Awesome Movie

Am I Missing Something?

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I assume that for them these stories will be known and nothing would collide, I half of the film had to be thinking that he wanted to tell me. While it is true that I am very analytical and when things are abstract I miss a bit. But this film for me is very abstract and that pulls me out.Finally I would say that I do not think it is bad as other films, it is done seriously, but its ingredients I do not like. So for my taste I do not approve.Spoiler: This is what you ask me when I finish watching the movie. It is a paranoia of the director or it is me who has become such a dog that I have been lost.You're watching the movie and you do not know if it's so badly made that it looks like theater or that they did not know how to do it better, but if it was so, it should have been all like that, not just part of the story. I imagine that being Japanese cinema, I will not understand their ways of seeing things, their stories, their times, because if, as always this cinema, it is not that it is slow, it is that it does not know the word ellipsis. A fantastic wardrobe that if, as always and some actors, also as always overacted, there will be who loves, I find it heavy.If it were not because it happens and it seems to be theater, the photograph would be very beautiful, but when it happens, it happens to be theater, the problem is that we are watching cinema. It is like the address, luckily it is not a sum of fast planes, but a sum of generals does not say much either.I assume that for them these stories will be known and nothing would collide, I half of the film had to be thinking that he wanted to tell me. While it is true that I am very analytical and when things are abstract I miss a bit. But this film for me is very abstract and that pulls me out.Finally I would say that I do not think it is bad as other films, it is done seriously, but its ingredients I do not like. So for my taste I do not approve.

"Stylish... no substance". "Predictable plot". "Boring stories". "Lack of dramatic elements". "The tales are unrelated".As if movies were drama (or literature) with a camera...As if movies were to be "understood", instead of be experienced...Kwaidan is vibrant aesthetic expression, colors, camera movements, angles, edition, sound, music, set, makeup, costumes, all skilfully crafted to produce sensations---horror, suspense, curiosity, surprise, discomfort, even laughter. In this sense Kwaidan fully delivers. A "moving picture" indeed that makes the most of its proper language and form---"pure cinema" in words of Hitchcock, the "cinematography" of Bresson. Some reviewers seem to be missing the party, to focus on "the plot" is perhaps to miss the whole point. "Realistic, character-driven, complex plot" is just one option for judging a film, the most inadequate perhaps (such elements are surely best delivered through a book or a play, by far...).And nevertheless, Kwaidan's "plot" is also able to speak for itself. A common theme across the four tales is "how to tell (film) a story about storytelling", a Borgesian mirror (the real horror) that is fully exposed in the 4th tale in which the storyteller leaves the story unfinished apparently because of the very same type of ghost that he was writing (filming?) about... It is Kobayashi's disclaimer (and hint) about film and fiction: the author (director) is trapped in its own convention (medium) jointly constructed with the audience---as Borges put it: "Films are even stranger than theater, for what we are seeing are not disguised people but photographs of disguised people, and yet we believe them while the film is being shown".Kwaidan is cinematography---pure cinema---a beautiful film to be experienced. If you want "a plot to understand", "to scream", or just "to be entertained", look elsewhere.

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!

I thought this was interesting, even if I didn't really love it and I certainly don't think it is any kind of masterpiece. But interesting, sure. It reminded me of "Black Narcissus" (especially when you think of the final 20 minutes of that film!) in how it brings the artificial to life cinematically. Although here, in line with Kobayashi's style, this is a much more quiet and subdued film and its artificialness is played much more self-aware. I imagine viewers who are really interested in audacious and elaborate sets will go bonkers over this. Made up of four short stories, this is a film more of atmosphere and mood, images and sounds. The stories themselves are pretty simplistic, like Japanese folk-lore passed down from generation to generation, so you aren't going to get any complex story-telling out of this. But the filmmaking on display is rather grand. Kobayashi seems to know how to bring things to life, even in the most quiet ways. The slowly moving and zooming camera, the often changing lighting, the extremely minimal but very effective use of music and sound. The dialog is sparse and aside from the occasional narration, it's a work of images and sound blending together. I wasn't a big fan of the last section (although the ending was interesting), but I liked the other sections just fine. Kobayashi's films are usually deliberately paced, but this one is rather glacial, so let that be a warning. There is very little emphasis placed on character or even story. That said it remains quite intriguing for most of the time. I wouldn't say I would was ever scared, but definitely eerie at times. The sharp cracking noises as the camera slowly follows the samurai through the house in the first story. The howling wind and chilling lighting and atmosphere of the second story. The third one was the most drawn out, and really not scary at all, but I thought it had some great sequences -- in particular I loved the visualization of the painting, which was weird but mesmerizing at the same time. All in all, it's a bit of a mixed bag -- at times quite eerie and effective, at times a bit too artificial, and at times a bit dull -- but mostly it is an interesting viewing experience, with tremendous design and style. Long in the tooth, but worth it for one viewing at least. Given that it is told in 4 separate stories, you can even break it up, if you want.