Country Delights – Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Vol. 2

More Japanese Weird Tales

After enjoying the first volume in this series, Tales of Old Edo – Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Vol. 1, I was eager to read volume two. While I was quite familiar with many of the tales of old Edo, I didn’t know what to expect from “Country Delights.” There are a few famous names here, and some stories I know, but most of the book was new territory. And, as promised by the title, delightful.

As with “Tales of Old Edo,” Kurodahan Press assembled a collection of classics and modern authors, of the ultra-famous and the not-so-much. Some of the authors will be familiar to anyone with even the most casual acquaintance with Japanese literature—like Natsume Soseki (Botchan), also also known as “that guy on the old 1,000 yen bill,” Izumi Kyoka (Japanese Gothic Tales), and Yanagita Kunio (The Legends of Tono) who almost single-handedly created Japanese folklore studies. Many of the authors I had never heard of, but that didn’t mean their stories were any less fascinating. In fact, in the later stories it was interesting to watch the waning influence of Edo-period storytelling and seeing obvious Lovecraft-influences slowly creep in.

There are nine stories in total in “Country Delights,” and one short comic. In his introduction, Robert Weinberg suggests that you read all of the stories before reading Higashi Masao’s introduction, which I heartily agree with. There are lots of surprises here that you don’t want spoiled. Most of the stories are fairly short, and the longest, “Midnight Encounters, (1960)” runs ninety-four pages. The oldest story is Izumi Kyoka’s “Sea Daemons (1906)” and the most recent is “Reunion (1993)” by Takahashi Katsuhiko.

As with “Tales of Old Edo,” none of the stories in here could be classified as “horror.” These are weird fiction, more unsettling that shocking. Most make use of traditional settings and Japanese ghosts and monsters, but some favor exotic locales.

My favorite story in “Country Delights” was “Sea Daemons,” which is no surprise as I really like Izumi Kyoka. This story of a poor coastal fishing village and their battle with something from the dark of the ocean was chilling and sad. “The Kudan’s Mother, (1968)” by Komatsu Sakyo was also intriguing, telling the story of a cursed house during the firebombing of WWII. “The Clock Tower of Yon, (1961)” had the most Lovecraftian feel, with the exotic French setting and the hordes of Tibetan cats. I know there is a sub-genre of Lovecraft-inspired Japanese fiction, but this is the first story I have read in that vein. Not every story was a winner. I thought both “The Mummy (1942)” and the comic “Only You (1992)” were lackluster.

The translations in “Country Delight” were a marked improvement over the previous volume. Whereas some of the translations in “Tales of Ole Edo” felt stilted and academic, the translations in “Country Delight” were just pure reading pleasure. I caught a few mistakes, and reading the “Legends of Tono” translations was a big awkward as I have translated those myself and know the different choices I made. But on the whole you could just disappear into the story and forget you were even reading a translation.

Overall this was another great volume from Kurodahan Press, and I am looking forward to volume three.

Tales of Old Edo – Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Vol. 1

Ancient and Modern Japanese Weird Tales

Tales of Old Edo – Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Vol. 1

As someone who is no stranger to Japanese weird tales—I have an MA in Japanese Folklore and run a website where I translate stories based on the hyakumonogatari kaidankai ghost-story game—I found “Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan” to be a unique treat and a wonderful experience. I have a whole library of books in this genre, both in Japanese and in translated English; but this is the only one I have that combines ancient weird tales with modern writers’ takes on the classic storytelling style.

The important subtitle of this book is “Tales of Old Edo,” not “Tales from Old Edo.” Along with stories by the great authors of Edo period weird tales, like Lafcadio Hearn (Kwaidan: Ghost Stories and Strange Tales of Old Japan), Ueda Akinari (Ugetsu Monogatari), and Okamoto Kido (“Strange Tales of Blue Frog Temple”), there are modern masters like Miyabe Miyuki (Crossfire) and Kyogoku Natsuhiko (The Summer of the Ubume). Some of these tales I knew very well, particularly the old classics. Some of these I was reading for the first time. But whether I knew them or not, I found the mix of old and new to be fresh and appealing.

None of the entries here could be mistaken for horror. Although populated with ghosts and monsters, Japan’s storytelling tradition lends more towards strange experiences and odd phenomena than chills and thrills. Kurodahan Press was very careful in choosing the term “uncanny tales” for the title. There are nine stories collected in total, along with two essays on Japanese weird fiction, a short manga story, and an introduction by Robert Weinberg. Each of the stories has a different translator, some of whom do a better job than others, and which affects the quality of the stories.

I loved the 1959 story “Through the Wooden Gate,” by Yamamoto Shugoroi. There supernatural undertones are subtle, and much of the story must be read between the lines. I also enjoyed the 1938 “Visions of Beyond,” by Koda Rohan which takes you through page after page of various fishing techniques before finally getting to the story of the haunted fishing pole. Miyabe Miyuki’s 2000 “The Futon Room” was a touching story of sisterly love, and Kyogoku Natsuhiko’s “Three Old Tales of Terror” where a perfect recreation of the Edo style hyakumonogatari tales that were designed to be short and told around candlelight. I don’t know that I would have chosen Lafcadio Hearn’s “In a Cup of Tea” out of all of his available stories, but it is a good one that I hadn’t read for awhile. I liked the inclusion of Hearn’s essay “The Value of the Supernatural in Literature.”

The translations in “Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan” where never bad, although there was variation in quality. Some of the translations seemed stiff and formal; more like an academic exercise than a book designed for pleasure reading. I spotted a few mistakes here and there, worked my way through a few clumsy turns of phrase that must have sounded better in Japanese than in re-worked English. But on the whole the various translators did a good job, and I found myself forgetting I was reading a work in translation and just disappeared into the story.

Kurodahan Press has a series of three books in this series, and I intend to pick them all up. The only disappointment is this is one of those books I would have loved to have participated in the making of not just in the reading of! Great stuff all around.

Japanese Ghost Stories

Tattoo artists interpretation of traditional  Japanese ghost stories

Japanese Ghost Stories (English and Japanese Edition)

Gomineko’s “Japanese Ghost Stories” is essentially an art book. The project is the brainchild of Gomineko Press’ Crystal Morey who created a contest for her largely-tattoo artist customer base; she would present a traditional Japanese ghost story, that her customers would make artwork for, with the winner getting some free books. After the first of these contests proved successful, she followed up with another, and then a gallery show, and then finally this book showing the results.

There are four stories in this volume: “Ushino Toki Mairi” with a candle wearing woman pounding nails in a tree to gain divine vengeance for an untrue love. “Okiku,” one of Japan’s most famous ghost stories involving an abused serving girl and ten heirloom plates. “Kiyohime,” also known as “The Legend of Doji Temple” which tells the story of a woman whose forbidden lust overtakes her and she transforms into a serpent. And “Shitakiri Suzume,” known in English as “The Tongue-cut Sparrow,” involving a bird, a greedy wife, and a big box of demons. All of the text is in both English and Japanese.

Each story is more of an explanation of the story rather than the story itself. It is more of a one-page recap that tells the gist of the story and some of its variations. Each story is then followed by the customer submissions, between 15-29 per story. Each submission is a full-page, full-color illustration usually in the tattoo-style that attempts to get the feel of the story in a single piece of art.

The art varies greatly in quality, if not in style. To give you an idea of the caliber, far too many of these artists list their home page as MySpace or DevientArt) For a contest like this, I was surprised at how many of the submissions resembled each other. Because all of the artists hold the same job – they are all tattoo artists – most of the works are done in that thick-lined stained-glass style that is suitable for tattoos. I like that style of artwork. I like tattoos. But I would have liked to have seen more creativity in the interpretations. At least one submission came right off the promotional artwork for Ju-on, and a few more were almost direct copies of famous ukioyo-e prints of the same stories.

There are some standout pieces. Texas-artist Jon Claeton’s Old West interpretation of “Okiku” was inspired. Sergi Besa from Brighton, UK did an old-school sailor tattoo of “Ushino Toki Mairi” with a sweet face and rosy cheeks that was a nice change from the blood-weeping hags everyone else drew. Sara Alonso, also of Brighton, UK, did a very beautifully composed piece of “Okiku,” with each of the nine plates being a scene from the story. Horimasa, from Gunma, Japan, did a fantastically simple and effective painting of “Okiku” with nice striking reds and blacks. All in all, “Okiku” seemed to inspire the best submissions.

But ultimately the forgettable and the mediocre outweigh the good stuff. Crystal Morey had a good idea, and I applaud her efforts. I would have personally liked to have seen more balance between the stories and the art, with an attempt made to tell the stories, not just tell about them. A bit more quality-control on the art would have gone a long way as well, with fewer, better selections making for a stronger book.

The Legends of Tono: 100th Anniversary Edition

One of the classics of Japanese folklore

The Legends of Tono: 100th Anniversary Edition

Much of what we know of Japanese folklore might have been lost forever if it were not for two authors, Lafcadio Hearn and Kunio Yanagita. Both were avid collectors of the mysterious tales of weird and imaginative creatures that were passed down as oral folklore but never written down. Both did their work at the start of the Meiji era, a time when, in the name of modernization, the government and scholars of Japan were actively attempting to wipe out the beliefs and superstitions of previous eras which were thought to be embarrassing to a country entering the modern age.

“The Legends of Tono” (Japanese title “Tono Monogatari”) is the most famous of Yanagita’s works, collecting the narratives of the small town of Tono in Iwate prefecture, as told to him by local resident and storyteller Kizen Sasaki. The stories collected in “The Legends of Tono” include some of Japan’s most famous monsters like the kappa and the child-ghosts zashiki-warashi. Along with Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories And Studies Of Strange Things and Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight and Rain, “The Legends of Tono” is one of the most classic and important books on Japanese folklore.

A surprisingly small book for one that carries so much weight, there are exactly one hundred and nineteen legends spread out over fifty-eight pages. Many of these legends are only a sentence in length, and often there are three to four different legends on a page. Some of them are a bit longer, maybe a paragraph or two, and typical of Japanese folklore they do not tell a complete story but rather just describe an odd circumstance or the history behind some strange stone or tree local to a certain village. Many explain customs of the time in Tono village, and the movements of household gods and festivals. Some are sexual cautionary tales, and other frights designed to keep people in their proper place for fear of punishment. Yanagita’s style was to record the legends in a straight-forward manner without decoration and little elaboration.

However, packed inside Yanagita’s short sentences is an ocean of depth, one that is almost impossible to know just through a quick reading. Indeed, in Japanese there are annotated versions of “The Legends of Tono” that go on for four hundred pages or more digging into each of Yanagita’s terse sentences as if mining for gold. His simple and direct writing style would become a massive influence on author Mishima Yukio (The Sailor who fell from grace with the sea) who considered “The Legends of Tono” to be the finest-written work of Japanese literature.

There was more to “The Legends of Tono” than simple folklore gathering and writing however. This was a book with a political agenda. Yanagita was protesting against official histories at the time, which concentrated only on the rich and powerful and ignored the lives and hopes of the millions of poor peasants who, in the words of someone with similar inclinations, “did most of the living and dying” in Japan. Yanagita did not want to see the stories of these people lost to the tides of time, and so he gathered them up and wrote them down for future generations.

This “100th Anniversary Edition” celebrates the original 1910 publication of “The Legends of Tono.” It reprints the 1975 translation prepared by Yanagita-scholar Ronald A. Morse. Morse includes a preface to the 100th Anniversary Edition, the original forward to the 1975 edition written by Richard M. Dorson who had actually worked and studied with Yanagita, and a new introduction discussing the relevance of Yanagita’s work today. These three introductions add a bit of bulk to the publication, and some background on Yanagita and his relevance.

Morse also includes a “Guide to English-Language Writings on Kunio Yanagita and “The Legends of Tono”” in the back of the book for those interested in pursuing further study on the man and his works.

Ju-on: Shiroi Roujo

2.0 of 5 Stars:  Beware the basketball wielding grandmother!

Ah “Ju-On”…perhaps it is long time past to say goodbye.  Although the first film remains one of the classics of the J-Horror genre, with each subsequent release there remains less and less to scrape off the bottom of the barrel.

This film “Ju-On: Shiroi Roujo” (English translation “Ju-On: The White Old Lady”) is part of a two-part release with “Ju-On: Kuroi Shojo” “Ju-On: Black Young Girl”).  They were produced in honor of the tenth anniversary of the original “Ju-On” V-Cinema release often known in English as “Ju-On: The Curse.”  Although since that film was released in 2000, the tenth anniversary is a little bit early.

Really, this film has only the barest of connection with the original series.  The “Ju-On” house is present, and Toshio pops up with his cat grown just to let us know what series we are in, but that is about it.   

The story follows the son of a business man who fails to pass his critical bar exam and then murders his entire family, leaving behind a cassette tape after he hangs himself.  On the tape is the mysterious female voice of a young girl saying “Go…go now…” Into this story comes Akane (played by nineteen-year old J-Idol Minami Akina) a highschool girl with supernatural senses who keeps catching glimpses of her old schoolgirl chum Mirai, who was molested and murdered when then were young. (Any guesses as to whose voice is the mystery girl on the tape?). 

The plot for “Ju-On: Shiroi Roujo” is really disjointed, although it follows some of the standard rules of “whoever enters this house dies.”   A small side scene has a poor guy delivering Christmas Cakes show up at the house, only to return home and murder his girlfriend (played by adult video actress Mihiro in a tiny bit part.  For the record, Mihiro takes off none of her clothes and has sex with absolutely nobody, which seems a waste of her talents in a film like this.  I think I will stick to the other Mihiro films in my collection.)  The main haunting ghost, and titular character, is the grandmother who was murdered by her grandson in the big family slaying, who likes to freak people out by tossing a basketball around before showing up in a bad white fright-mask and killing them.

Directed by Miyake Ryuta, who was apparently hand-picked by “Ju-On” czar Shimizu Takeshi, “Ju-On: Shiroi Roujo” is barely passable as something to watch.  Miyake imported his “basketball wielding grandmother ghost” from a previous effort of his, a short segment on “Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro” (“Tales of Terror from Tokyo and All Over Japan”) in an attempt to put something of his own stamp on the series.  The special effects work here is just terrible, and the ghost grandma comes off looking like someone wearing the “Ghost Face” mask from the “Scream” series, eliciting laughs rather than frights whenever she shows up.

Not that it was a complete waste.  At about an hour long, “Ju-On: Shiroi Roujo” isn’t too much of an investment to watch and there are a few nice scenes.  The dismembered head in a bag in the back of a taxi was a nice touch.   Minami Akina is nice to look at, and there are worst ways to spend an hour.  If your expectations are low, you might have some fun with this film.

I have heard that the second film, “Ju-On: Kuroi Shojo” is the better of the pair, but I haven’t had the chance to see that yet.

The Yotsuya Kwaidan or O’Iwa Inari: Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 1

A unique version of the familiar legend

“Yotsuya Kaidan” is unquestionably THE Japanese ghost story, the most famous and most instantly recognizable story from a very haunted culture. There are numerous filmed versions of the tale (about 60 different versions or so, most likely more) and uncountable written versions and translations.

This 1916 version, adapted by James S. De Benneville as the first of his two-part Tales of the Tokugawa, Vol 2, is different from the most familiar versions. In his introduction, De Benneville says that the story he relates was told to him by a storyteller in the Yoshiwara pleasure district, named Shunkintei Ryou. Shunkintei himself claims that this was the true account of the legend, and that it could only be told now some ninety one years after the original performance in 1825 of the play by Tsuruya Nanboku IV.Of course, as a professional storyteller who claimed to know the true, secret version of Japan’s most famous ghost story, Shunkintei’s claim should be taken with a grain of salt.

This version of the tale starts not with Oiwa and Iemon, but with their respective parents. The father of Iemon is responsible for the death of Oiwa’s father, leaving their children with the inherited burden of karma. (This piece was clearly lifted by Shunkintei from Sanyutei Encho’s 1859 story “Reckoning at Kasane Swamp” recently filmed as Kaidan.) Oiwa is given in marriage to Iemon, both of them unaware of their connection. Iemon, a rouge and a scoundrel, married Oiwa for her money and estate, but longs for a way to rid himself of his wife so that he may marry the prostitute Ohana with whom he has long been in love. Scheme builds on scheme, allies are recruited and Oiwa’s downfall is plotted. Just when all the conspirators are congratulating each other, however, Oiwa rises again in terrible vengeance.

There are several differences from this translation and the classic “Yotsuya Kaidan.” Aside from the elements added from “Kasane Swamp,” the Oiwa in this story has always been miserably ugly, so much so that her nickname is “the Obake” or “the Goblin.” Although she is rich, she is far to hideous to attract a husband and even the scum Iemon must be lured by trickery. Many of the familiar side-characters are also missing. There is no Naosuke lusting for Oiwa’s sister Osode, and partnering with Iemon in murder. There is no Oume in love with Iemon, and Ito Kehei is only interested in the downfall of the Tamiya house, and not his daughter’s happiness.

Probably the biggest difference is the lack of Oiwa’s vengeful ghost herself. As this was written in 1917, during the Meiji Restoration and not the Edo Period like the original kabuki play, it was a time when Japan was somewhat ashamed of its supernatural past feeling it was primitive and unenlightened as compared to science-minded Western culture. This shows in that Oiwa’s hauntings are almost never played as a straight ghost story, but almost as transference of psychological guilt felt by those who helped in her downfall. Is it the real ghost of Oiwa crying for vengeance, or simply the guilty consciences of those who have done her wrong? Blood is spilled, and it is gory, but the pale face of Oiwa almost never shows her face.

As for the translation, I don’t know how good De Benneville’s grasp of Japanese was, but the translation is rough and in an odd style. The long vowel is handled in a way I have never seen before, putting the extra vowel in brackets such as Encho[u] or To[u]kyo. Until you get used to this style it is distracting to read. Also, several words that De Benneville apparently didn’t know he simply left in Japanese, which is fine if you are a Japanese speaker yourself but might frustrate some without abilities in the language.

Apartment 1303

4.0 out of 5 stars The haunted apartment motif

When dealing with genre films, in this case the Japanese yurei, it isn’t really important to judge how original they are, but it how well they riff on the established tropes. All zombie flicks have the walking dead, but some walk with a jauntier step than others. All vampire flicks have blood suckers, but some pack a little more bite. All yurei flicks are going to have long-haired, white faced girls, and what matters is where you go from there.

“Apartment 1303” isn’t a great film, but it doesn’t try to be. It is a simple haunted-apartment story, with no intention other than offering some entertainment and some chills, both of which it does just fine. The premise is actually a real and ongoing situation in Japan. When there is some known ghostly activity in an apartment, or where a suicide or murder has been committed, the rent becomes super-cheap although the rental agent often doesn’t tell you why. Just by the price of the apartment you know something is going on.

Director Oikawa Ataru is best known for the Tomie series, and I believe this was his first venture into the yurei genre. He handles the conventions well, and maintains a nice spooky atmosphere for most of the film. Lead actress Hatsune Eriko (Uzumaki) handles her horror-duties well, and it is nice to see her pop up again. The movie derails a little bit when Oikawa goes for the special effects shots rather than the atmosphere. Up until one specific scene, he had kept his camera tight and claustrophobic, making the best use of the unseen and dark corners, until the sudden grand reveal brings everything a little bit too much into the spotlight.

If you are in the mood for a pretty straight forward genre flick, and just want some easy chills, then “Apartment 1303” has what you need. Of course, it isn’t on the same level as Ring or Ju-on, but comparing every single Japanese yurei film to those would be like watching every single ghost film and saying “It was good, but not as good as Kubrick’s The Shining. Not every flick needs to be a masterpiece to be enjoyable, and this one is good enough.

Retribution

4.0 out of 5 stars The Woman in Red “Retribution” (Japanese title “Sakebi” meaning “Scream”) is a classic yurei tale. Director Kurosawa Kiyoshi has decided to draw within the lines, keeping all the elements of this traditional Japanese monster, while giving the film some of his personal touches. Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse) has proved time and time again that he is a force to be reckoned with. Many of his films fall within the horror genre, and they all carry Kurosawa’s heavy tone. “Retribution” is no different. Even while playing within the confines of tradition, the world-weary nature of his characters, the idea that even the best of us somehow deserves what is inevitably coming, all comes through strongly. Kurosawa has a vision with his films, and one that I enjoy very much. The story of “Retribution” is a horror/detective pairing. A police officer Yoshioka (Played by Kurosawa Kiyoshi regular Yakusho Koji), is called to the scene of a grisly murder. A body has been found, lungs full of seawater, and all signs point to Yoshioka being the murderer. At first he is tempted to hide clues, but since he knows he did not commit the crime he keeps investigating. More murders follow, all involving the same MO, all committed by people who should not be committing murders. Into this strange mix are two women, a haunting Woman in Red (Hazuki Riona) who seems to appear and disappear, and Yoshioka’s girlfriend Harue (Konishi Manami) who tries to help Yoshioka but finds herself constantly being pushed away and pulled closer. “Retribution” is a very good movie, although not a particularly scary one. The film concentrates on mood and story more than chills, and although there are a few shocking moments for the most part the pace is quiet. With every Kurosawa Kiyoshi film I see, I love his style of horror more and more. It is psychological and supernatural horror all at the same time, with recriminations for society’s growing coldness and isolated nature. The DVD for “Retribution” has a few good extras, including a “Making of.”, an interview with Kurosawa Kiyoshi, and an Alternate Ending and a special “Making of the Alternate Ending.”

Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan: Kaidan, Akinari, Ugetsu Monogatari

One of the best resources on kaidan ever published

I first encountered these articles in the academic journal of Asian Folklore Studies, when I was writing my Master’s thesis on yurei, the Japanese ghost. The two main articles, “The Emergence of Kaidan-shu” and “The Appeal of Kaidan” formed the backbone of my research, and I am thrilled to see them collected here in book form.

Noriko T. Reider probably knows more about kaidan, Japanese strange stories, than any other person around. When I was doing research for my MA, I read through literally hundreds of books, both in English and Japanese, and it was Reider’s articles that I kept coming back too. She has a way of writing that is concise and readable, academic without drowning in its own language like books like Civilization and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan which is so dense as to be almost unreadable.

“Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan, Kaidan, Akinari, Ugetsu Monogatari” has four chapters, each with a different focus. “The Emergence of Kaidan-shu” is a history lesson on from its beginnings in early folktales to the kaidan-boom of the Edo period. Next, “Belief in the Supernatural in the Edo Period” discusses the attitudes towards the supernatural in Edo period Japan and how they created the atmosphere in which the kaidan genre could arise. “The Appeal of Kaidan” discusses people’s fascination with gory and grotesque stories, and what is it that drives people to tales of the unknown. The last chapter, “Akinari and Kaidan Ugetsu Monogatari” discusses in depth Ueda Akinari, author of Tales of Moonlight and Rain, possibly the best kaidan book ever written.

While the pure history of the first few chapters is interesting, Reider’s focus on the concept of obsession and the role it plays in Akinari’s celebrated book brings her collection to a higher level. She clearly has a passion for Akinari’s work, and it shows as she dissects the nine tales in Akinari’s book, looking into the driving nature of each character to focus on and pursue what obsesses them.

There is a dearth of good material writing on the fascinating world of Japanese kaidan, and it is a real shame. But of what is available, Reider’s work is definitely the cream of the crop, and if I was a professor grading a paper that discussed Japanese supernatural in any way, and Reider’s name and “Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan, Kaidan, Akinari, Ugetsu Monogatari” was not in the bibliography, you would need a pretty good excuse to get a passing grade.

Kaidan

 

5.0 out of 5 stars The Kasane ga Fuchi legend

At the very start, it is best to advise that “Kaidan” is not a typical entry in the genre that has become known as J-Horror. The expectation will be there, as director Nakata Hideo (Ring, Death Note 3: L, Change the World) is someone whose name has become almost synonymous with the genre. He is the one who took Japan’s long tradition of ghostly storytelling and brought it to the world, introducing Westerners for the first time to creatures like yurei and onryo. However, after a sojourn in the Hollywood system filming the English-language Ring Two, Nakata returned to his native country and directed a beautiful tribute to the horror legends that were the foundation of his success.

“Kaidan” is a film with an impressive pedigree. Written originally in 1825 by legendary storyteller Sanyutei Encho, the “Kaidan Kasane ga Fuchi” story has been a staple of Japanese horror in various media and incarnations. It was first filmed in 1926 by equally-legendary filmmaker Mizoguchi Kenji (Ugetsu), and then several times more over the years including a 1957 version by Japan’s first genre-horror director Nakagawa Nobuo. Nakata’s version “Kaidan” is roughly the sixth time the Kasane ga Fuchi story has appeared on film.

While others have played with the story a bit, Nakata does a fairly direct translation of Encho’s original version. In a bit of inspired genius, Nakata even has Living National Treasure Ichiryusai Teisui perform the opening monologue, a fitting homage to the stories beginning as a piece of rakugo storytelling. From there, we are treated to a classic story of inherited karma, of the sins of the father passing on to the son and daughter, of a dark swamp that hides many secrets and just some good old fashioned ghostly revenge. Encho’s stories, told on the cusp of the Meiji era when Japanese audiences first encountered stories like “Romeo and Juliet,” have always been tinged with a certain romantic sadness. His mix of ghostly elements with sorrowful love stories define Encho’s style, and Nakata skillfully wrings every heart-wrenching and heart-stopping moment from the Kasane ga Fuchi story.

Along with realizing Encho’s story, Nakata has also paid and obvious homage to director Kobayashi Masaki (Kwaidan, Samurai Rebellion) both with certain visual elements and the overall pacing. Kobayashi’s films have always seemed like a keg of dynamite with a long, long fuse, where the drama slowly and patiently builds over the film’s beginning and middle leading up to a massive explosive ending.

History and homages alone do not make a good film, however, and fortunately Nakata has also put a strong cast into his film. The lead role, Shinkichi, is played by famed kabuki actor Onoe Kikunosuke V, whose striking face was last seen in the 2006 film “The Inugami Clan.” As an onnagata, one who typically plays women’s roles in the all-male kabuki theater, Onoe carries himself with a certain sensitivity that helps sell the character of the cursed Shinkichi, doomed to attract women and then witness their deaths. Veteran actress Kuroki Hitomi (From Nakata film Dark Water) plays Oshiga, Shinkichi’s older lover and the woman whose curse he bears. Inoue Mao, a popular junior idol and star of the live-action “Boys over Flowers” series and Kitaro movie, is beautiful and captivating as the young Ohisa who lures Shinkichi away. Seto Asuka (Death Note) drips sex appeal in her villain’s role as the prostitute Oshizu. And somehow, Nakata managed to track down one of the scariest babies I have ever seen.

It is hard for me to find flaws with “Kaidan” because this is exactly what I personally love in a film. I devour the old Edo and Meiji period Japanese strange stories, I love haunting ghost stories that don’t rely on cheap shocks and jumps but instead are atmospheric and “spooky” rather than scary. If I had to find fault, I would say that Nakata relies too much on CG effects in two scenes in particular, and they are a little jarring. I am a fan of CG used effectively in ghost stories, such as in the The Others, but I find that all that carefully built atmosphere and tension can be ruined by a badly placed CG snake wriggling around. Some of the characters are not as developed as well as they could be, and some plot lines seem to frizzle out rather than be resolved, but I don’t mind that too much. The DVD itself is disappointing. This is a bare-boned presentation that should have supported a short documentary on the Kasane ga Fuchi story and its origins and evolution.

It would probably be better to think of “Kaidan” as a Gothic film rather than a Horror story. That better suits this kind of romance-tinged ghost story that is a class of Japanese storytelling. Nakata Hideo has filmed the story beautifully, and I personally would love to see more films made in this vein.