Ghost Stories From Japan

 

(tmdb.org)

KWAIDAN-1965-"The Black Hair"- A samurai (Rentaro Mikuni) abandons his devoted wife (Michiyo Aratama; CHUSHINGURA (1962)) and marries into a noble family just to gain a position. Finding his new bride (Misako Watanabe; SAMURAI SPY (1969)) to be cold and self-possessed, he realizes too late he still loves his first wife and misses their life together. Eventually, he returns to her. Everything seems the same until….

"The Woman of The Snow"-Woodcutters Mosaku and his apprentice Minokuchi (Tatsuya Nakadai; later the star of FACE OF ANOTHER (1964)) are caught in a blizzard. They find shelter in a hut. They are visited at night by a mysterious eerie woman in white who kills Mosaku but allows the young man to live provided he never tells anyone of their encounter. Later he meets Yuki and they marry and raise a family. Then one night he tells Yuki about his encounter…

"Hoichi the Earless"-The battle of Don-no-ura is a great battle sequence. Hoichi, a blind biwa player lives at a temple with several other attendants. One night he is visited by a mysterious samurai who says his master wants to hear Hoichi play. He goes with the samurai every night but refuses to say where. He won't even tell his master (Takashi Shimura; in GHIDORAH the same year). He also appears to be growing paler. When Hoichi leaves during a storm, 3 attendants follow him. It turns out Hoichi has been playing his biwa in a graveyard to the spirits of dead warriors. There's more though…This also features a great battle of Don-no-ura sequence.

"In a Cup of Tea"-A writer relates a story that has no ending. Sekini, a samurai guarding a lord, sees the face of a mysterious man in his teacup. Later that night he is visited by the same man who appears to be a ghost. When he tells the other guards, they laugh at him. Later he duels 3 ghosts who are attendants of the other man. Sekini seems to beat them but there the story ends. The writer's publisher comes to visit him. He and the landlady find the writer trapped in a large jug of water.

 (imdb)

This is director Masaki Kobayashi's (THE HUMAN CONDITION series) only foray into the realm of Japanese ghost stories. It's an excellent anthology but some “western” audiences might find it too slow moving. The stories come from a 1904 book by Lafcadio Hearn, an author born on a Greek island, who had a hardscrabble childhood, lived in several countries (including the US) but settled in Japan permanently in 1890.

Thanks for reading!