8. Kwaidan (1964)
Horror portmanteau film from Japan that received an Academy award nomination for Best Foreign Film. The film concerns four stories. In the first story a man dumps his loyal but lowly wife in order to marry into money. However, his new wife turns out to be shallow, stupid and impatient - the complete reverse of his former loyal and devoted wife. He thus returns to his former wife and a nasty shock is in store for him. The second story 'The Woman of the Snow' depicts Yuki-onna a spectre who inhabits snowy planes. She intrudes upon two men sheltering in a hut during a snow storm. She kills one of the men and tells the other one she will never harm him unless he speaks to anyone about the events of the night. For years he keeps his word until he falls prey to a Yuki-onna look alike and tragedy ensues. 'Hoichi the Earless' is the story of Hoichi, a blind musician whose speciality is to sing a ballad about an old War. He goes to perform for a Royal audience but his loved ones think he is going to see ghosts. 'In a Cup of Tea' is the final tale concerning a writer who keeps seeing ghosts in his cup of tea. Kwaidan means ghost and that is what all of the four stories concern - ghosts. There is no gore or sensationalism in the film. It is not particularly scary but its Expressionist style makes the film very eerie and weird. It is intensely absorbing and beautiful to look at with its visual poetry. The story telling is masterful and the film is unusual for a portmanteau movie in that it doesn't have a central tale weaving everything together (in contrast to the Amicus series of Anthology movies such as Asylum). The film clocks in at 3 hours, and this has probably put a lot of people off watching the movie, however, the movie is so engrossing and of such beauty, time flies by and it is a treat for the eye.