Takeaways from watching Kwaidan (1964) dir. Masaki Kobayashi

During week 8 we were presented with the 1964 film; Kwaidan (literal translation, Ghost Stories) directed by Masaki Kobayashi (We were only presented with a segment of “The Woman Of The Snow.”). As I have been studying Japanese for the past year, I knew watching from the outset there would be some literal meanings lost to me, however the semblance of ghosts within Japanese folklore are a widespread recognisable phenomenon that many Japanese still believe to this day. The overall aesthetic qualities within the film are highly theatrical in nature, from the landscape scenes (with the obscure set backdrops), the weather/environment, the use of space within cabins and especially the lighting textures used (eg. Blues on her ghostly face, white spotlighting on her dress).

Sound and Music throughout the film is often presented as Empathetic sound (Chion 1994), the tone produced by the instrumentation is omnipresent and often sinister in nature to flow with the scene. This adds to the degree of immersion in that everything within the frame is placed there for a particular reason.

The cinematography is much less atypical of hollywood-esk horror in which we have been conditioned to (ie. Bait and Shock Scare). In Kwaidan we are presented with the ghost in its full appearance, and are deemed powerless. Aesthetically western audiences may find this film engaging, however cinematographically and semiotically there may hindrances in the degree of immersion.

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