Kwaidan Reviews

Kwaidan isn’t interested in making you jump—it wants to haunt you long after the credits roll. Each of its four ghost stories explores a different aspect of the human experience: regret, broken promises, memory, and the mysteries that refuse to be explained. Masaki Kobayashi’s use of color, painted sets, and dreamlike imagery makes the entire film feel like stepping into a living Japanese painting.

“Hoichi the Earless” is the undeniable masterpiece of the anthology, pairing breathtaking visuals with one of the most memorable ghost stories ever put on film. “The Woman of the Snow” delivers the biggest emotional gut punch, while “The Black Hair” quietly devastates with its tale of irreversible regret. “In a Cup of Tea” closes things on an intentionally unresolved note, leaving you with one last unsettling image and a mystery that lingers in your mind.

This is slow, atmospheric horror at its finest—more interested in folklore, beauty, and melancholy than scares. If you can embrace its deliberate pace, Kwaidan is an unforgettable cinematic experience and one of the greatest horror anthologies ever made.

Watched the first half
Very very pretty

The shots and color in this film and in all 4 segments are beautiful. I do favor the first 2 segments because the atmosphere makes me feel more of the Japanese folklore ghost stories. After the intermission is when I lost interest and felt the runtime. Still a good anthology.

A bit long but otherwise pretty good

The story w/ the snow lady is probably my favorite

Kicking off my Folk Horror Fall (countdown to Halloween) with Kwaidan. You get 4 ghost stories, all folk tale inspired. It is beautifully filmed. The use of colors & sounds, sometimes via the absence of or singularity of color, to convey the settings, atmosphere and intensity works really well. It’s not horror as we think of it today. Maybe not even as it was at its time. These are ghost stories, tales shared from one to another, cautionary tales and warnings. 👻👺💀👹

Really interesting even if sometimes too long

I need to rewatch this but I remember really liking the stories in it