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Roberto Calabretto
herence of a dream in an interplay of continuous and ironic simulations, in which material
from folklore loses any suspicion of documentary value and becomes evocative symbolism. 35
Kwaidan […] is a good example of simple ghost stories told with brilliance. Recognizing
that at the base of all good ghost stories lies a foundation of psychological
reality, Kobayashi does not conduct a search for resounding statements on the human
condition. Two of these stories contain the love between the living and the dead that is
found in many Japanese films, presented in the normal manner with subtle indications
rather than clearly announcing the fact. Kobayashi sets his stories in a mysterious
world – half theatrical and half realistic. (Tucker 1973: 110)
Several elements contribute to the film’s beauty, not least the picture-like scenography with
atmospheres typical of expressionist cinema. 36 Altogether ‘its visual quality is superb as it
evokes the myths that have expressed the Japanese sensibility’ (Mellen 1975: 136). 37 In an
interview in 1972 Kobayashi himself commented:
My main intention was to explore the juxtaposition between man’s material nature and
his spiritual nature, the realm of dream and aspiration. I wanted to create a drama
which dealt directly with the spiritual importance of our lives. I also enjoyed conveying
the sheer beauty of traditional Japan. 38
We can add the way in which the narrative is poised between reality and unreality, and also
between an interior and an exterior dimension of time which recalls the aesthetic of the
nouvelle vague. While to a superficial eye it has been seen as a mere exercise in bravura, its
‘glacial and rigid’ style denoting a certain detachment, Kwaidan was generally hailed as a
work of genuine beauty, qualified only by that artificiality which recurs like a Leitmotiv in
European critics’ appraisal of Kobayashi’s cinema (Tessier 2008: 76). On the contrary,
many have spoken quite rightly of a perfection devoid of all spurious elements, ‘so that
everything, from the acting to the music, is collocated in a conception of cinema which
aims to entertain without ever resorting to the overtly spectacular’ (Quaglietti 1968: 75).
35 ‘Kwaidan is a collection of seventeen tales or “studies of strange things”, taken for the most part, Hearn
tells us, “from old Japanese books”. All these tales, except the last two sketches, are ghostly and shadowy,
chiefly concerned with death and the dead, and sometimes with a touch of the horrible’ (Lawless 1930: 199).
On the tale, cf. Newman (2006: 88), Reider (2001: 79), Stempel (1948: 1-19).
36 ‘Here, dynamic compositions and dominating diagonals enable the director to construct the claustrophobic
settings in which rebellious samurai are trapped, as well as to evoke powerful forces and offscreen space in
Kwaidan and The Human Condition I’ (Bernstein 1997: 53). Here too some commentators have seen similarities
with Kurosawa’s cinema. ‘Kwaidan’s extraordinary use of color and overall visual design very likely influenced
Akira Kurosawa’s later use of stylized color schemes in films such as Dodes’ka-den, Kagemusha, Ran and
Dreams. In particular, one can see clear connections between Ran and the battle sequence in the Hoichi the
Earless episode’ (Steffen 2009).
37 ‘For a long time, I had wanted to resist industrial civilisation and do something with the irrational. I felt
like experimenting with colour. Kwaidan provided a very good opportunity for that’ (Niogret 1993a: 93).
38 Mellen (1975), cit. in Steffen (2009).