Kaidan (Kwaidan - Ghost Stories)

Kaidan is an anthology film consisting of four supernatural tales (Kurokami, Yuki-Onna, Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi, Chawan no naka) based on traditional Japanese ghost stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi) in his book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Kobayashi creates an eerie, dreamlike atmosphere that explores love, betrayal, vengeance, and the supernatural. Each story is a standalone narrative, yet all are unified by their ethereal tone and moral undertones. The film premiered at the 1965 Cannes International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

"Kwaidan remains distinct among Kobayashi’s films in its exploration of parallel realities. No one who has contemplated his nightmarish distillation of wartime experience in The Human Condition or the grueling rigor with which he exposed feudal codes in Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967) would think of him as an artist inclined toward escapist fantasy. And indeed the three main stories of Kwaidan offer no escape. The gorgeousness of their painted skies and otherworldly color schemes, the transparent unreality of everything we see, all the bravura touches of stylization, only emphasize that one may travel to the farthest reaches of the imagination only to find at last a great and terrifying void." (Geoffrey O’Brien, “Kwaidan”: No Way Out, The Criterion Collection)

"This awesome and enthralling Japanese [film] weaves a spell of enchantment with its weird stories, which unfold amidst settings of surrealistic splendor that have been photographed in the most breathtaking color since Gate of Hell." (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times)

PRODUCTION:
TOHO Co., Ltd. - Shion Komatsu
1-2-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku,
1008415 Tokyo, Japan
Tel: + 81 335911216
E-mail: tohointl@toho.co.jp
Web: www.toho.co.jp/en/company

PRODUCTION AT THE TIME OF FILMING: 
​Ninjin Club

CO-PRODUCTION AT THE TIME OF FILMING:
TOHO Co., Ltd.

LAB:
Original development lab: Far East Laboratory
4K Restoration lab: TOHO Archive Co.,Ltd.
DCP delivery (to Venice) lab: Nippon Cine Arts Co.,Ltd.

WORLD SALES:
TOHO Global Inc. - Shion Komatsu
1-2-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku
1008415 Tokyo, Japan
Tel: + 81 335911216
E-mail: s_komatsu@toho.co.jp

PRESS OFFICE:
Shion Komatsu - TOHO Global Inc.
1-2-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku,
1008415 Tokyo, Japan
Tel: + 81 335911216 / +81 8087781466
E-mail: s_komatsu@toho.co.jp