Kaidan

Kaidan (2007) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a wandering man who was orphaned as a child when his parents were killed by a samurai who owed them money. The young man now sells tobacco on the streets and one day falls in love with a brothel owner. He tries to leave her when he realizes their relationship is bad for her business. He discover leaving her is going to be harder than it appears, especially after an unfortunate accident. This movie is directed by Hideo Nakata (Dark Water and Ringu 1 & 2) and stars Kumiko Asô (Pulse), Leona Hirota (Endless Waltz), Hitomi Kuroki (Dark Water) and Kikunosuke Onoe (47 Ronin). This movie is entertaining from beginning to end. They do a fantastic job setting up the storyline and delivering the backstory of the family and lake. This movie has great character development and delivery of both the main and side characters. The writing is excellent displaying how a lack of malice and intention can lead to absolute malice nonetheless. The circumstances are interesting and unpredictable and the horror elements are a slow build but once they get going are very good. I loved the ghost elements and the conclusion was outstanding. This is a very well written and well done movie that is definitely worth your time. I'd score this an 8.5/10 and strongly recommend it.

Shinkichi (Kunoemon Oroe) is a young, handsome seller of tobacco. Physically, he is the embodiment of a decent suitor, though at the same time he is inexperienced, immature and lacking economic stability. While working one day he meets Oshiga (Hitomi Kuroki), an older woman, who is as beautiful as she is successful, and as well educated as she is professionally gifted. He falls for her upon their first meeting, and Oshiga, who is originally shocked by his affections, discovers that through him, she can finally bring an end to the loneliness she feels.

They unanimously agree to live together, though it doesn't take long for Shinkichi's eyes to wander to other, younger women, Oshiga, through jealousy and grief, being twisted by his cruel inability to remain loyal. Shinkichi's unappreciative attitude, alongside his pretentiousness, and the misfortune that he is too handsome for his own good, makes him a rather unlikable character. Continuously tempted by the beauty of others, he is largely inattentive of the romantic luxuries he is spoiled by, envisioning those who have feelings for him as suffocating his life with their affection.

Unlike most leads in horror films, who we are sympathetic towards, in Kaidan, it is quite the opposite, the audience's sympathy aimed towards those who Shinkichi directly and indirectly wrongs. As we discover over the course of the story, destiny has a large role in the events that transpire, much of this being revealed through occasional narration. The narrator in question has a vital role in developing the story, and notifying viewers of changes in time and other like events that go visually unrecorded.

After an unfortunate occurrence, Oshiga develops an infection that begins to consume not only her beauty, but her life, which inevitably pushes Shinkichi further away. In her last moments, Oshiga leaves him a chilling message: if he ever marries another woman, she shall return and kill her. Immediately it is apparent Shinkichi is unsure whether to put stock in such an eerie message, but like all great ghost stories, some threats really ought to be taken seriously.

Although supernatural events plague the feature from the beginning, the real horror elements do not reveal themselves until a third of the way through the film. This change brings with it a foreboding atmosphere, and a dreadful sense of cold that envelops the viewer, and though on many an occasion subtle, there are other moments of in your face terror. The camera work, especially when from the point of view of the ghost, coupled with the high camera angles during many of these instances, intensifies the morbid feeling of never being truly alone.

These segments would not have been so effective if not for Ms. Kuroki, who is able to brilliantly appear sweet and gentle in some instances, and terrifyingly haunting in others, her presence on screen leaving quite the impression upon the audience. Occasionally the moments of terror are quite predictable, and audiences who are accustomed to horror films may well have seen similar instances before. However, nothing ever feels forced, with every scene having its rightful place within the film.

The score delightfully sets the mood, and the emergence of the film's horror aspects triggers additional tracks that efficaciously bring an extra level of auditory depth to the already tense atmosphere. An opera singer's vocal skills are included in some tracks, which not only fits the feature's tone, but the setting too. Rather than being set in contemporary Japan, Kaidan is presented in a previous stage of the country's history, and the music, alongside the settings and costume brilliantly develops the film's environment, so much so it legitimately looks and feels believable.

A sensual moment delivered on screen, although unrevealing, tastefully articulates the passionate occurrence, though this is just one example of Kaidan's effective ability to capture moments in the storyline. Special effects moreover appear to be rarely implemented, though when these do occur, they offer a stunning treat for the audience. It is the use of make-up effects however that really deserves applause, a great amount of the horror being conveyed visually, and would have thus been lost on the audience if not for the talent shown in this film.

Sometimes Kaidan does become what can only be described as overly reliant on violence, and despite this fitting with the film's desire to paint a realistic world, the feature could have been potentially executed just as efficiently without this particular content. This aside however, the feature brilliantly articulates a dark, romantic thriller, which encompasses the importance of family, honor and love. Aimed not at adolescent audiences, but more specifically for adults, Kaidan is a feature that uses all of its two hours to generate a character driven storyline that is as understandable, as it is engaging, the conclusion fabulously providing a sense of utter completion to the film.

In the Nineteenth Century, the acupuncturist Soetsu lives with his daughters Oshiga and Osano in the Shimousa Province, Japan. He saves some money, becomes a moneylender and lends his money to the samurai Fukami. Three years later, he visits Fukami to collect his money and the samurai kills him and dumps his body in the Kasane Swamp, where bodies disappear and never return to the surface. However, before dying, Soetsu curses Fukami and the samurai goes crazy and kills his wife.

Twenty-five years later, Fukami's son Shinkichi, who is a street vendor of tobacco, meets Oshiga, who is a singing teacher in Edo, and they fall in love with each other. Oshiga is older than Shinkichi and financially supports him. She becomes infamous in Edo and when her student Ohisa flirts with Shikichi, she becomes jealous and decides to give no more classes to her. Shinkichi decides to leave Oshiga and move to his homeland Hanyu with Ohisa. Oshiga has an argument with Shinkichi and he hits her face with the Bachi of her Shamisen. Oshiga has an infection in her face and dies; however, she curses Shinkichi and promises that she will haunt and take to the grave any woman that he loves.

"Kaidan" is a great Japanese ghost story about deadly jealousness, curse and doomed love. This stylized slow-paced film combines romance, drama and supernatural genres with a magnificent cinematography. The romance between Oshiga and Shinkichi in Edo shows beautiful locations and the camera work uses angles and movements to show details sometimes in a corner or in another room or space.

I believed that Hideo Nakata's "Kaidan" would be a remake of the 1964 Masaki Kobayashi's classic masterpiece, but they are totally different stories. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição do Rio" ("The Curse of the River")

After falling in love, a salesman allows his wife's death to occur igniting a powerful ghostly curse that befalls him and whomever he loves that carries on through the years and must find a way to break the curse.

Overall this was a pretty disappointing effort that should've had a lot going for. What is so enjoyable about this one is the fact that this one manages to perfectly expose the time-period setting here as feudal Japan in the background serves as quite an impactful location for all the ghostly activities. The cramped villages, the formal society and the countryside air provide a spectacular place for a traditional old-school ghost story to take place and that makes for a chilling setting here when they start occurring in the second half. That's really where this gets good as the fruition of the curse start coming into play as the ghostly hauntings that prevent his search for normalcy are incredibly enjoyable and truly chilling, as the encounter at the lake with his second wife are quite creepy with the stomping footsteps of someone approaching, the ghostly eyes and the possessed attempting to strange him resulting in the chilling realization of his actions being a fantastic encounter along with the a later scene of him appearing to his son only to realize his cursed ghost is in the room with him and drags him into a ghostly portal and emerging at a lake where he falls victim to another chilling ghostly trap that continues on the curse. The finale works well with the action-packed chasing and brutal slashings on his pursuers allowing for plenty of graphic bloodletting to go along with that frantic action to end this on a high note, but otherwise this was pretty troubling. The biggest issue here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of interesting horror elements going on here, for the first half of this contains absolutely nothing at all beyond setting up the doomed romance that starts the curse. That this takes up to fifty minutes before even starting the situation, there's plenty of times here where it just doesn't get going with any sort of urgency or immediacy in signaling the ghostly activities that crop up, and it tends to feel more like a tragic romance than out-and-out horror even throughout the later half when he finds himself continually struck under the confines of the curse. This drags on for quite a few times here as the time and period setting here undermine the horror efforts with their strictly rigid society and completely impersonal approach which tends to let this go for the truly chilling set-ups. The other big flaw here is a completely confusing and unnecessary prologue that tells of a samurai's actions leading to a curse involving a mysterious lake in the area which has no part in the rest of the film at all for their familial status doesn't impact them, the lake isn't shown until the finale and it's his actions that drive the curse more than anything so to put that there is a little awkward. These tend to lower this one enough when it could've been great.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, a sensual sex scene and mild drug use.

I enjoyed "Kaidan", don't get me wrong. But I couldn't like it more simply because the story seemed overly burdened with too many plot elements and was unnecessarily circuitous. I really believe eliminating a few plot points would have actually made for a better film.

The story begins unusually. There is a prologue but it's presented like a play--with obvious sets and a narrator. The tale involves a money lender who is viciously murdered by a samurai in order to avoid repaying an honest debt. As the man dies, he curses the man--saying that his child will one day exact revenge on the murderer's family. Believe it or not, none of this is actually needed for the film. When the murderer's son is eventually accorded his fate, it really is NOT because of his father's sins but his own, as Shinkichi is an evil and selfish man in his own right. Plus, he ends up destroying the daughter of the man his father murdered--and for this and his subsequent actions, he really deserved EVERYTHING he deserved. But, enjoyable as it was, it sure took a long time to get to this point. Very stylish, very beautiful but also too many things that got in the way of point A and point B. Good but flawed.