Kaidan

The surrealist-stylized horror film is a radical artistic change in Masaki Kobayashi's oeuvre. Based on four ghost stories by Irish-Greek author Lafcadio Hearn, adapted for the screen by Japanese screenwriter Yoko Mizuki, Kobayashi creates an expressive frenzy of images in the form of magnificent, supernatural scenes in which four protagonists face ghostly retribution and spiritual tests: a samurai who returns to his beloved wife on the ephemeral and futility is thrown, a lumberjack falling in love with a “snowwoman”, a blind musician whose playing has dramatic consequences in front of ghosts, as well as a samurai and a face that looks at him unexpectedly. As one of the most expensive films in Japanese film history, KAIDAN could not have been realized without the substantial financial support and production infrastructure of the Ninjin Club. The ticket revenue distributed by the Ninjin Club could not absorb the production costs. Bankruptcy was inevitable. Many participants paid off their debts years later. (mg)