DAIEI GOTHIC
Revisiting old haunts
Girl-fronted ’90s indie bands are due a comeback.
★★★★✩
EXTRAS ★★★★✩
RELEASED OUT NOW!
1959/1968 | 15 | Blu-ray
Directors Kenji Misumi, Satsuo Yamamoto, Tokuzō Tanaka
Cast Kazuo Hasegawa, Yasuko Nakada, Kojiro Hongo, Miyoko Akaza, Shiho Fujimura, Akira Ishihama
BLU-RAY DEBUT Nearly a quarter of
a century before J-horror blew up in the West thanks to films like Ring, Masaki Kobayashi’s anthology film Kwaidan was an arthouse phenomenon. This box set from Radiance collects three similar takes on classical Japanese ghost stories.
Produced by Daiei Studios, they’re all sophisticated affairs, which take meticulous care in presenting their Edo-era feudal settings. Two are based on tales adapted by Irish-born writer Lafcadio Hearn, whose 1904 collection of the same name was the source for Kwaidan.