Alicia I love this movie so much

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Osmosis Iron If you value visual style, good folk tales(of horror) and don't shy away from graphic scenes and unsettling themes, this movie needs to enter your watch list now! This collection of Japanese folk tales has been brought to life with sublime style! Everything from visuals, score, atmosphere and pacing is crafted stupendously to fit the story and maximize the impact each tale provides. I'd say the visuals alone are worth the watch, but the stories are also great! See for yourself, and be happy you didn't miss this gem!

Mitch Hanson Kwaidan (1964) is a classic Japanese horror anthology film by the acclaimed dramatic film director Masaki Kobayashi. After criticizing Japan's role in WW2 with his war epic The Human Condition (1959- 1961), and being critical of Japanese values in Harakiri (1962), Kobayashi's controversial filmography made him a liability to the big Japanese studios. Eventually Toho produced his first color film in Eastmancolor, a more feasible color film production process than the widely known Technicolor, suggesting a more traditional Japanese film than his previous works.Kobayashi is an auteur of classic Japanese dramatic film. He fully utilizes the frame, constantly using perspective, blocking, transitions, and visual contrast as tools for his dense on-screen storytelling. In Kwaidan he tells four folkloric horror stories with little dialogue, allowing the frame to do all the talking. With the aide of some ominous ambient taiko drumming and pipe playing added in post-production and a full color pallet, Kobayashi frees his filmmaker legs, engulfing us in his omnipresent perspective in the form of swooping crane shots, lurking tracking shots, and a range of close- ups, constructing a kinetic canvas as cinematically expressive as the striking contrast of colors in most frames.

melvelvit-1 Four tales of the supernatural drawn from Japanese folklore: in the first, an ambitious samurai returns to the wife he abandoned many years before only to find she hasn't aged in all that time; in the second, a beautiful vampire makes a young man promise never to mention an encounter they had or else; in the third, a blind balladeer has fans from beyond the grave; and in the last, there are reasons why some authors never complete their stories...Slow-moving and surreal, the hypnotically beautiful mis-en-scene kept me watching even if a couple of the stories weren't exactly riveting. My favorite was "The Woman Of The Snow" which was reworked in a segment of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE called "The Lover's Vow". Ironically, when KWAIDAN was released in the U.S. this segment (the best, IMO) was left out ...and folks still liked the film (even the NY Times' usually clueless Bosley Crowther). Nominated for an Oscar as "Best Foreign Film".

cwmbrancity Japan conjures up a myriad of directorial masters; Kurosawa, Miike etc, but Koboyashi's "Kwaidan" surpasses them all for the sublime impact of its imagery & symbolism. Maybe Rashomon gets close for framing & narrative, but Kwaidan is a wonderful visual spectacle to behold.As all the reviews tell you - its a ghost story told in 4 acts/chapters. Each has it own warnings, moral mazes, mistakes & consequences, but its the mood of the 2nd part's "The Woman in the Snow" that first drew me into this world of strange & disturbingly nuanced tales. Things that the viewer may be privy to are not revealed to the characters. So this is how it pulls you in, through a ghostly form of empathy which other directors would have aborted into pantomime. 1 surreal example includes the eyes in the sky, as the two men wander in a snow storm......for me one of the most memorable sequences in cinematic history. It made a huge impression on me when first viewed and i try not to watch it too often in case its gets ruined, its that good.Its a long flick overall, but like all good things - oh so worth it. Just wait for the naval battle and the riot of colour in certain Samurai/warrior sequences. Equally, it turns the mood down low to soft & subtle creepiness when it has to, which is when and where it works best.I can not recommend this film highly enough for its seductive tales of nightmares & psychological trauma. And i have to include "mad props" for the opening sequence of ink droplets falling into water in slo-mo....a feature in stock photography now, but in the hands of Koboyashi it is transformed into a semi-religious moment of timelessness. Mint, as they say oop north and makes a mockery of so much of the trash that is produced today.more than 10/10