Movie Cosmos - Kwaidan | Movie Cosmos

Description:

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Top Cast >

Michiyo Aratama

As First Wife (segment "The Black Hair")

Rentaro Mikuni

As Husband (segment "The Black Hair")

Misako Watanabe

As Second Wife (segment "The Black Hair")

Kenjirō Ishiyama

As Father (segment "The Black Hair")

Ranko Akagi

As Mother (segment "The Black Hair")

Fumie Kitahara

As (segment "The Black Hair")

Kappei Matsumoto

As (segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)

Yoshiko Ieda

As (segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)

Otome Tsukimiya

As (segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)

Kenzō Tanaka

As (segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)

Kiyoshi Nakano

As (segment "The Black Hair") (uncredited)

Tatsuya Nakadai

As Minokichi (segment "The Woman of the Snow")

Keiko Kishi

As Yuki the Snow Maiden (segment "The Woman of the Snow")

Yūko Mochizuki

As Minokichi's Mother (segment "The Woman of the Snow")

Kin Sugai

As Village Woman (segment "The Woman of the Snow")

Noriko Sengoku

As Village Woman (segment "The Woman of the Snow")

Akiko Nomura

As (segment "The Woman of the Snow") (uncredited)

Torahiko Hamada

As (segment "The Woman of the Snow") (uncredited)

Jun Hamamura

As (segment "The Woman of the Snow")

Katsuo Nakamura

As Hoichi (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Tetsuro Tamba

As Warrior (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Takashi Shimura

As Head Priest (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Yoichi Hayashi

As Attendant (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Eiko Muramatsu

As Kenreiinmon (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Kunie Tanaka

As Yasaku (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Kazuo Kitamura

As Tomomori (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Ichirō Nakatani

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Masanori Tomotake

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Tokue Hanazawa

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Shizue Natsukawa

As Tokiko (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Shin Tatsuoka

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Makiko Kitashiro

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Masakazu Kuwayama

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Mutsuhiko Tsurumaru

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Akira Tani

As Huntsman #2 (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Yōsuke Kondō

As Benkei (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Kiyoshi Yamamoto

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Kinji Omino

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Atsuo Nakamura

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Ginzô Sekiguchi

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Akio Miyabe

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Gen'ya Nagai

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Toru Uchida

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Hikaru Jinno

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Toshio Fukuhara

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Kirô Abe

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Toshiro Yagi

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Yuriko Abe

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Yuri Satô

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Kyōichi Satō

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Nobuo Aikawa

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Taiji Kodama

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Nobuaki Maeda

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Teruhiko Shibata

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Haruo Kaji

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Michio Gina

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Seiji Tabe

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Mitsuko Narita

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Noriko Mikura

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Aiko Nagayama

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Michiko Nakahata

As (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)

Kan'emon Nakamura

As Kannai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Osamu Takizawa

As Author / Narrator (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Haruko Sugimura

As Madame (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Noboru Nakaya

As Shikibu Heinai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Seiji Miyaguchi

As Old Man (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Kei Satō

As Ghost Samurai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Shigeru Kōyama

As (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Jun Tazaki

As Kannai's Colleague #1 (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Junkichi Orimoto

As (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Akiji Kobayashi

As (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Yoshirō Aoki

As (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Isao Tamagawa

As (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Hideyo Amamoto

As (segment "In a Cup of Tea") (uncredited)

Ganjirō Nakamura II

As Publisher (segment "In a Cup of Tea")

Top Crew >

Masaki Kobayashi

Director

Yoshio Miyajima

Cinematography

Yōko Mizuki

Screenplay

Shigeru Wakatsuki

Producer

Shigemasa Toda

Art Direction

Lafcadio Hearn

Novel

Toru Takemitsu

Original Music Composer, Sound Designer

Hisashi Sagara

Editor

Dai Arakawa

Set Decoration

Shigeyuki Sekine

Colorist

Masahiro Katō

Costume Design

Eiko Yoshida

Continuity

Akira Suzuki

Sound Designer

Shigeru Takagi

Makeup Artist

Akira Aomatsu

Gaffer

Kiyoshi Awazu

Title Designer

Shôjirô Kamohara

Second Assistant Camera

Yôichi Ukita

Production Supervisor

Masaharu Shioda

Sound Recordist

Yoshio Ueno

Costume Consultant

Kazuo Kuwahara

Production Supervisor

Toshiyuki Isobe

Assistant Camera

Kinji Tsuruda

Musician

Michiyoshi Takashima

Executive In Charge Of Production

Kuniharu Akiyama

Sound Designer

Hideo Nishizaki

Sound

Tatsuo Hotta

Martial Arts Choreographer

Gô Yoshida

First Assistant Director

Tadanosuke Sumida

Researcher

Ayako Sakurai

Hairstylist

Kiyoharu Matsuno

Set Designer

Naotake Satsumoto

Assistant Art Director

Shigenosuke Okuyama

Sound Designer

Kazutoshi Yagihashi

Sound Recordist

Yasuhiro Yoshioka

Still Photographer

Junichirô Ôsaka

Assistant Editor

Reviews:

CinemaSerf (7/10)

I'm always a little daunted when I settle down in a cinema seat for a film that is 3 hours long - I fear the last glass of wine may have been one too many - but this simply flew by. It is a compendium of four different Japanese "poems" that deal with just about every emotion in the human panoply - love, hate, greed, joy, fear, envy, betrayal... You name it! Each story has a central theme that, perhaps not terribly sophisticated to anyone with a fairly well-centred moral compass of their own, delivers a salutatory lesson in what is decent and what is flawed about human nature, even amongst the best of us. "In A Cup of Tea" - is a wonderfully intriguing story and my personal favourite is "Hoichi" - featuring a blind priest who can sing such beautiful songs but at such a fearful price. The staging is superb, though the fight scenes - especially on the water - maybe a little too studio-bound to be truly effective. The colours and sounds test every range of your senses; ecstasy and despair, bliss and rage and leave you, at the end, feeling as drained and fulfilled, simultaneously, as any film could hope to possibly engender... This really is a glorious roller-coaster of a ride!

2024-12-02