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Kwaidan - Criterion Collection Actors: Rentaro Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama Director: Masaki Kobayashi Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 164 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2000-10-10 Buy from Amazon |
 "."Fine, fine movie; sometimes I like Kobayashi even better than Akira Kurosawa. This movie reminded me of Kurosawa's "Dreams," only it is 4 ghost stories rather than 8 (was it 8?) vignettes. The visual style is coloful, surreal, and deliciously imaginative, and the emotional and aesthetic atmospheres could be described exactly the same way. An incredible and bizarre soundtrack aids the film further yet. The only weakness is that it's a bit slow on the start-up; the first tale is good, but a bit simplistic to serve as a kick-off, and the second tale, despite some amazing visual imagery, is the least satisfying of the four. The third is excellent (although you have to change tapes halfway through it, grr), and the fourth is wonderful as well -- if it were a little longer, and more complete, it would be my favorite. All in all a fine, unusual, and rewarding atmospheric Japanese film.  "a classic from kobayashi, with uneven moments"Of the four stories, "Hoichi the Earless" is the most memorable. Not only is the famous composer Takemitsu Toru's music used most eeriely, the ghosts really have a reason to be grumpy (they all died "heroic" deaths in a battle from ancient Japanese history.) This third tale also features Takeshi Shimura, who reprises the role of a priest from Seven Samurai - for real this time. His presence in reassuring, even after he admits to the mistake that costs Hoichi his appendages. The uneveness mainly has to do with the first two tales, "Black Hair" and "Woman of the Snow", both of which suffer from weak editing/pacing of the narrative. "Black Hair" does live up to the promise of a ghostly tale by the end --- a beautiful fusion of restrained eerieness and horrifying effects of camera-induced disturbance. Famed actor Tatsuya Nakadai remains his own profile in "Woman of the Snow", however, making the most disappointing segment of the movie (even the eye in the sky is more contrived than the corlorful battle-scenes of Hoichi!) These first 2 stories are also typical of demonizing the female as threatening supernaturals, but that's a construction the movie obeys rather than creates. All in all, Kwaidan's successfully rendered atmosphere of horror and despair in the last two tales are well worth the time. Don't skip the beginning though - for Takemitsu's masterful music and the effective dye-in-motion that introduce the tales. "Eerie tales of old Japan"This film is based on three stories from Lafcadio Hearn's story collection KWAIDAN. Heavily stylized and colorful, KWAIDAN is perhaps the most beautiful Japanese film ever made. Some images are not to be forgotten: a strange eye in the night sky watching as a young man struggles through a snowy forest; a young blind man, covered with calligraphy, has his ears cut off by angry ghosts (calligraphy guarded parts of his body from dismemberment); an unfaithful husband watches in horror as his wife decomposes and yet her hair grows very long. The setpieces of director Masaki Kobayahasi are stunning; watch this film in widescreen if possible! END "Four tales of the supernatural from Japan. Magnificant!"Kwaidan presents four stories of the supernatural. Each story is beautifully produced and thought provoking. Kwaidan is not a horror film in the American context of freightening images and fast pace. Freightening aspects of this movie are generated by realizations and associations that occur in the viewer, as a result of the images and story line presented by the movie. It is a much more personalized form of horror than we normally experience. I recommend this movie highly to anyone with a thoughtful turn of mind. "Just about the best Japanese film I've ever seen"Man, this is awesome. Haunted teacups, ghosts, snow vampires, blind men with bodies covered with Japanese simbols. What more could a viewer want. And this film has an exellent use of color. Ingenoius cinematography and art direction make incredible images you won't soon forget. Wow! Tape has a crystal clear print and is subtitled |
