The Grand Illusion

After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted. This version of KWAIDAN is the original three-hour cut, never released in the United States until 2015.

Part of our annual horror series All Monsters Attack!

In Japanese with English subtitles.

“One of the peaks of the Japanese cinema during its golden era, and one of the most superbly atmospheric supernatural films ever produced in any country… Above all, Kwaidan is a stunning visual experience, best seen in a theater for full impact, as Kobayashi’s TohoScope images unfold on the screen as if in a dream.” Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Senses of Cinema

“A film of a rare, hermetic beauty, full of ethereal images and errant ideas that will haunt the mind… cinema at its most unnerving and awe-inspiring.” Anton Bitel, Little White Lies