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"Kwaidan (怪談 Kaidan?, literally "ghost stories") is a 1965 Japanese anthology horror film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales, mainly Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, for which it is named. The film consists of four separate and unrelated stories. Kwaidan is an archaic transliteration of Kaidan, meaning "ghost story". It won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival,[2] and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.[3]" (Wikipedia)
Prizes
"In Japan the film won Yoko Mizuki the Kinema Junpo award for Best Screenplay. It also won awards for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction at the Mainichi Film Concours.[1] The film won international awards including Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.[7]
In a 1967 review, the Monthly Film Bulletin commented on the colour in the film, stating that "it is not so much that the colour in Kwaidan is ravishing...as the way Kobayashi uses it to give these stories something of the quality of a legend."[8] The review concluded that the Kwaidan was a film "whose details stay on in the mind long after one has seen it."[8] Bosley Crowther, in a 1965 New York Times review stated that director Kobayashi "merits excited acclaim for his distinctly oriental cinematic artistry. So do the many designers and cameramen who worked with him. "Kwaidan" is a symphony of color and sound that is truly past compare."[9] Variety described the film as "done in measured cadence and intense feeling" and that it was "a visually impressive tour-de-force."[10]
In his review of Harakiri, Roger Ebert described Kwaidan as "an assembly of ghost stories that is among the most beautiful films I've seen".[11]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Kwaidan holds an approval rating of 88%, based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10. Its consensus reads, "Exquisitely designed and fastidiously ornate, Masaki Kobayashi's ambitious anthology operates less as a frightening example of horror and more as a meditative tribute to Japanese folklore."[12]"
My comment
Impressive... a japanese horror anthology that wins prizes in places like Cannes...
But why?
Because...
Masaki Kobayashi was a film genius and a great man, he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial army in 1942, but he was a pacifist and resisted in the only manner he could, under the japanese imperial regime, by refusing promotions above the rank of private, after the war he created the 10-hour "Human Condition" film trilogy, which is the japanese version of Spielberg's "Schindler's List" made between 1959-1961.
Some of you might know or suspect that Akira Kurosawa is only famous because of some american film distributors that got a liking of him, and promoted his work around the world (in Europe too). While Kurosawa made good films, he is not among the best japanese film directors, in my humble and personal opinion.
Kuwaiden is a 182 minute film with four stories, two of them are so-so, but the other two are an elite work of art and poetry.
One of the stories is even included, explained and re-enacted in Carl Sagan's Cosmos series from the 1980's. This is very powerful, at least for me, a huge fan of Carl Sagan.
Here is the scientist Carl Sagan himself talking about that myth (ghost story):
In 1965, the japanese film director Masaki Kobayashi didn't have scientific knowledge of Genetics, as Carl Sagan would explain later in the decade of the 1980's, and for him this was an interesting and unexplained phenomenom associated with a japanese folklore ghost story, here is my trailer of this story called "Hoichi, the Earless", which does not include the re-enactment of the famous battle of Dan-no-ura, that Masaki Kobayashi actually created for this film:
But even more beautiful is the segment "The Woman of the Snow", where I have some comments in portuguese, comparing the japanese "Yuki-Onna" to an european Succubus or nymph. This segment is visually impressive with a painted background with eyes in the sky:
This is a masterpiece which I strongly recommend, that managed to remain fresh after 55 years, as you can observe in my two trailers.
Prizes
"In Japan the film won Yoko Mizuki the Kinema Junpo award for Best Screenplay. It also won awards for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction at the Mainichi Film Concours.[1] The film won international awards including Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.[7]
In a 1967 review, the Monthly Film Bulletin commented on the colour in the film, stating that "it is not so much that the colour in Kwaidan is ravishing...as the way Kobayashi uses it to give these stories something of the quality of a legend."[8] The review concluded that the Kwaidan was a film "whose details stay on in the mind long after one has seen it."[8] Bosley Crowther, in a 1965 New York Times review stated that director Kobayashi "merits excited acclaim for his distinctly oriental cinematic artistry. So do the many designers and cameramen who worked with him. "Kwaidan" is a symphony of color and sound that is truly past compare."[9] Variety described the film as "done in measured cadence and intense feeling" and that it was "a visually impressive tour-de-force."[10]
In his review of Harakiri, Roger Ebert described Kwaidan as "an assembly of ghost stories that is among the most beautiful films I've seen".[11]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Kwaidan holds an approval rating of 88%, based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10. Its consensus reads, "Exquisitely designed and fastidiously ornate, Masaki Kobayashi's ambitious anthology operates less as a frightening example of horror and more as a meditative tribute to Japanese folklore."[12]"
My comment
Impressive... a japanese horror anthology that wins prizes in places like Cannes...
But why?
Because...
Masaki Kobayashi was a film genius and a great man, he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial army in 1942, but he was a pacifist and resisted in the only manner he could, under the japanese imperial regime, by refusing promotions above the rank of private, after the war he created the 10-hour "Human Condition" film trilogy, which is the japanese version of Spielberg's "Schindler's List" made between 1959-1961.
Some of you might know or suspect that Akira Kurosawa is only famous because of some american film distributors that got a liking of him, and promoted his work around the world (in Europe too). While Kurosawa made good films, he is not among the best japanese film directors, in my humble and personal opinion.
Kuwaiden is a 182 minute film with four stories, two of them are so-so, but the other two are an elite work of art and poetry.
One of the stories is even included, explained and re-enacted in Carl Sagan's Cosmos series from the 1980's. This is very powerful, at least for me, a huge fan of Carl Sagan.
Here is the scientist Carl Sagan himself talking about that myth (ghost story):
In 1965, the japanese film director Masaki Kobayashi didn't have scientific knowledge of Genetics, as Carl Sagan would explain later in the decade of the 1980's, and for him this was an interesting and unexplained phenomenom associated with a japanese folklore ghost story, here is my trailer of this story called "Hoichi, the Earless", which does not include the re-enactment of the famous battle of Dan-no-ura, that Masaki Kobayashi actually created for this film:
But even more beautiful is the segment "The Woman of the Snow", where I have some comments in portuguese, comparing the japanese "Yuki-Onna" to an european Succubus or nymph. This segment is visually impressive with a painted background with eyes in the sky:
This is a masterpiece which I strongly recommend, that managed to remain fresh after 55 years, as you can observe in my two trailers.
