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* 'A4Kwaidan’ Offbeat Movie:By WILLIAM J. NAZIZARO-iiKwaidan,” at the Valley Art, 1£ an extraordinary motion picture. It is a sumptuously photo-gfaphed and deliberately paced Japanese ghost movie. While itsappeal may be limited, thoseseeking the exotic and exquisite will find a great deal in this magnificent piece of cinematicart.The film contains three sep-l-ssarate stories, with the longest and the best sandwiched between two shorter ones. The first tells of a Samurai who leaves his first wife to marry another, becomes unhappy, and returns to his first wife only to discover things cannot be doneAquite so easily. The last is leftunfinished, as if to say that the story, like life, is often unfinished. It has to do with a man who discovers souls in teacups. The middle story, “The Ear,” is one of the most evocative ever screened. The main character is a beggar living in a monastery who earns his living by chanting the story of a greatbattle fought on this very spot nearly a thousand years ago.One night, a mysterious stranger calls him forth to tell the story to a group of persons he has never seen before. Night after night the beggar is asked to repeat the tale, until finally he realizes that it is the spirits of the original participants sprung up from their graves who are his audience.yl-el-itfit1.uuVisually, this film could hardly be better. The Shigeru Wa-katsuki color photography adds so much to the story that you could hardly imagine one without the other. Maskai Koba-yashi’s direction is very slow, almost undramatic, but it’s very powerful and slowly builds and always keeps you interested.Kwaidan” is not for everyone. It is for the lover of the offbeat and the eerie. It is a film you will not soon forget. Strongly recommended, thoughnot for the general audience.44\41bGii44ii
Newspaper Details
Phoenix Arizona Republic
Phoenix, Arizona, US
Sat, Jun 25, 1966
Page 63
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 17 Sep 2021
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