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Kwaidan - Masters of Cinema series [DVD] [1964]

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Rentaro Mikuni (Actor), Katsuo Nakamura (Actor), Masaki Kobayashi (Director) Rated: Parental Guidance Format: DVD
4.8 out of 5 stars 29 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Actors: Rentaro Mikuni, Katsuo Nakamura
  • Directors: Masaki Kobayashi
  • Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Subtitled
  • Language: Japanese
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Eureka Entertainment Ltd
  • DVD Release Date: 29 May 2006
  • Run Time: 183 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000F4LBPO
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 7,109 in DVD & Blu-ray (See Top 100 in DVD & Blu-ray)

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Product Description

Product Description

Portmanteau of four classic traditional ghost stories from director Masaki Kobayashi, presented for the first time in the complete original cut. In these stories, mortals find themselves caught up with strange supernatural forces beyond their comprehension. The individual stories are: 'Black Hair', 'The Snow Maiden', 'Hoichi the Earless' and 'In a Cup of Tea'.

From Amazon.co.uk

Lafcadio Hearn, the Greek-Irish-American author turned Japanese citizen, was one of the most singular writers of the 19th century, and from his collection of traditional Japanese ghost stories the director Masaki Kobayashi fashioned one of the most eerily beautiful films ever made. Kwaidan was Kobayashi's first film in colour; spurning realism and aiming for "the ultimate in stylised film method", he shot the whole movie inside a huge disused hangar, painting all the sets himself. The film comprises four stories: in "Black Hair" a man returns to seek the wife he abandoned; "The Woman of the Snows" is a chilly, beautiful spirit who preys on lone travellers; "Hoichi the Earless" tells of a young monk compelled each night by ghostly warriors to recount the saga of a famous sea battle (when he tries to evade them, they exact a horrible revenge); and the luckless protagonist of "In a Cup of Tea" discovers someone's soul grinning at him out of his beverage. Each story sustains its own distinct mood, but all four share an unsettling, dreamlike sense of otherworldliness. To enhance the overall weirdness, Kobayashi worked closely with the composer Toru Takemitsu to create an offbeat score, rejecting conventional instruments in favour of sonic effects such as wood being split and pebbles being struck together. There has never been another ghost film quite like this. --Philip Kemp --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsKwaidan, Masaki Kobayashi
By MRAM on 19 Dec. 2011
Format: DVD
Masaki Kobayashi's extraordinary masterpiece Kwaidan, consists of four haunting ghost tales, well known in Japanese mythology, adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's classic interpretations from his book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.

The first tale "Black Hair", sends a moral message about appreciating what you have and not to seek fortune for reasons such as vanity and greed. The opening sequence is hypnotic, as the camera pans slowly over the gate of an old and dilapidated house. It goes through the garden into the house, with the sound of wood slapping together. This is a brilliant start to an eerie story and sets the mood perfectly. It cleverly uses dark colours, which does not prepare you for the astoundingly vivid colours of the next tale.

"The Woman of the Snow" features the popular folkloric creature Yuki-Onna, who controls the snow. This segment starts of with a stormy, snow covered forest with a green and blue background. On the background is swirling eyes beautifully painted, like glass marbles. As the storm calms down, a small red flag is fluttering in the vast amounts of pearly white snow. When the cold weather has ended, there are warm, rich reds, yellows and oranges all blending in together. Throughout the story, there are eyes across the sky, either shut or open, which creates a beautiful mixture of Expressionism and Japanese imagery.

The most interesting and brilliant story is "Hoachi the Earless". It opens with a breathtaking scene depicting the true story of The Battle of Dan-no-ura, with a haunting voice performing the most famous part of the epic war poem "The Tale of the Heike", which is accompanied by an instrument called the Biwa. All of the stories in Kwaidan have exquisite imagery and a poetic elegance to them.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Work of Art
By Mr. Dylan T. Hayden on 16 May 2001
Format: VHS Tape
This is quite simply one of the most exquisite films ever made, a marvel of aesthetic refinement in every way, and a unique work of art. There are not enough superlatives to describe the manifold wonders of Kwaidan: the fine acting, gorgeous sets, subtle direction, and especially the extraordinary musique concrete score by Takemitsu, all combined by the obsessive artistry of Kobayashi to realize a rare and beautiful cinematic vision. This film is beyond praise.
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5.0 out of 5 starsHow can mere Words describe......?
By Tim Kidner TOP 500 REVIEWER on 19 Mar. 2012
Format: DVD Verified Purchase
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!
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3.0 out of 5 starslove and romance in the Japanese after-life
By A Customer on 12 Nov. 2000
Format: VHS Tape
The film tells the story of four tales drawn from Lafcadio Hearn's turn-of the century book of the same name (Kwaidan means "weird tales" and is a collection of Japanese and Chinese "fairy" tales). The result is a magnificient vision of death and the strange, often cruel but devoid of what could be called Gothic morbidity. One is taken into the fantastic world of the Japanese mediaeval period, or rather how an American of Irish-Greek descent, fleeing late XIXth Century modernism, saw it. The film itself has respected Hearn's delicate and sensual approach to ghosts and ghouls - which probably wasn't difficult since Hearn became more Japanese than the Japanese themselves. It shows that in some ways, ghosts and evil spirits are also human. To illustrate that last statement, I will refer the reader / viewer to the wonderful tale of the blind bhuddist novice told to play his biwa to an extraordinary audience. The build up is wilfully slow, the intention being always to suck in the audience, to amaze it rather than shock it. The sound tract, like the visuals is haunting and when this film came out on the big screen in the late sixties it received huge interest from people who at that time, already, thought that the world (as it was) was not enough...
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5.0 out of 5 starsNether Worlds
By droog on 18 May 2014
Format: DVD
This classic pulls one into a world where reality and spirituality conjoin. The various aspects of this juncture are explored in four segments: 'Black Hair'. 'Woman of the Snow','Hoichi the Earless' and 'The Cup of Tea'. In each one,the characters have to deal with the spiritual world, Fate if you will, which controls their destinies.

A reviewer has given some excellent background concerning Japanese myths but I had none of that insight. With Tohoscope,the director, Kobyashi, was able to open up wide vistas populated by people seemingly dwarfed by their environment. In 'Black Hair' when the samurai leaves his wife to go onto better things in order to get rich and preen his ego, the camera dwelt on her beautiful black hair ; she is poor, but industrious with her weaving. Of course,things do not work out in this newer,more opulent environment when he is drawn into a dead-end second marriage with his new Lord's daughter. She is no match for his ever-faithful first wife to whom,full of regret and self-hatred, he returns imagining that she is still the same. The ending is inevitable - Time is unforgiving.

The imagery of 'Woman of the Snow' is beautiful but menacing with two woodcutters getting snowbound in a forest whose waving branches seem to want to embrace them. The older one dies but the younger one is rescued by a mysterious
woman who looks after him and ensures that he can return to his mother but makes the condition that he is not to tell anyone of his adventure in the snowy forest. Whilst travelling back home, he met Yuki who accompanied him. a beautiful woman who becomes first his lover then his wife. They marry and have two children and time passed and his mother died.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

class

Published 13 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsJapanese ghost stories so stylish you'll catch your breath ...

one of the best films ever made. Japanese ghost stories so stylish you'll catch your breath ... melancholic and existential and never less than visually lavish

Published 10 months ago by artful
5.0 out of 5 starsJust brilliant.

A classic of modern cinema. Just brilliant.

Published 11 months ago by David
5.0 out of 5 starsMasterful ghost film

It took a bit longer than the estimated time but it did arrive within the timeframe the seller mentioned after contacting . The country code is #2 not #1 for the US. Read more

Published 14 months ago by wayne
5.0 out of 5 starsCraig Keller and Masters Of Cinema Are The Best

This is a very good film in a good DVD transfer. It makes me wish for a high-definition blu-ray, though. This Eureka! Read more

Published 16 months ago by Sandra L Jones
5.0 out of 5 starsI just love the Japanese Samurai/ghost stories - I think you either...

I just love the Japanese Samurai/ghost stories - I think you either like or loathe these films - this is a beaut

Published 16 months ago by dg
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Watched again and again: one of the great pieces of Japanese film-making.

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Superb

Published 20 months ago by Waasley
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Purchased this in assistance with somebody's studies. The product is quite expensive, however, as it was a necessary purchase it was suitable and the content was surprising and... Read more

Published on 9 Dec. 2013 by happy purchaser

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