kwaidan part two

kwaidan grew out of the collection of stories of the same name penned by greek ex-patriot lafcadio hearn . after gaining japanese citizenship, lafcadio changed his name to koizumi yakumo. ”kwaidan: stories and studies of strange things” was published in 1904. in it you can read stories that yakumo gathered from a variety of sources.

in this second installment of “kwaidan” we see the story of “the woman of the snow”. a wintry and chilling tale that is no less mesmerizing and exquisitely detailed than the first installment of kwaidan (the black hair). the sets are more obviously artificial in places and yet the tone and colour of the film is in no way compromised. indeed the gentle yet calculating layering of tension within the plot carries you past any of the visual distractions without diminishing their importance.

part one . . .

part two . . .

part three . . .

part four . . .

part five . . .

if you would like to own your own copy of this extraordinary cinematic masterpiece then nip over here. the book can also be had by popping over here. a graphic novel version of these tales can be found here .