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Rentaro Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Keiko Kishi, Tetsuro Tamba ... see more see more... , Tatsuya Nakadai , Katsuo Nakamura , Ganemon Nakamura , Joichi Hayashi , Ganjiro Nakamura , Takashi Shimura , Jun Tazaki , Noboru Nakaya , Kenjiro Ishiyama , Ranko Akagi , Kei Sato , Mariko Okada

Kwaidan is an impressively mounted anthology horror film based on four stories by Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-born writer who began his career in the United States at the age of 19 and moved permanently t... read more read more...o Japan in 1890 at the age of 40, where he eventually became a subject of the empire and took on the name Koizumi Yakuno. Hearn became a conduit of Japanese culture to western audiences, publishing journalism and then fiction incorporating traditional Japanese themes and characters. "Black Hair," the first tale, concerns a samurai who cannot support his wife; he leaves her for a life of wealth and ease with a princess. Returning years later, he spends the night with his wife in their now-dilapidated house, only to awake to a horrifying discovery which drives him insane. In "The Woman of the Snow" (deleted from U.S. theatrical prints after the film's Los Angeles opening; it is on the DVD version), two woodcutters seek refuge during a snowstorm in what appears to be an abandoned hut. A snow witch appears and kills one of them but lets his partner free. Years later, the survivor meets and married a lovely young woman, only to learn her true identity. The most visually impressive tale is "Hoichi the Earless," in which a blind musician is asked by the ghost of a samurai to play for his late infant lord at a tomb. The monks who house the musician cover him with tattoos to prevent any harm coming to him, but they forget his ears. He returns from the engagement with his ears cut off; however, his misadventure propels him to fame. "In a Cup of Tea" concerns a samurai who is haunted by the vision of a man he sees reflected in his tea. Even after he drinks from the cup, he still sees the man while on guard duty. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

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88% liked it

5,183 ratings

Critics

81% liked it

16 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 44 min.

Directed by: Masaki Kobayashi

Release Date: December 29, 1964

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DVD Release Date: October 10, 2000

Stats: 354 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (354)

  • pier007
    October 30, 2011
    pier007
    It takes real talent in an artist to make a ghost story scary and poetic, and here are four of them. Before, only in the Powell/Pressburger films I had seen such pictorial beauty.
  • sanjurosamurai
    January 15, 2011
    sanjurosamurai
    a film containing four short films that are ghost stories from various points of the samurai era in japan. while all four stories were compelling, my perfect rating is mostly for the third story called "hoichi the earless man". hoichi is easily the greatest ghost story i have e... read morever seen on film, with wonderful acting, flawless cinematography, and a haunting storyline. it was a pleasant suprise to see takashi shimura appear as well. the art direction and cinematography for all four stories was essentially perfect, and these four stories assemble to make one of the greatest films i have ever seen.
  • 366weirdmovies
    July 3, 2010
    366weirdmovies
    Four supernatural Japanese folk tales: a samurai is haunted by regret when he leaves his poor wife for a rich one; a snow-spirit spares the life of a young man on one condition; ghosts demand a blind harpist perform for them; a man sees an apparition in a cup of water. Slow, bea... read moreutiful, hypnotic, poetic; eye-popping sets and masterfully eerie music. A masterpiece.
  • bottcorecords1
    March 6, 2009
    bottcorecords1
    Anyone who's ever seen "The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)", or any of his previous films based on Poe's stories, knows Vincent Price's contribution to horror. He seems to specialize in the weird and the offbeat, the creepy and the sometimes trippy. I get the feeling Vincent Pri... read morece would've felt right at home in Kwaidan (if he had been in Japan at the time), a japanese ghost film that leans toward the avante garde. Kwaidan is actually four short separate movies, each with highly stylized sets and costumes (painted backgrounds with giant eyes in the sky). In story one, a samurai leaves his wife for a rich woman but realizes his mistake as he's constantly haunted by her memory. In the second story, A man trapped in a blizzard is spared by a snow vampire on the condition he never tell a soul the story of meeting her. In the third story, a young blind priest is asked to sing the story of an ancient battle to the ghosts of the participants. In the fourth story, a swordsman goes to get a drink and sees a stranger's face in the cup. All these stories play out almost like silent films, as there is very little dialogue, but there is a jarring, dischordant soundtrack. The art direction is very imaginative, everything looks like a graphic novel, unfortunately, it takes forever to turn each page. The movie is glacially-paced. I hit the fast forward button and it only made the actors move in real time. The stories are all too predictable as well, there's virtually no suspense generated. Perhaps these simple stories were taken from children's fairy tales. Perhaps this film is so inaccessible to me because it was written for another culture at another time. If so, I don't know. You could watch old episodes of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" and get the same effect in a fraction of the time it takes to watch Kwaidan.
  • rubystevens
    December 25, 2008
    rubystevens
    it's certainly a work of art i wish i'd seen on the big screen. i'm sure my tv didn't do it justice. beautiful to look at but kinda weak story-wise. the snow woman was my favorite but i'll still take ugetsu or onibaba
  • arashxak
    December 5, 2008
    arashxak
    Sheer beauty, My fav. segment is A Woman In The Snow
  • Saxia
    October 24, 2008
    Saxia
    Kwaidan are Japanese Ghost Stories. It's like looking at a beautifull painting and reading poetry at the same time.
  • harrycaul
    May 10, 2008
    harrycaul
    Technically this collection of four Japanese ghost stories is a masterpiece; the art direction, lighting, editing, photography and the stylised sound design are all extraordinary. Unfortunately, "Kwaidan" treats its occasionally humdrum literary source with too much reverence, an... read mored a couple of the tales feel overstretched here. As with a lot of Japanese cinema, there's also the niggling suspicion that significant details are frequently and unintelligibly passing one by, their meaning either lost in translation or confounded by the culture barrier. For instance, why do evil women (and one pretty benign looking man) have blackened teeth? Curiously, "The Woman of the Snow", the second and by far the best segment, was removed prior to the film's original western release. It's a visually stunning variation on that hoary old yarn of the immortal with a yen for a mortal life. "Kwaidan" is often erroneously credited with having been shot entirely on studio sets, but the carefully crafted atmosphere of the third tale, "Hoichi, the Earless", is actually undermined by some frustratingly superfluous location footage. All four episodes are powerfully atmospheric - the second and third are especially beautiful to look at - but you'd need an acutely nervous disposition to be unduly spooked by anything here. Individual ratings:-
    1) The Black Hair - 3.5/5
    2) The Woman of the Snow - 5/5
    3) Hoichi, the Earless - 4/5
    4) In a Cup of Tea - 3.5/5
  • vierasesine
    April 21, 2008
    vierasesine
    Kaidan is the word for a Japanese ghost story. This film consists of four such stories: Black Hair, The Snow Woman, Hoichi the Earless and In a Cup of Tea, all of which are based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales. The stories progress, in my opin... read moreion, from the scary to the simply peculiar, though none of them are - of course - horror in the sense that we the Westeners perceive it.

    This film is absolutely beautiful. The eyes in the sky, the blood red waters, the well at night and the bell by evening - even the way the three men position themselves in the last story has its own kind of beauty to it - not to mention the wonderful biwa music and the long, luxurious black hair of many of the women.
  • webalina
    March 15, 2008
    webalina
    If you believe the Japanese only started making ghost movies with Ringu, think again, and then take a look at this foursome of tales to make your hair stand on end and your flesh creep. Each story stands alone in its spookiness. My favorite is the first -- "Black Hair", in which ... read morea man divorces his wife for a younger, richer woman. When he realizes his mistake and returns to the first wife, he slowly discovers that...haha. You'll have to watch for yourself. But all the stories are good in their own right. And the film looks great -- filmed completely on a soundstage, many of the scenes look like paintings come to life. A good film for those who enjoy art films, but also like to have the bejeebers scared out of them every so often.

View All Kaidan (Kwaidan) (Ghost Stories) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
September 19, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The first episode builds an effective mood through its elliptical action and long, slow tracks through empty rooms, but this 1965 film soon levels off into academic stylization. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 9, 2005
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Couple these sound effects and voices with some remarkable pictorial images and the consequence is a horror picture with an extraordinarily delicate and sensuous quality. Full Review

Beth Accomando
March 17, 2009
Beth Accomando, KPBS.org

A classic.

Dennis Schwartz
October 31, 2008
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A colorfully exotic offering but lacks the visceral power to explore the horror genre. Full Review

September 19, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Kwaidan's haunting poetry is conveyed not only in its beautiful color images, but also through the chilling soundtrack. Full Review

September 19, 2007
Film4

Visually beautiful and with some cool special effects, this is a quartet of Japenese horror ghost stories that have very few scares, although there is the odd frisson of eeriness in a couple of them. Full Review

Pablo Villaca
January 23, 2007
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Magnífico do ponto de vista estético, conta com uma direção de arte brilhante e quadros compostos com inspiração absoluta, além de ter um inventivo design de som. Mas a montagem adota um ritmo excessi...

June 24, 2006
Time Out

It is a compendium of four ghost stories adapted from Lafcadio Hearn, so determinedly aesthetic in their design and style that horror frissons hardly get a look in. Very beautiful, though. Full Review

Kim Newman
May 31, 2006
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

It can still hold its own against the new generation of horror films still sourcing it. Well worth a look. Full Review

Christopher Null
October 3, 2002
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

All show and nobody home. Full Review

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