Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuJapan, 250 years ago. Soetsu is a moneylender who is killed by the cruel samurai Shinzaemon. His body is dumped in the Kasenega-Fuchi river. According to legend, all who drown in the river w... Alles lesenJapan, 250 years ago. Soetsu is a moneylender who is killed by the cruel samurai Shinzaemon. His body is dumped in the Kasenega-Fuchi river. According to legend, all who drown in the river will never surface again. 20 Years later, Shinkichi, the handsome son of Shinzaemon, coinci... Alles lesenJapan, 250 years ago. Soetsu is a moneylender who is killed by the cruel samurai Shinzaemon. His body is dumped in the Kasenega-Fuchi river. According to legend, all who drown in the river will never surface again. 20 Years later, Shinkichi, the handsome son of Shinzaemon, coincidentally meets Toyoshiga, the daughter of Soetsu. They fall in love. It is a doomed love, ... Alles lesen
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I enjoyed the movie in the sense that it was a nice step away from the traditional (and often stereotypical) Japanese horror movies that have a tendency of resembling one another quite a lot. That being said, then it should also be said that "Kaidan" is not at all scary. There are no scare moments that makes you jump out of your seat. Instead, "Kaidan" is running on psychological terror and that of a traditional curse. As the viewer, we know the curse that is put upon the main character, and as such, sit around knowing that something bad will happen, despite him trying to atone for his wrong-doings.
Being set in ancient Japan, "Kaidan" was a nice change of scenery for a Japanese horror movie. It was nice to see a horror movie set in this age, because of the simplicity and purity of that age and surrounding. A nice step away from the neon-lit Tokyo of the 21st century. And being set in that time, it was easier to buy into a curse actually being present and taking effect.
There was something majestic and grand about the movie. Perhaps it was the way it was shot, combined with the age in which it took place, plus the set and props were really great. Lots of nice detail and the scenery was so nicely made. It was like you were right there with the people. It was really a beautiful movie to watch.
The story, well, it moved onward at a fairly slow pace. But somehow the storyline picks you up and leaves you wanting to see what happens next. Story-wise, then don't expect too much of a complex story or too much adrenaline-filled thrills, because that is not here. The movie is slow and builds up suspense, and it works well enough.
As for the acting, then it was nice to see a movie with all actors and actresses that I can't recall having seen elsewhere. At least not off the top of my mind. And the people did good jobs with their given roles.
If you watch "Kaidan" for thrills and scares, then you are in for somewhat of a disappointment. However, if you want a Japanese horror movie that is somewhat out of the ordinary you see in Japanese horror movies, then "Kaidan" might be a great choice. Just prepare yourself for a psychological horror movie that is not fast-paced. Despite it being a good enough movie, with amazing setting, then I somehow think that the movie didn't accomplish all that it could have. There was something missing from the movie to make it unique. And that was a shame, because "Kaidan" could really have left a mark and set a new standard for Japanese horror movies.
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")
The film is a fairly close retelling of Encho Sanyutei's 19th century ghost story entitled "Shinkei Kasane-ga-fuchi" about the cursed fate of two families and the karma passed on from parent to child. Anyone familiar with the 1964 film Kwaidan (the title uses an antiquated spelling of the same word, both meaning "ghost story") will see similarities in the presentation of Nakata's film. Many have said that he intended to pay homage to ghostly films of the 50s and 60s, but that is not going back far enough. The film reflects the very traditions of Japanese ghost stories and fables. The main actor, known for Kabuki, plays opposite a character once played by his own father in a Kabuki performance years earlier.
I stated earlier about the limited view of the horror genre as held by many Western film goers, but it hasn't always been the case. Sadly the idea of a "slow burn" and finding suspense in the thematic fabric of a film is something rare today in Hollywood horror. Too often, films depend on incredibly literal scares, in the form of disturbing images, gore and violence, but lack any real thematic richness. In some ways Nakata's few inserted jump scares in the film made me balk a little. Perhaps it is his Hollywood experience that convinced him that such heavy handedness was needed. The film has some genuinely tense and "Oh .. !" moments (I am sure you know what I mean) that really don't need any audio cues to let us all know they are happening.
Perhaps this is connected to the negativity around this film. For the few scares present in the run time of the story, there aren't much. In fact, categorising the film as "horror" might me somewhat of a misnomer as well, at least by modern Hollywood definition. What we have with Kaidan is a traditional Japanese ghost story and fable that strives to not only thrill us but also impart some wisdom. The true horror of the story is the tragedy inherent in its themes and sheer extent that it spreads. Obviously, what comes along with such a film, some viewers won't like. Viewers expecting something more akin to modern horror films like The Grudge, will no doubt find parts or all of Kaidan boring and uneventful. Others will decry the feature of "more long-haired ghosts" but to be fair, such people don't appreciate the deep tradition of ghost stories in Japan.
White kimonos are what women are cremated or buried in and traditionally all women had very long hair devoid of any colouring or permed curls. I say, if it ain't broke, why try to fix it. Certainly it is better than Hollywood's constant recycling making every second movie monster like the love-child of the Alien and Pumkinhead, or the tendency to laden everything down with CGI and "in case you didn't get it" effects (I am referring to The Ring's, Hollywood equivalent of Sadako).
So whether you'll like this film or not depends on yourself. The film is not a modern horror tale full of scares and jumps. It is a dramatic, period ghost film, drawn from tradition and based on a 19 century novel. If instead of demanding Kaidan to entertain you, open yourself to what it has to tell you. This a story not unlike those told around campfires at night. The scares are in the themes and situations that the characters face and the fear is in those characters' minds. As with many good horror films, the film is out to scare the characters, not you. Get into their heads and you'll feel it too.
"Kaidan" is an homage to the classical romantic horror stories that Japanese studios produced in the fifties and sixties. It begins with an elaborated black and white narration, that tells an old samurai/ghost tale in a classical Japanese Kabuki style. But soon after this beautiful introduction, the actual story really starts, ans if almost as if all this introductory sequence had took all the talent of Nakata. It mostly deals with a young itinerant salesman, that convinces an older singing teacher to marry him, in the medieval Japan where such a socially disturbing weeding like this one wasn't easy. When she dies, women easily felt in love with the young boy, whereas his love is doomed by his previous wife...
The story is so classical that it becomes boring and predictable. The photography is just plain and gives a televisual look to the movie (whereas Shimizu gave an amazing visual touch to his one), and the direction is quite the same : unoriginal and even sometimes lazy (whereas Kurosawa used a very inventive use of space in in movie, and a very inventive direction).
But to me, the worst element of this movie might be the lead actor, Kikunosuke Onoe, who's supposedly a charismatic character in the movie. But he's really got a enormous lack of charisma and never manage to give any credibility or substance to to his character and the story he carries. He's supposedly a master of a old Kabuki technique, but he apparently failed to transpose it on the big screen. Or I may have lacked the culture the subtility of his play required. Anyway, I just found it quite boring, and nearly felt asleep while watching his Kabuki plays.
All in all, "J-Horror" isn't a really good introduction to the Japanese modern ghosts movies. If the directors are all good, their works here look a lot like a repetition of their previous movies, that were far better. So Shimizu's "Grudge", Kurosawa's "Kairo" and Nakata's "Ring" still stay the best of the Jap'Horror movie collection.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesThough not originally released as part of the J-Horror Theater film series, this film was eventually included as the fifth installment of the anthology. Previous releases include Infection (2004), Premonition (2004), Reincarnation (2006), and Retribution (2007).
- VerbindungenFollowed by Kyôfu (2010)
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- Herkunftsland
- Offizieller Standort
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- Auch bekannt als
- J-Horror Theater Vol. 5
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Box Office
- Budget
- 5.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 3.646.201 $
- Laufzeit
- 1 Std. 55 Min.(115 min)
- Farbe
- Sound-Mix
- Seitenverhältnis
- 1.85 : 1