Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

GL84 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.

Scarecrow-88 I guess why I thought KAIDAN was such a worthwhile experience is that it seems like a throwback to a bygone era. It concerns Shinkichi, cursed right from birth due to his poor Samurai father's murder of an elderly farmer attempting to collect a debt owe to him. Shinkichi would later become romantically involved with the older daughter of the farmer, and this relationship would link Shinkichi to tragedy for the remainder of his life. On her death bed, his mistress informed Shinkichi that he would never be able to love another woman again..any attempts to do so results in danger for those he involved. But, Shinkichi, returning to Hanyu(..his childhood home before moving to Edo with his uncle after his father and mother's mysterious demises)with a young woman he planned to marry, his life will begin to crumble and despite attaching himself to the daughter of the richest man in the village, misery, suffering, and, eventually, death will greet him in succession.Slow-moving epic from RINGU / DARK WATER director Hideo Nakata, is actually simple in story, but grandly presented. It deals with the sins of a father passed to his son and how fate can align two together which inevitably yields future horror. And, we see how love binds two together, this union never separated even after one of them dies. No matter how hard Shinkichi tries to create a normal life for himself, his past returns to torment him. The symbolic slice on the brow above the left eye, the initial blow his father inflicted on the peaceful man who simply desired what was owe to him. It remains an indelible image passed down throughout Shinkichi's remaining pitiful existence. The mistress remains a vital part of Shinkichi's life and no matter how much he so wishes, he can not escape her presence. His daughter carries the dreaded brow mark and her eyes, always focused on Shinkichi, that he wishes to harm her, as if doing so would force away the mistress' presence. The mistress' ghost often remains close by and we see Shinkichi often stressed and anxious due to the fact that he can not rid himself of her. And, the ending, as his life spirals out of control, that the mistress will successfully retrieve what had been stolen from her in life. The river outside of Hanyu is said to devour the souls of those buried deep within and remains an important part of the movie..it is where the mistress' father was laid to rest, along with the sickle he attempted to defend himself with(..and the sickle returns to actually assist Shinkichi, while the blood-stained weapon also serves as a source of terror for him since he uses it to accidentally murder his potential bride who journeyed alongside him from Edo, defending himself against the mistress who was strangling his throat). Hideo Nakata's film is never overtly violent, mainly at the conclusion as Shinkichi defends himself against a village mob, with lighted torches, seeking his life for the unfortunate harm causes towards innocents inadvertently. I'm pretty sure the final image of a ghost holding a severed head, preciously cradled in her arms, will remain with you after the film is over.

UberNoodle Hideo Nakata is himself perhaps a haunted man. Despite having had quite a full film career already, it is only by his work in the horror genre that he is largely known. This is especially true in the West where viewers can be a lot more literal in their definition of the genre. With just Nakata's name alone on the marketing, anyone could be excused for having expectations closer to films like Ring or Dark Water. It is these unfortunate connections that will undoubtedly drag this film down into murky waters not unlike those often present in Nakata's films.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.

vghb95a How many curses can a man suffer? Cursed by the sin of his father, and the sin done to his wife, the main character of this film does not have a lot going for him; except, his manly charm that have women falling themselves over for him. That's what this film is about, cursed by love and cursed to be loved.This movie opens like a Japanese fairy tale not unlike the 1964 version of "Kaidan". A tale of greed and murder told in theatrical like black and white film, where a businessman was killed by a samurai over a debt, but before he drawn his last breath, he cursed the samurai's family. Later, when the orphaned samurai's son met the daughter of his father's victim, as if by magic, they fell in love and soon after, fall out of love. The daughter fell ill and before she died, out of jealousy she cursed her lover to suffer the lost of women he loves. The cursed man fled for his life, to another city, another town where once again women fall in love with him and the curses continue.I was surprised that this film is own by Liongate films and didn't saw its U.S. DVD distribution, whereas Takashi Shimizu's "Rinne" or "Reincarnation" did. Perhaps "Kaidan" is too much of an eastern horror film for a western audience. I doubt target audience for horror films in America would be interested in watching a horror movie base in 19th century Japan with samurai and geisha.Kaidan is more of a telling of a love story that involves supernatural elements than just a normal western type of horror story. I found myself drawn into the story of this movie and watched as the cursed man's journey ran its faithful course. Since this movie doesn't have a U.S. release, I have to settle for a blurry VCD version although the English subtitle in the movie is much better than other Japanese VCD movies.