TheNabOwnzz While not as personal as Kobayashi's Samurai Rebellion or Harakiri, Kwaidan is nevertheless an exceptional gem due to its impeccable visuals, hypnotizing slow pacing and stunning set design.It is a film that consists of four stories that are not connected to eachother by any means except for the fact that they are all eerily similar in their supernatural and unsettling nature. Some people claim this detracts from the relatability of the characters in the film, but this truly isn't really the case since in all four stories we have characters that are brilliantly developed due to the fact that despite the relatively short running time of each story, we get to know their character and their motivations from the start and also because of some great acting. ( Featuring performances from some of Japan's best Tatsuya Nakadai & Takashi Shimura, in separate stories. ) It is classified as horror primarily because of its supernatural and afterlife themes and unsettling atmosphere, but it doesn't rely on cheap jump scares to convey this unsettling feeling in the audience like a lot of modern horror movies do. It seeks to explore the fearful spiritual part in every human being and conveys this with its surreal imagery and eerie soundtrack, combined with fantastic make up and set design. It also still manages to set principles on right and wrong in a world so spiritual, and the first story 'The Black Hair' shows this best with our main character abandoning his wife due to financial reasons and finding out years later that this choice was not the most humane one to make, and it also shows us that there is no going back after the choice is made. It also shows us that the reason for these spirits being in the film is generally because of the delusion our main characters have, and we are often shown what THEY ( Main characters ) feel and think, and not what is truly happening, enhancing immersion into the characters significantly.However, Kwaidan's real strength is its cinematography and its absolutely stunningly beautiful images. It uses surreal imagery on the skies and beautiful uses of fog to signify the afterlife and the world of the spirits, and it uses normal shots of the skies to signify the human world. Its set design is incredible. Whether it be long grass in 'The Black Hair', the snow hut in 'Woman in the Snow', the incredible mansion or sea battle in 'Hoichi the Earless', every visual tells its story and every shot is such a piece of art that it is beautiful to look at. There have to be dozens of shots in this film that can be paused and captured as an incredible image. Kobayashi uses smooth flowing camera movements and pans that always seem so natural and dynamic because of his exceptional directorial skills. There is minimal dialogue because most of the story is already told by the imagery, and Kobayashi is never the director that insults the audience's intelligence by stating obvious things with his dialogue, and therefore every piece of dialogue seems necessary and relevant.Kwaidan might not be as emotionally powerful as Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy, Harakiri or Samurai Rebellion, but it is one of the greatest visual experiences one could hope to get, and it is also a fantastic study on exploring the flaws in the human race due to its ability to show spirits as a form of delusion created by men to make up for their flaws.

Andres-Camara I assume that for them these stories will be known and nothing would collide, I half of the film had to be thinking that he wanted to tell me. While it is true that I am very analytical and when things are abstract I miss a bit. But this film for me is very abstract and that pulls me out.Finally I would say that I do not think it is bad as other films, it is done seriously, but its ingredients I do not like. So for my taste I do not approve.Spoiler: This is what you ask me when I finish watching the movie. It is a paranoia of the director or it is me who has become such a dog that I have been lost.You're watching the movie and you do not know if it's so badly made that it looks like theater or that they did not know how to do it better, but if it was so, it should have been all like that, not just part of the story. I imagine that being Japanese cinema, I will not understand their ways of seeing things, their stories, their times, because if, as always this cinema, it is not that it is slow, it is that it does not know the word ellipsis. A fantastic wardrobe that if, as always and some actors, also as always overacted, there will be who loves, I find it heavy.If it were not because it happens and it seems to be theater, the photograph would be very beautiful, but when it happens, it happens to be theater, the problem is that we are watching cinema. It is like the address, luckily it is not a sum of fast planes, but a sum of generals does not say much either.I assume that for them these stories will be known and nothing would collide, I half of the film had to be thinking that he wanted to tell me. While it is true that I am very analytical and when things are abstract I miss a bit. But this film for me is very abstract and that pulls me out.Finally I would say that I do not think it is bad as other films, it is done seriously, but its ingredients I do not like. So for my taste I do not approve.

theFoss Watched this one on Hulu's Criterion Collection...It was interesting enough, but seemed uneven, to me...Black Hair, the lead vignette, as others had mentioned, bogged down, IMO, with the Samurai horse archery scene, before reeling to its Gothic ending...Woman of the Snow was both interesting and beautifully filmed, with its watercolor panoramas, separating the outdoor scenes, SPOILER ALERT, its ending was not quite what I expected, with Yuki's mother instinct, apparently, not wanting to orphan her children.Hoichi the Earless, kicks off with a genuine, and reasonably accurate depiction (even down to the blackened teeth of the Heike!) of the Battle of Dan-no-ura, a pivotal sea battle (in the Samurai style, where ships were just platforms for infantry and archers) of the Genpei War of 1180-1185, that ushered in the first Shogunate, as the Genji (Minamoto) clan defeated the Heike (Tiara)Clan. Emperor Antoku, a 6 year old descendant of the Heike was drowned by his grandmother, who jumped into the Shimonoseki Strait with the child Emperor in her arms, rather than allow him to be captured by the Genji, following the mass suicide, by drowning, of many of the Heike clan, when defeat seemed inevitable...a brief cut that shows the Heike crabs, whose shells seem to have a warrior's face, significance is often lost on western audiences, unfamiliar with Japanese history and beliefs...After the battle, superstition held that the faces on the crabs reflected the spirits of the drowned Heike warriors, the "ghosts" that call Hoichi to play at Emperor Ankotu's court...my feeling is that the long setup, and brief epilogue, makes the "payoff" of this tale a little disappointing, but reading other accounts, there seems to be an extended version of this section, that highlights the Biwa playing, and ties ends up better, but, on the Hulu version, that I watched, the ending seems a bit abrupt...Also, IMO, Hoichi lacks the cinematic flair and beauty of the "Black Hair" and "Woman of the Snow"Finally, In a Cup of Tea, a story about telling an unfinished story, examining the consequences of drinking another's soul, that for reasons inexplicable (or incomprehensible to me), seems to reside in a cup of tea. As I speak none of the language, and had to depend on subtitles, I didn't completely understand this tale. It appeared, to me, more of a tale of madness and delusion, rather than a "supernatural" event as it wound down to its , shockingly, ironic conclusion, SPOILER ALERT! involving the author of the story...also, the visuals, lacked the boldness and beauty of the first two vignettes...This is the third film by Kobayashi I have seen, and would place it behind Seppuku (Harakiri) and Samurai Rebellion, as far as story telling, perhaps simply because they are more focused tales, rather than a collection of short stories, although, the Gothic horror of Black Hair, and the stunning outdoor scenes of Woman of the Snow, are superior to the other films mentioned, visually.In summary, Kaidan seems more an interesting experiment, that reminded this viewer of Twilight Zone or Night Gallery quality stories, with more attention to visuals than the aforementioned TV shows.

Tim Kidner If a picture paints a thousand words, I'd need a million words to describe Kwaidan.Totally unlike anything I'd ever seen and so different from many Japanese films, I absorbed all four stories, 3 hours worth in one sitting. Mesmerised, intoxicated.Like a series of the most lavish theatrical sets and the most imaginative theatrical direction and using theatrical lighting, paintings as huge as skies are backdrops. Vivid, muted. Both.The stories themselves have been described by other reviewers - suffice to say, I preferred the 2nd to the generally more popular 3rd. They were all so different, in approach, style and culmination, yet were consistent in their stillness; a stillness that crept up on you and just when you least expected it, the unexpected and those scared me stiff.The music was sparse but chillingly suited, using traditional, acoustic instruments, superbly. They conveyed a huge range of moods and sound effects. I knew nothing of Japanese folklore, aside of Kurosawa's samurai films - I believe now that I still probably don't but that there's a feast more out there, waiting for me.I'm still trembling with slight excitement and numbness after seeing something that I'll never forget and now wish to lend this excellent DVD to every single friend I know!