Kwaidan

Kwaidan is a Japanese anthology film made up of four separate ghost stories drawn from traditional folk tales collected by Lafcadio Hearn. In one, a samurai leaves his wife for a wealthier marriage and later returns home to a troubling discovery. In another, two woodcutters are caught in a snowstorm and one is spared by a mysterious woman on a condition he must keep. A third follows Hoichi, a blind musician summoned to perform for an audience that is not living. The last concerns a writer telling of a samurai who sees a stranger's face reflected in his teacup. The film's title comes from an old Japanese word for a tale of the supernatural.

Masaki Kobayashi directed, working from a screenplay by Yoko Mizuki, with Shigeru Wakatsuki producing. It followed Harakiri in Kobayashi's filmography and came before Samurai Rebellion, his sixth feature as director. The large credited cast of seventy-five includes Michiyo Aratama, Rentaro Mikuni, Misako Watanabe, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Ranko Akagi and Fumie Kitahara in the opening segment. The film runs just over three hours.

On IMDb it holds 7.9 out of 10 from more than nineteen thousand votes, and on TMDB 7.7 out of 10 from over four hundred. A critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10, based on forty-six reviews, sits in line with those audience scores.