Kwaidan - Will's Review

Says Wiki:

Kaidan (怪談) (sometimes transliterated kwaidan) is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (kai) meaning “strange, mysterious, rare or bewitching apparition" and 談 (dan) meaning “talk” or “recited narrative.”

In other words "Ghost Stories", which is what we have here; a collection of 4 short films based on stories by Lafcadio Hearn. 

Many of the costumes come directly from kabuki theatre (including the traditional white dress and long long black hair of ghost girl, popularised in recent years by The Ring), and most of the sets are intentionally unrealistic, resembling oversized and immersive stage sets. It's actually a very clever way of merging the feel of a stage production with the multiple angles of movie filming. It could have looked terrible, but it manages to look wonderful. 

The stories themselves are simplistic, and the narration featured in some reminded me of the versions of fairy stories re-written for very young children that my mum used to read me. 

The first story, "Black Hair" tells of a samurai who left his wife to marry a richer woman, only to realise that he loved his first wife. He is, of course, punished thoroughly (you could argue rightly) for his treatment of the woman he loved, but the timing is odd, his punishment not coming until he repents, and tries to make amends. Meanwhile his treatment of the second wife, who loved him, but whom he basically used without remorse, goes unpunished, and virtually unmentioned. The story isn't great, but it's passable. Had this been the worst story in the movie, it could have made for an okay (or better) film, sadly it's the best. 

"The Woman of the Snow" tells of a man who witnesses a vampire-like creature killing his mentor, having his life spared on condition that he never tells anyone what he witnessed. This story would be told much better in 1990's "Tales From The Darkside: The Movie" and anyone who's seen that will already know where this story is headed. It's dull, and for the most part hackneyed, although it does manage to pull a genuinely moving moment out of its sandal in its final moment.  

"Hoichi the Earless" is far too long, taking up over a third of this three hour movie, and very dull. The cause of both of these problems is that it spends far too long on set-up. Hoichi is, for want of the proper word, a Japanese minstrel, renowned for his telling of a large battle The first half of this segment consists of said telling. There is no clarity as to who is fighting who (beyond "rival groups of samurai") or why (beyond "because they are rivals") and to my western ears, the song sounded like a cat in a rusty bucket, being dragged along a cobbled street. Hoichi (who happens to be blind; though not earless, at least at the stories beginning) is convinced to sing the songs of that battle for a group who are quite obviously (to a movie-savvy viewer, at least) ghosts of the men from the song. Morality takes a holiday again here, with Hoichi eventually being punished for being fooled, and for an oversight on the part of the monks who swear to protect him. 

Finally "In A Cup of Tea" features an author pondering on unfinished stories before writing a tale of his own - the tale of a man who sees the reflection of a ghost in a cup of water (not tea!).  In keeping with the theme of the segment, the story goes unfinished (which is annoying) and, despite being the shortest segment, this one still drags.

An interesting looking film, which is ultimately a very boring one, Kwaidan scrapes through as a horror movie by definition of being made up of ghost stories, but it is neither horrific, nor entertaining.