kwaidan

I watched most of Kwaidan in the Milwaukee airport at 7am after only 3 hours of sleep. Whether it was the lack of sleep or the rising sun over the runway, the movie legitimately freaked me out. Of the four episodes Hoichi the Earless was the most incredible. It struck me about halfway through Hoichi that what made the supernatural element of the film so eerie is that there was no separation of worlds. Instead of having the supernatural descend (if you will) into an earthly reality, all of the earthly reality was heightened through careful production design. This leveling of the playing field, this portrayal of the natural and supernatural on wholly equal levels, makes their interaction seem simultaneously commonplace, organic and mystical.

The version I saw was the Janus/Criterion version which is apparently missing 20 minutes of footage and suffering from erroneous color timing. I have yet to discover if this edited version is a legit cut of the film or an error by Criterion, but to be honest, I don't feel like I was missing anything.