Kwaidan( 1965)

TV-MAHorrorFantasyDrama

77%

User
Score

In the tradition of "RASHOMON" and "GATE OF HELL".

Overview

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Top Billed Cast

Michiyo Aratama
First Wife (segment "The Black Hair")
Rentaro Mikuni
Husband (segment "The Black Hair")
Misako Watanabe
Second Wife (segment "The Black Hair")
Kenjirō Ishiyama
Father (segment "The Black Hair")
Ranko Akagi
Mother (segment "The Black Hair")
Fumie Kitahara
(segment "The Black Hair")
Kappei Matsumoto
(segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)
Yoshiko Ieda
(segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)
Otome Tsukimiya
(segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)
Kenzō Tanaka
(segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)
Kiyoshi Nakano
(segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)
Tatsuya Nakadai
Minokichi (segment "The Woman of the Snow")
Keiko Kishi
Yuki the Snow Maiden (segment "The Woman of the Snow")
Yūko Mochizuki
Minokichi's Mother (segment "The Woman of the Snow")
Kin Sugai
Village Woman (segment "The Woman of the Snow")
Noriko Sengoku
Village Woman (segment "The Woman of the Snow")
Akiko Nomura
(segment "The Woman of the Snow") (uncredited)
Torahiko Hamada
(segment "The Woman of the Snow") (uncredited)
Jun Hamamura
(segment "The Woman of the Snow")
Katsuo Nakamura
Hoichi (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Tetsuro Tamba
Warrior (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Takashi Shimura
Head Priest (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Yoichi Hayashi
Attendant (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Eiko Muramatsu
Kenreiinmon (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Kunie Tanaka
Yasaku (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Kazuo Kitamura
Tomomori (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Ichirō Nakatani
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Masanori Tomotake
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Tokue Hanazawa
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Shizue Natsukawa
Tokiko (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Shin Tatsuoka
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Makiko Kitashiro
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Masakazu Kuwayama
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Mutsuhiko Tsurumaru
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Akira Tani
Huntsman #2 (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Yousuke Kondou
Benkei (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Kiyoshi Yamamoto
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Kinji Omino
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Atsuo Nakamura
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Ginzô Sekiguchi
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Akio Miyabe
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Gen'ya Nagai
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Toru Uchida
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Hikaru Jinno
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Toshio Fukuhara
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Kirô Abe
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Toshiro Yagi
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Yuriko Abe
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Yuri Satô
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Kyōichi Satō
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Nobuo Aikawa
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Taiji Kodama
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Nobuaki Maeda
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Teruhiko Shibata
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Haruo Kaji
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Michio Gina
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Seiji Tabe
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Mitsuko Narita
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Noriko Mikura
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Aiko Nagayama
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Michiko Nakahata
(segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Kan'emon Nakamura
Kannai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Osamu Takizawa
Author / Narrator (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Haruko Sugimura
Madame (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Noboru Nakaya
Shikibu Heinai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Seiji Miyaguchi
Old Man (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Kei Satō
Ghost Samurai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Shigeru Kōyama
(segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Jun Tazaki
Kannai's Colleague #1 (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Junkichi Orimoto
(segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Akiji Kobayashi
(segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Yoshirō Aoki
(segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Isao Tamagawa
(segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Hideyo Amamoto
(segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)
Ganjirō Nakamura II
Publisher (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

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Review 1Discussion

A review by CinemaSerf

Written by CinemaSerf on Mon Dec 02 2024

I'm always a little daunted when I settle down in a cinema seat for a film that is 3 hours long - I fear the last glass of wine may have been one too many - but this simply flew by. It is a compendium of four different Japanese "poems" that deal with just about every emotion in the human panoply - love, hate, greed, joy, fear, envy, betrayal... You name it! Each story has a central theme that, perhaps not terribly sophisticated to anyone with a fairly well-centred moral compass of their own, delivers a salutatory lesson in what is decent and what is flawed about human nature, even amongst the b...