Chad

Undeadcow

Ok... so who's the joker that suggested a 3+ hour movie for the 'watch a high number of films challenge'?!? This ought to count twice but that would be cheating; "checkmate" you to me. [Seriously I am looking forward to checking out Kwaidan and perhaps ashamed I had not seen it earlier]

DaveyJoe

I was thinking the same thing when the list first came out. At least it's scheduled for a Friday.

jholmes

3 hours and subtitled, so you have to keep your eyes on the screen. :-)
Looking forward to it though. Very highly rated. I have the feeling I saw it once, but can't remember a thing about it, so probably not.

Trevor

Are we sure we haven’t chosen this one before? I swear we’ve had substantial discussion of this film here.

I double-checked and it doesn’t appear to be in any of the subsets or even the all-too-brief monthy horror club, but maybe it was an “unofficial” selection for the Criterion September 30th choice before my begging to make that day officially part of the Challenge paid off?

Oh well, probably just a false memory since most of my Criterion discussion is here, and this film is more memorable that most.

jholmes

Finished it. It's a gorgeous film and an interesting look at the ancient Japanese culture. I felt like I needed to watch it on a day when I had more patience. Felt super long and slow to me today. Glad I watched it though.

DaveyJoe

If anybody likes Samurai flicks I highly recommend Harakiri by the same director. It's another excellent film that I'd put up there with Akira Kurosawa's best samurai films.

omike

I saw the shorter Criterion DVD many years ago but with 20 minutes added I consider this a first time watch. The sets and visual aspects were amazing. I liked all the stories although I did think the third one "Hoichi the Earless" went on a bit too long. My favorite was the second story "The Woman in the Snow". The sets and lighting really set the tone for an eerie tale, especially the eyeballs in the sky (for some reason that really got to me) and the almost garish colors used for some of the outdoor scenes. The snow storm looked great. The twist at the end of this one took me by surprise. Instead of the promised death for breaking the pact which I was expecting, the man's happy life is destroyed and there is a constant threat of death should he not do well by his children. A fate worse than death.

All in all, I'm glad I finally got to see the longer version and in a great looking Criterioin Blu-ray.

Trevor

Watched my Criterion DVD today, but might own the BD buried somewhere. I liked my viewing today enough to re-watch it right away if I find it. Curious how many of the 20 new minutes I’ll notice.

hbsvb

That would be me. 😳

I thought I remembered watching (and enjoying) it in a previous horror challenge, but looking back at previous challenge lists, I watched it during a previous Criterion challenge.

Undeadcow

For the first 'half' of the miniseries I was beginning to suspect that the Japanese also had a thing about women being evil, and that it wasn't just me. One guy's wife is a literal ice queen and the other is vengeful hair - I'm sure there is a scholarly tradition that explains this but if I was a cynic it would seem misogynistic.

The matte painting backgrounds are spectacular; those things must have been giant.

The third segment is overly long, they should have added that time to the snow one instead. Although I liked the snow segment it's never quite clear why the woman does these rules at all (rules she seems to explain then readily bend/break) - it's stylish but I'm probably not high brow enough to 'get it.'

I agree with omike that the snow tale is one of the stronger segments.

jholmes

I agree with you guys that the third segment was way too long. That's where it lost me. I was very engaged for the first two. Agree, too, that the woman in the snow is the best one. The last one was the weakest, I thought.

omike

My memory was also that a whole story was missing from the DVD but when I looked at some reviews to see which one I discovered that "The Woman in the Snow" was cut by the American distributor for the theatrical release (DVD Savant review) but the Criterion DVD was a 161 minute cut which had all four stories. I dug out the DVD and confirmed that. The Blu is 183 minutes.

WillieMLF

Finally had the opportunity to watch the blu. I would highly recommend the commentary. During some of the slow spots, it was really helpful. I was losing the wifey by 2 hours and turned on the commentary and she stayed for the rest. A lot of good stuff here. I've never seen this one, but I really do love the samurai ghost stories (Kuroneko, Onibaba, Yotsuya Kaidan).

DaveyJoe

Ya'll are crazy, Hoichi the Earless is the best segment. Absolutely mesmerizing. . And I say that as a big fan of Tatsuya Nakadai(the star of The Woman of the Snow).

Trevor

I think the first three segments are equally great. Not sure what to think about the fourth. Maybe the BD version has more to flesh this out, but it seems like a light and humorous little coda, perhaps trying to say something about the nature of writing.

wishbone

Very dreamlike, especially the sea battle. I'll have to check out the Blu-ray sometime.