slow pace, there are times when the movie drags. However, with all the other qualities, sitting through some slow spots wasn't that much of a problem.
Reviewed by GyatsoLa 7 / 10

Four Plays

Four old ghost stories, updated in the late 19th Century by the Irish-Greek-America Lafcadio Hearne, then reclaimed by Kobayashi Masaki in the 1960's. This really isn't your regular horror movie to put it mildly - All four stories are told in a highly theatrical manner with deliberately stylized studios and acting. Some of the sets are very beautiful, a quite unique cinema experience.It is, however, very uneven. The first story, 'the Woman of the Black Hair' is lovely in parts, but the ending disappoints (its different from the Lafcadio Hearne original). The second one, the 'Woman of the Snow' is genuinely very creepy and shocking. The third story, 'Hoichi the Earless' is by far the most impressive, with memorable visuals and music. The last story, 'In a Cup of Tea' is a more conventional 'tales of the unexpected' type story and is a little overlong. Its really a bit of a shaggy dog story, not worthy of the others.There is no doubt that its a very beautiful movie in parts - some sections are genuinely memorable and will likely stick in your mind for a lot longer than the usual ghost stories. I don't think its as good a movie as some other Japanese horror movies of the period such as Onibaba or Woman of the Dunes (both made two years before this). However, it is fascinating in the little insights it gives to the pleasures of traditional Japanese theater.
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