Film Forum

Japan, 1964
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Based on a collection of folktales by Lafcadio Hearn
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe
Approx. 183 min.

Four ghost stories by American expatriate Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904): When he adds a second wife, Rentarô Mikuni finds a skeleton at the feast; woodcutter Tatsuya Nakadai (star of Kobayashi’s Harakiri and Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Ran) meets a strange woman in the snow; a blind biwa player gives a command performance for a spirit; an apparition appears in a cup of tea. Kobayashi’s first color film, with an eerie score by the great Tōru Takemitsu (Ran, Harakiri, Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes, etc.).

Restoration by Toho Co., Ltd.

Presented with support from the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film and The Reginald S. Reinhardt, Ling-Makeku Fund for Asia-Pacific Films

A JANUS FILMS RELEASE

Reviews

“ENTHRALLING... WEAVES A SPELL OF ENCHANTMENT.”
– Los Angeles Times

“A horror picture with an extraordinarily delicate and sensuous quality.”
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

“Combines the fantastic color of Fellini’s JULIET OF THE SPIRITS with Poe-like burstings of Gothic horror.”
– Chicago Tribune

“A rare, hermetic beauty, full of ethereal images and errant ideas that will haunt the mind.”
– Little White Lies