# Kwaidan (怪談) (film)
**Kwaidan** (怪談, *Kaidan*) is a 1964 Japanese anthology horror film directed by [Masaki Kobayashi](https://www.edgepedia.org/masaki-kobayashi) (小林正樹), adapting four supernatural tales collected by the writer [Lafcadio Hearn](https://www.edgepedia.org/lafcadio-hearn), known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo (小泉八雲), in his book *Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things*[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories). Distributed by Toho, it opened in Japan on 29 December 1964 in a 183-minute cut[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/), and won the Special Jury Prize at the 18th Cannes International Film Festival in 1965[3](https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/seisaku/03/17/pdf/17_bunkaseisakubukai_1_4_1.pdf) before receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / screenplay | Masaki Kobayashi; screenplay by Yoko Mizuki (水木洋子), based on Lafcadio Hearn[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories) |
| Four episodes | "Black Hair" (黒髪, from Hearn's "The Reconciliation"), "The Woman of the Snow" (雪女), "Hoichi the Earless" (耳無芳一の話), and "In a Cup of Tea" (茶碗の中)[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/) |
| Release | Japan, 29 December 1964, Toho; 183 minutes, color, Tohoscope 2.35:1[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/) • [4](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=21501) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Yoshio Miyajima; music and sound design Toru Takemitsu; art direction Shigemasa Toda[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories) |
| Honors | Special Jury Prize, 18th Cannes Film Festival (1965); Academy Award nomination, Best Foreign Language Film (38th, 1966); Kinema Junpo Best Ten, 2nd place[3](https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/seisaku/03/17/pdf/17_bunkaseisakubukai_1_4_1.pdf) • [2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/) • [5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html) |
| Production | Bungei Production Ninjin Club with Toho; Kobayashi's first color film; ten years in conception, nine months of shooting[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories) • [5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html) |
| Running-time history | Cannes screened a 161-minute shortened version; Britain released 163 minutes; the full 183-minute cut was later restored[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/) • [6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-kwaidan-1964-online) |
## Spoilers
### The four stories
The film is an omnibus of four self-contained ghost stories, each with its own visual style[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories) • [6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-kwaidan-1964-online).
**"Black Hair" (黒髪).** A samurai (Rentaro Mikuni), worn down by poverty, abandons his wife (Michiyo Aratama) to marry into a good family. Remarried to a cold woman, he comes to value the love he discarded; when his term of office ends he returns to Kyoto and reunites with his first wife[7](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/108462). The episode adapts Hearn's story "The Reconciliation"[8](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E6%80%AA%E8%AB%87/umc.cmc.5fgwsd33vynj6u9i45xi5t1p3).
**"The Woman of the Snow" (雪女).** The woodcutter Minokichi (Tatsuya Nakadai) is caught in a blizzard in the mountains and encounters the snow woman (Keiko Kishi), who spares his life[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/) • [7](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/108462).
**"Hoichi the Earless" (耳無芳一の話).** Hoichi (Katsuo Nakamura), a blind biwa (Japanese plucked lute used in storytelling) player who chants the Tale of the Heike, is possessed by the vengeful spirits of the destroyed Heike clan[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/).
**"In a Cup of Tea" (茶碗の中).** In Edo, the samurai Kannai (Kanemon Nakamura) sees an eerie man's face reflected in a cup of tea at a tea stall and drinks it down, and is thereafter haunted[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/) • [8](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E6%80%AA%E8%AB%87/umc.cmc.5fgwsd33vynj6u9i45xi5t1p3).
The large cast also included Tetsuro Tanba, Takashi Shimura, Misako Watanabe, Noboru Nakaya, Osamu Takizawa, Haruko Sugimura, and Ganjiro Nakamura[9](https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan).
## Production
Kwaidan followed more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period films by Kobayashi, whose earlier work included *The Human Condition* (1959–1961) and *[Harakiri](https://www.edgepedia.org/harakiri-1962-film)* (1962)[9](https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan) • [10](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/shochiku-otani-toshokan/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/newsletter_no221.pdf). It was his first color film[5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html), and the project had been in conception for ten years[5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html).
**Studio-built worlds.** Kobayashi sought absolute control over color and composition and could not get it with location shooting, so he moved the production entirely onto soundstages[11](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/kwaidan/). His crew scouted a former airplane hangar, large enough for enormous sets, with each story given its own hand-painted cyclorama (curved painted backdrop enclosing a film set) and sprawling set pieces; cinematographer Yoshio Miyajima shot the result in panoramic Tohoscope, whose wide frame echoes the curvature of the cycloramas[11](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/kwaidan/). The scale was extreme: a cyclorama 9 meters high with a total length of 220 meters, a great hall of about 600 tsubo, and a pool on which ten Japanese boats could float[12](https://asa10.eiga.com/2026/cinema/1504/). The sheer size of the space required time-consuming redecoration between stories, and lighting the hangar demanded numerous generators[11](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/kwaidan/).
**Cost and consequence.** Nine months of shooting pushed the budget far past plan[5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html). Japanese sources give the cost as over 300 million yen[7](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/108462), with one festival program putting it at 400 million yen at the time[12](https://asa10.eiga.com/2026/cinema/1504/). The overrun forced the dissolution of the Ninjin Club production company[5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html), and the film failed at the Japanese box office, leaving the production company in serious trouble[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/).
## Music
Toru Takemitsu, who had begun his collaboration with Kobayashi on *The Inheritance* (1962), composed the score[11](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/kwaidan/). It was written for magnetic tape, an electronic score[13](https://resources.ircam.fr/en/work/kaidan-kwaidan), and is credited on the [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) edition jointly with sound design[9](https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan).
## Release and reception history
The film premiered at the 1965 Cannes International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories); Cannes screened a shortened 161-minute version[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/). It was Kobayashi's second Special Jury Prize at Cannes in succession, after *Harakiri* in 1963[14](https://note.com/sho_h5/n/n5ea2bf5abe63). At the 38th Academy Awards in 1966 it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film[2](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/), and it placed second in Kinema Junpo's Best Ten, with Miyajima taking the Mainichi Film Concours cinematography award and Shigemasa Toda the art direction award[5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html).
**Versions.** For decades the shortened Cannes version circulated[5](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html). Britain originally released the film at 163 minutes[6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-kwaidan-1964-online). [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) issued the original three-hour cut, which it described as never before released in the United States, in a 2K restoration of Kobayashi's original cut[9](https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan). A 4K restoration by Toho Archive Co. was screened in the Venice Classics section of the 2025 Venice International Film Festival[1](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories).
**Critical standing.** The BFI describes the film as both a horror film and "an elegant treatise on death and loss", with imagery "lavishly photographed from a series of handpainted sets"[6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-kwaidan-1964-online). The film has attained cult status for its matte shots (compositing filmed scenes with painted backgrounds) and Takemitsu's experimental score[15](https://journals.kpu.ca/index.php/msq/article/download/1579/1141/6819).
## References
1. [Kaidan (Kwaidan - Ghost Stories), La Biennale di Venezia, Venice Classics 2025](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/venice-classics/kaidan-kwaidan-ghost-stories)
2. [怪談（1964）: 作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/70180/)
3. [カンヌ国際映画祭受賞作品・受賞者, 文化庁](https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/seisaku/03/17/pdf/17_bunkaseisakubukai_1_4_1.pdf)
4. [怪談(1964), KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=21501)
5. [映画監督小林正樹 生誕100年記念プロジェクト: 作品一覧 1964年～1985年](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/kobayashi_masaki/kobayashi_100th/works3.html)
6. [Kwaidan, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-kwaidan-1964-online)
7. [怪談(1965), WOWOWオンライン](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/108462)
8. [怪談, Apple TV (Japan)](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E6%80%AA%E8%AB%87/umc.cmc.5fgwsd33vynj6u9i45xi5t1p3)
9. [Kwaidan (1965), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan)
10. [世田谷文学館「生誕100年 映画監督・小林正樹」展ニュースレター No.221](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/shochiku-otani-toshokan/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/newsletter_no221.pdf)
11. [Kwaidan (1965) | The Definitives, Deep Focus Review](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/kwaidan/)
12. [「怪談」上映作品詳細, 午前十時の映画祭16](https://asa10.eiga.com/2026/cinema/1504/)
13. [Kaidan - Kwaidan (1964), IRCAM Resources](https://resources.ircam.fr/en/work/kaidan-kwaidan)
14. [映画レビュー「怪談」(1964), note (edge5s)](https://note.com/sho_h5/n/n5ea2bf5abe63)
15. [Horror, Hi (academic article on Kobayashi's Kwaidan)](https://journals.kpu.ca/index.php/msq/article/download/1579/1141/6819)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Supernatural horror films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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