“If it were not for those children asleep there, I would kill you this moment.”
Directors: Masaki Kobayashi
Cast: Rentaro Mikumi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi, Katsuo Nakamura, Takashi Shimura, Kan’emon Nakamura
Plot: An anthology of four Japanese folk tales that centre on ghosts.
Horror has always worked in the anthology format. A number of different tales being told in succession gives the feel of sitting round the campfire and one-upmanship. I’ve never done that myself, but I can imagine it’s pretty cool having watched ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? Anthologies have always interested me, as there is usually something to be gained from them. Even if just one of the stories hits, then you haven’t exactly wasted your time. The greatest of all cinematic anthologies has to be the Japanese classic KWAIDAN.
KWAIDAN is directed by one of the many masters of Japanese film Masaki Kobayashi. In it, he weaves four distinct and memorable tales based on Japanese folk stories which usually contain both ghosts and a moral of some kind that usually translates to ‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Each story has a slow build-up, gradually setting the scene and hinting at the eventual outcome. Part of the fear from these stories comes from the anticipation of what is going to happen. Although not predictable in the negative sense of the word, you can see where the story is going, but this doesn’t make it any less interesting.
The first two tales are all about love and loyalty. I know! You’re scared already. Our first story, Black Hair, sees a samurai (Mikuni) leave his wife in order to acquire a better post. He eventually marries another woman but as the years pass he regrets his decision and returns home to his first wife. They share a passionate night together before he realises that she is actually… The second story, The Woman Of The Snow, has a young man (Nakadai) have his life spared by a snow maiden. However, she says if he ever tells anyone about her, then she shall return and kill him. He meets a young woman, they have three kids, and 10 years later guess what he ruddy goes and does.
Both of these examples focus on the importance of loyalty and honour. In both stories the man betrays a promise he has made and must face the consequences. Although it may not sound particularly terrifying in your usual terms of horror films, the idea of momentary lapses in judgement having irreversible effects on our lives is one that can really get to you if you spend too much time thinking about it. These segments also suggest that we have should be careful in how we conduct ourselves, and analysing our own actions can be one of the hardest and scariest things to do.
The best of the bunch is Hoichi The Earless. A blind musician ends up playing a song that recounts a famous battle to the ghosts that actually fought in said battle. What he doesn’t realise is that the ghosts will eventually bring harm to him. The priests he lives with cover his body in sacred script to protect him, but forget to cover his ears. Hoichi The Earless, works as we feel for the main protagonist who is unable to see the danger he is in. The scene is which he is covered in scripture builds to unimaginable tension, as we see what the ghost sees, just two ears floating the air. Hoichi has no choice but to take the assault in silence. The final story has a guard driven mad by the image of a man that constantly appears in his tea. The insanity he succumbs to makes him cause great harm to those around him.
KWAIDAN is one of the most beautiful and artistic horror films available. Many films look for the dirty, grainy, foul elements of the genre to cause unsettling terror, but KWAIDAN is the opposite. By giving us such monumental beauty, it makes the horror more bittersweet at the time, and only truly affects us once the film has finished. Kobayashi uses stunning matte paintings as his backgrounds, which give magnificent colours to scenes which would usually just be a blue sky. The make-up effects, acting, and music, play on traditional Japanese theatre giving a gravitas of culture and style. It isn’t trying to shock you, it’s trying to welcome you and give you chills in a poetic manner.
KWAIDAN may not cause you to stain your undergarments with excrement of fear, but it is a gorgeous film to cuddle up with on a cold autumn evening. The visuals with both captivate you but also make you feel uneasy. It’s one of many classic Japanese ghost tales that wants so much more than just to scare you.
Horror Highlights: The matte paintings where eyes are painted in the sky, a well choreographed battle that ends with a sea of blood, having an idea of how each story will end and watching as our protagonists seal their fate.
Best Scare: The samurai wakes up next to his wife. Suddenly he realises the awful truth, and a number of creaking sounds dominate the soundtrack. As he runs through the house, the shock has turned his face white and his hair begins to deteriorate, as the long black hair of his first wife begins creeping across the beams of the house.
We’ll have another terror for you tomorrow at THN and you can view them all here.
