Kwaidan - Criterion Collection

Kwaidan - Criterion Collection
by Masaki Kobayashi

Kwaidan - Criterion Collection
List Price: $29.95
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

Buy Kwaidan - Criterion Collection at Amazon.com
(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Keiko Kishi, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentaro Mikuni, Tatsuya Nakadai
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 161 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-10-10
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion

Movie Reviews of Kwaidan - Criterion Collection

Movie Review: Would Be Five Stars Except For The Last Story
Summary: 4 Stars

I watched this film on TCM weeks ago and its is still with me. There are four stories of the supernatural featured in the film, and the final tale doesn't come across as complete as the first three (apparently the fourth tale was left out of the film for the American theatrical release in the Sixties). The story pictured on the cover is absolutely brilliant. The sets, the mood, the sound design... This and IKIRU are perhaps my favorite all time Japanese titles.

Summary of Kwaidan - Criterion Collection

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, Kwaidan features four nightmarish tales in which terror thrives and demons lurk. Adapted from traditional Japanese ghost stories, this lavish, widescreen production drew extensively on Kobayashi's own training as a student of painting and fine arts. Criterion is proud to present Kwaidan in a new ravishing color transfer.
A masterpiece of filmmaking artifice and mood-setting atmosphere, Kwaidan consists of four ghost stories adapted from the fiction of Greek-born Lafcadio Hearn (a.k.a. Yakumo Koizumi, 1850-1904), who assimilated into Japanese culture so thoroughly that his writings reveal no evidence of Western influence. So it is that these four cinematic interpretations--perhaps more accurately described as tales of spectral visitation--are sublimely Japanese in tone and texture, created entirely in a studio with frequently stunning results. There are painterly images here that remain the most beautiful and haunting in all of Japanese cinema, presented with the purity of silent film, sparsely accompanied by post-synchronized sounds and music (by Toru Takemitsu) that enhance the otherworldly effect of director Masaki Kobayashi's meticulous imagery. When viewed in a receptive frame of mind, Kwaidan can be intensely hypnotic.

Each of the four stories find their protagonists confronted by spirits that compel them to (respectively) make amends for past mistakes, maintain vows of silence, satisfy the yearnings of the undead, or capture phantoms that remain frightfully elusive. As each tale progresses, their supernatural elements grow increasingly intense and distant from the confines of reality. With careful use of glorious color and wide-screen composition, Kwaidan exists in a netherworld that is both real and imagined, its characters never quite sure they can trust what they've seen and heard. Vastly different from the more overt shocks of Western horror, the film casts a supernatural spell that remains timelessly effective. --Jeff Shannon

Art House & International DVD Video

DVD Video
Movies most talked about in my dvd collection
Alfred Hitchcock - The Masterpiece Collection (Psycho / Vertigo / Rear Window / The Birds / Shadow of a Doubt / Family Plot / Frenzy / The Man Who Knew Too Much / Marnie / Rope / Saboteur / Topaz / Torn Curtain / The Trouble with Harry) ImageAlfred Hitchcock - The Masterpiece Collection (Psycho / Vertigo / Rear Window / The Birds / Shadow of a Doubt / Family Plot / Frenzy / The Man Who Knew Too Much / Marnie / Rope / Saboteur / Topaz / Torn Curtain / The Trouble with Harry)
Release date: 2005-10-04; DVD
Best price: $85.99
Price in other shops: $119.98
Kwaidan - Criterion Collection ImageKwaidan - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2000-10-10; DVD
Best price: $19.91
Price in other shops: $29.95
Wild At Heart ImageWild At Heart
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $3.81
Price in other shops: $14.98
Ran - Criterion Collection ImageRan - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-11-22; DVD
Best price: $27.50
Price in other shops: $39.95
Kagemusha - Criterion Collection ImageKagemusha - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-03-29; DVD
Best price: $25.95
Price in other shops: $39.95
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - Criterion Collection ImageMishima: A Life in Four Chapters - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-07-01; DVD
Best price: $24.94
Price in other shops: $39.95
THX 1138 - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) ImageTHX 1138 - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Release date: 2004-09-14; DVD
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops: $26.98
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) ImageSweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
DEPP,JOHNNY; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $18.97
Price in other shops: $34.99
The Mystery of Rampo ImageThe Mystery of Rampo
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: $14.98
Fellini - Satyricon ImageFellini - Satyricon
Release date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $4.42
Price in other shops: $14.98
Similar DVD Movies
Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection ImageThrone of Blood - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2003-05-27; DVD
Best price: $27.22
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Sword of Doom - Criterion Collection ImageThe Sword of Doom - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-03-15; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
High and Low - Criterion Collection ImageHigh and Low - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-07-22; DVD
Best price: $25.85
Price in other shops: $39.95
Sansho the Bailiff - Criterion Collection ImageSansho the Bailiff - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-05-22; DVD
Best price: $27.20
Price in other shops: $39.95
Kwaidan: Stories And Studies Of Strange Things ImageKwaidan: Stories And Studies Of Strange Things
by Lafcadio Hearn
Tuttle Publishing; Published: 2005-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops: $16.95
Seven Samurai - 3 Disc Remastered Edition (Criterion Collection Spine # 2) ImageSeven Samurai - 3 Disc Remastered Edition (Criterion Collection Spine # 2)
Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $33.97
Price in other shops: $49.95
Samurai Rebellion - Criterion Collection ImageSamurai Rebellion - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-10-25; DVD
Best price: $20.31
Price in other shops: $29.95
Harakiri - Criterion Collection ImageHarakiri - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $25.36
Price in other shops: $39.95
Ugetsu - Criterion Collection ImageUgetsu - Criterion Collection
Release date: 2005-11-08; DVD
Best price: $27.08
Price in other shops: $39.95
Onibaba - Criterion Collection ImageOnibaba - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-03-16; DVD
Best price: $19.98
Price in other shops: $29.95
Compare prices and read customer reviews for more than one million DVD titles.
Oscar 2005 Winners