#90: KOBAYASHI, Masaki: Kwaidan (1965)

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KOBAYASHI, Masaki (Japan)
Kwaidan [1965]
Spine #90
DVD/Blu-ray


After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted. This version of Kwaidan is the original three-hour cut, never before released in the United States.

183 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Japanese
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2015
Director/Writers


Screenplay by Yôko Mizuki.

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

DVD: Six-page wraparound featuring an essay by David Ehrenstein.
Blu-ray: Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by Geoffrey O’Brien.

Commentary

DVD: None.
Blu-ray: by film historian Stephen Prince.

Original theatrical trailer

Blu-ray:

Interview 1

With Kobayashi from 1993, conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda.

Interview 2

With assistant director Kiyoshi Ogasawara.

New piece

About author Hearn, on whose versions of Japanese folktales Kwaidan is based.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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