Kwaidan

1965, 161 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles.
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi. With Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentaro Mikuni, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi, Jun Hamamura. Print courtesy of Janus Films.

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 (Kwaidan was the most expensive film of its time), widescreen production is one of Masaki Kobayashi’s masterpieces.

Painterly, haunting, hypnotic, Kwaidan takes you to the far side of Zen and back.

TICKETS
$12/$9 Japan Society members, students & seniors

Buy Tickets Online or call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon. – Fri. 11 am – 6 pm, Weekends 11 am – 5 pm.

Part of Zen & Its Opposite: Essential (& Turbulent) Japanese Art House

Each film illustrates one or several of the “Six Planes of Existence“—a Buddhist concept commonly referred to as “Six Paths” (Rokudō 六道 or Rokudō-rinne 六道輪廻) in Japan—within “the realm of Birth and Death” (Samsara).

Kwaidan
The Realm of Humans: (Manusya-gati in Sanskrit. Nindō 人道 in Japanese). In other words, the realm of humans as beings who are both good and evil; enlightenment is within their grasp, yet most are blinded and consumed by their desires.