Film Analyses

Kwaidan: A Different Type of Horror (Part III)

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Please refer to my other posts for complete film analysis : Part I and Part II.

The last story in this film is In a Cup of Tea. This is the shortest story and my least favorite. I wonder why they put this story in the last section of the film. The ending of this story is as unfinished as the actual ending of the film. Did I confuse you yet? Keep reading.

In the year 1900 Meji era, a writer mysteriously left his book unfinished. The narrator in the film attempted to explain what happened. Around New Year, Lord Sado Nakagawa visited the area and stopped at the temple with his entourage at a temple in Hongo. Kannai one of the traveling men became thirsty and went to get a cup of water, but soon an apparition appeared in the water, smiling at him. He tossed the water out, but the reflection of a strange man kept appearing when he scooped a new cup of water. Irritated, he drank the water.

Later that evening, the strange man in the cup of water appeared in the manor in human form. He called himself, Heinai Shikibu. Frightened by the appearance, Kannai claimed to never have seen him, when asked if he recognized the mysterious man. Heinai Shikibu got upset when Kannai threw the water on the ground earlier that morning at the temple. Kannai reached his sword and attacked Heinai Shikibu. And then, the “wounded mysterious man” disappeared behind the wall. No one believed him when he said there was an intruder entering the manor.

The next following night, three visitors came to visit Kannai. They claimed to be Heinai Shikibu’s retainer. The visitors said Heinai Shikibu will come back on the 16th of the month to get his revenge. Kannai became angry and started to swing his sword at the visitors. Those ghostly visitors could not be killed because they were not real. Kannai turned into a madman, laughing hysterically because he could not defeat them.

Then the scene went back to the writer, who left his book unfinished. The publisher came to check on the writer as the deadline was approaching. It appeared that the writer suffered from writer’s block and could not come up with a satisfying ending “to a story about a man who swallowed another’s soul.” So he left it for the publisher to come up with an ending. The ending of the film showed the writer inside a big water vase.

I personally think this story is confusing no matter how many times I watched it. Perhaps, there are cultural references and lore that I’m not well aware of. However, if the author intended to make his audience confused, he succeeded because I wouldn’t know how to finish the story if it were given to me. But it’s sure a haunting tale even though it’s not scary. I still enjoyed the camera shots and the overall production.

In summary, I enjoyed watching Kwaidan. It’s relaxing and beautiful to watch. I have always liked older films and good horror stories. It does something to my soul. It heals it just like having a cup of tea.

Note Originally posted:
November 10, 2019 3:23 am

Kwaidan: A Different Type of Horror (Part II)

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Hoichi the Earless is the third story in the film. The longest story out of all the four stories and the most complex to dive in, but artistically on point. I watched the segment repeatedly, analyzing every scene from the painted red/orange sky to the watermelon.

It started off with a gloomy song about the last battle fought between the Genji and Heike clans. Three thousand people total fought along the shore of Dan-no-Ura.  In the song, it mentioned how the Heike clan got defeated.  And thereafter, the sea became haunted for 700 years. To console the dead samurais, a temple was built.  And thus, the strange haunted tale between Hoichi, the blind musician and the supernatural began.

Hoichi played the musical instrument called biwa and became a master at reciting the battle’s story. He even surpassed his teacher. One day, he was called by a spirit to perform at Akamagahara, which was actually a cemetery for the Heike spirits, located near the temple. Hoichi agreed to visit Akamagahara thinking it was an honor to play in front of a high rank.

The next day, a dead body appeared on the shore—the villagers blamed the sea ghosts for the cause of death. Then we later find out another ship had sunk on that very same night Hoichi recited the battle story. Apparently, when the story had been recited, someone will die.

Hoichi’s encounter with the dead caused him to become pale. He would sleep during the day and visit Akamagahara at night. The master of the temple and everyone began to take notice of his disappearance at night and his odd behavior and wonder if they could trust him.

One pouring night, Hoichi left again for Akamagahara. They found Hoichi reciting the last “Battle at Dan-no-Ura.” This section was beautifully well pieced in the story. Throughout each disappearance at night, we don’t see Hoichi reciting the battle. It was until the last portion of the battle song when he was finally discovered that we see him reciting to the dead. Little small choices like this from the director made all the difference to imply the scope of this horror tale. It’s haunting.

It was then, the master of the temple confronted Hoichi that he had been lured by a menacing spirit. Soon, it will possess and kill him. In order to save Hoichi from the spirit, scriptures were written all over his body except for his ears. He was told not to respond to the spirit when it called for him.  And so, during the evening, just when the spirit was about to call for Hoichi to attend the cemetery, the spirit got angry because he could not find Hoichi but only his ears (the scriptures made his body invisible). The spirits then tore Hoichi’s ears apart out of the menace. As a result of the supernatural’s vicious attack on Hoichi, the incident led him to rise to fame to the point that even the living lord requested to hear him perform the Heike Tale. Hoichi did not decline. As long as he’s alive, he will play his biwa with all his soul to mourn those thousands of spirits.

How is this a haunting tale, you might wonder? It’s haunting in the sense that the spirits could never be put to rest without replaying the whole battle at Dan-no-ura over and over and over. For 700 years, the shore where the battle took place between the Genji and Heike clans had been haunted. Hoichi’s willingness to mourn for the dead also made it haunting. It’s bittersweet, but also frightening of Hoichi to play for the dead, but the dead should be left in the past.

By far, this is my favorite horror tale from the film. It’s eerie and was well done cinematically. Stay tuned for my final analysis of this film.

Note: Originally posted on Nov. 9, 2019; Revised on April 5, 2022

Kwaidan: A Different Type of Horror (Part I)

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What does it mean to be haunted? Does haunting consist of ghosts and terror? Is haunting like a whiff of cigarette smoke lingering in the air which won’t subside, or it is like an ancient ruin that once stood proudly in splendor only to be left abandoned and rotten in time? This is the feeling I get from watching this film. It’s a film comprised of four haunting stories.

The first story is called Black Hair. It’s a tale about a man who abandoned poverty to gain higher social status at the expense of leaving his soft-spoken, docile wife. Like most ambitious men, the husband desired status and wealth. Unfortunately, when he did achieve his ambition by marrying a woman belonging to a higher social status than his former wife, he realized that the grass was not always greener on the other side. His new wife was cold and selfish. As time progressed, he started to yearn for his former wife and remembered innocently how she spoke to him. When he decided to return to her. She was no longer there but a past memory. In the end, his unwise decision to abandon his former wife indirectly killed her by leaving her to die in poverty alone. What’s the irony in that? We seek fortune only to fall out of a fortune. All of these points mentioned were done with few words. There was not a lot of talking. Each frame illustrated these points so hauntingly beautiful that I just had to summarize the story myself in words to captivate its essence.

In contrast to Black Hair, The Woman of the Snow is a tale about a woman’s temperament. One moment she can be so warm and the next, cold. In this tale, a young woodcutter and his father went out into the forest to cut wood but found themselves stranded in the snowstorm. The father died from the snowstorm but he survived because the Snow Woman found him attractive. She let him live but under one condition: never tell anyone about their encounter. If he breaks the promise, she will kill him. Long story short, a year later, when he recovered, he met a beautiful fair skin woman (Snow Woman) just passing along mysteriously. The woodcutter fell in love with her and they both had three children together. One evening, while he was making sandals for the children and for his wife, the woodcutter innocently smiled at his wife and told her how he met Snow woman in the shelter on a snowy day. Like a light switch, the wife turned from warm to cold because the woodcutter had broken a promise. The wife revealed she was the Snow Woman and so he must die. But out of sympathy, she decided to let him live instead for the sake of their children. It’s an unfortunate tale that demonstrated how women can be unforgiving. Sadly, he spoke wrongly unintentionally, as he meant to compliment her on her beauty. How is this tale haunting? Well, beautiful women can be quite scary, but we fall for them anyway.

Note: For this film analysis, I will break it into three posts. It’s a long film which runs about 3 hours. My final thoughts will be at the end of the analysis. Originally posted on Nov. 11, 2019. Revised April 2, 2022.