Runtime: 183 minutes
Directed by: Masaki
Kobayashi
Starring: Rentaro Mikuni,
Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi, Katsuo Nakamura,
Takashi Shimura, Kanemon Nakamura, Noboru Nakaya
From: Toho
I needed to see something completely different last night so I went
with this much-heralded Japanese horror anthology containing a quartet
of old ghost stories from the country; I viewed the full 183 minute
version that Criterion released a few years ago. Despite that length I
was never bored with any of the stories.
It has to be said that this is highly stylized and the world is mostly artificial on purpose. This was filmed in a giant airplane hangar and except for some exterior shots they needed, plenty of action takes place in buildings or on soundstages where the backdrops are painted in an exaggerated fashion done so to present a certain kind of mood. Hell, one story has snowstorms and during those moments, the sky paintings include several large eyes, which was startling for me at first. That style manages to fit this movie like a glove (or maybe it should be a pair of sandals) as all these tales are otherworldly and definitely eerie. This is methodically paced but at least for me, I was never bored. Various motifs are also repeated in each story, none of which I'll spoil here.
I can say the tales are about a samurai who regrets leaving his wife in order to escape poverty, a poor woodcutter that has to keep a secret concerning a strange sight he saw one bitterly cold night, a blind monk at a temple who is a great musician and he unwittingly plays in front of an supernatural audience, and a final brief story called A Cup of Tea that I am unable to describe succinctly here but it is both creative and the funniest entry. Each one in the quartet entertains and the first three deal with serious themes such as regret, promises not kept (even if it's to an undead army) and love, so this is not a scare a minute sort of horror picture. Although, in the best story-the third one, Hoichi the Earless-there is a rather horrifying moment in what was a lovely tale based on a real life battle between clans in the late 12th century.
This was quite the different journey, w/ a soundtrack that is rather sparse and it is always a visual treat. Another treat for me was realizing one of these tales was also modernized for a segment in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie. Anyhow, this was a kind of ethereal horror movie that is pretty rare but would not mind it if creative talent tried making more motion pictures like this in the future.
It has to be said that this is highly stylized and the world is mostly artificial on purpose. This was filmed in a giant airplane hangar and except for some exterior shots they needed, plenty of action takes place in buildings or on soundstages where the backdrops are painted in an exaggerated fashion done so to present a certain kind of mood. Hell, one story has snowstorms and during those moments, the sky paintings include several large eyes, which was startling for me at first. That style manages to fit this movie like a glove (or maybe it should be a pair of sandals) as all these tales are otherworldly and definitely eerie. This is methodically paced but at least for me, I was never bored. Various motifs are also repeated in each story, none of which I'll spoil here.
I can say the tales are about a samurai who regrets leaving his wife in order to escape poverty, a poor woodcutter that has to keep a secret concerning a strange sight he saw one bitterly cold night, a blind monk at a temple who is a great musician and he unwittingly plays in front of an supernatural audience, and a final brief story called A Cup of Tea that I am unable to describe succinctly here but it is both creative and the funniest entry. Each one in the quartet entertains and the first three deal with serious themes such as regret, promises not kept (even if it's to an undead army) and love, so this is not a scare a minute sort of horror picture. Although, in the best story-the third one, Hoichi the Earless-there is a rather horrifying moment in what was a lovely tale based on a real life battle between clans in the late 12th century.
This was quite the different journey, w/ a soundtrack that is rather sparse and it is always a visual treat. Another treat for me was realizing one of these tales was also modernized for a segment in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie. Anyhow, this was a kind of ethereal horror movie that is pretty rare but would not mind it if creative talent tried making more motion pictures like this in the future.
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