October 12th - Kwaidan

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi, Kwaidan (translating to literally mean “ghost”story) won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival. The film is an anthology tale: based on several separate short stories, and shot this way as well.

Kwaidan’s four stories:

The first is about a married samurai who leaves his life of poverty, along with his wife, in order to marry into wealth and receive a title. Over time he realizes exactly how terrible his new marriage is and decides to return home to his real love. When he returns he finds his home in a state as if it were deserted, and his wife not the same as the person she once was. After holding her a little closer he realizes she is nothing but a clump of hair and bone.



The second is about a man who meets a woman in the snow, she appears as a ghostly witch who makes the man promise not to tell that she he has seen her. Years late he breaks his promise and shortly realizes that the ghostlike figure he once promised to forget has been his love for several years now….






My favourite of the four stories is titled Hoichi the Earless. It tells the story of a battle that occurred years ago between two rival clans. The massacre took place on boats over the water, which turned the sea crimson with the blood of the brave. Years later, Hoichi, a blind musician, obtains a reputation for his beautiful voice and story telling ability. So much so that a samurai comes to collect to him to retail the tale of the battle to the samurai’s court. Hoichi, blind, does not realize that his audience are not among the living…they are spirits who drain his life as he returns night after night to tell the story. The monks from Hoichi’s monastery cover him in writing in order to make him invisible to the ghosts in order to protect him. His whole body is covered except for one part…




The last tale is the most dull. It’s about a man who, while drinking a cup of tea, sees the face of a samurai in his cup. He is haunted by the samurai’s soul…



This film has everything that you could ever ask for. The entire thing was shot on a soundstage but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the size of the sets. The set design is so articulate and detailed that you would never assume it’s all under roof and lit artificially. The flowers wither, the snow blows through and beyond the shot, and even the painted sky appears more surreal than the sky itself. The colors and tints are so vibrant and perfect that you can’t think of how this could have looked any better.

Not to mention how incredible the film sounds, so much so that it’s hard not to notice how amazing the sound effects and music really are. How often do we watch films and absorb the soundtrack and the sound effects as if they didn’t exist…For Kwaidan, it sounds as if silence is haunted and the wind has it’s own voice that speaks to spirits. You can hear exactly how cold the snow is and how terrified the characters really are.

Kwaidan really is a masterpiece.