Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964)
all the blurbs on the trailer for the new remaster about how beautiful this is are a thousand percent justified; this film is absolutely a testament to the power of a meticulously designed and constructed set, so much that the the first scene that appears to be shot on location (a woodcutter gathering water from a forest stream) actually felt kind of jarring. there are a few more scenes at a beach that don't look like a set but by that point i'd sunk so fully into the story's embrace that they didn't stand out as much. the cinematography, costuming, and makeup are all just as masterfully done. i simply cannot overstate how much of a feast for the eyes every single shot is.
the three main stories are very classical ghost stories, and it's hard to imagine anyone being scared by them now, or even in the 60s when it was first released! the first two especially almost feel more like fables, with morals like "don't abandon your wife to crushing poverty so that you can climb your way out of it by marrying a noblewoman and expect that your original wife will welcome you when you return years later instead of haunting your ass" (The Black Hair) and "if you see the spirit of the winter storm freeze your companion to death and she spares you on the condition that you never tell anyone, don't get complacent ten years down the line and tell the story to your seemingly ageless wife who you met when she wandered past your village, just because the light caught her a certain way and she reminded you of the spirit" (The Snow Woman).
the third story doesn't telegraph its ending nearly as much, despite the title ("Hoichi the Earless") telling you how its main character will end up. it's pretty obvious that the mysterious samurai and the court of his master that invite the preternaturally talented monk Hoichi to sing of the fall of the Heike clan each night are in fact the ghosts of the clan, and the only reason Hoichi doesn't realize it is because he's blind and can't see them. the story could well have ended when the abbot sends two servants out to find him, and they realize what's going on, but instead we're treated to the abbot's plan to rid him of the spirits' influence, and what a treat it is!
i found the fourth story, "In a Cup of Tea" the most formally interesting, with its frame story of an author explaining that the tale had, for one reason or another, never been finished, but telling it anyway. after it ends, he says he can think of several ways to end it, but perhaps it's more satisfying to leave the reader to decide what happens. but when his publisher shows up to collect the manuscript, the author is nowhere to be found, seemingly disappearing in the same manner as one of the characters in the story!
5/5 stars