Horror usually makes us think of screams and blood, but Kaidan revolves around refined ghost stories from a forgotten Japan. The films are based on stories by the great writers in the genre. Four mysterious stories. Four outstanding filmmakers.
Japanese national broadcaster NHK asked four Japanese directors to adapt the short stories from the horror classic Kaidan (1964) for TV. Kore-eda Hirokazu (Air Doll), Tsukamoto Shinya (Tetsuo), J-horror pioneer Ochiai Masayuki (Hypnosis) and Lee Sang-Il (Hula Girls) each direct one of the four stories.
The result is not the horror of Ringu or the splatter and gore of The Machine Girl. Here, horror takes the form of jealousy, lust, shame, wrath and regret; emotions with which the characters above all tormet themselves. In The Whistler, a woman is jealous of her younger sister because of love letters she receives. The Nose is the story of a medieval monk who accidentally causes a boy's death. In The Arm, an aging man becomes obsessed by a beautiful young woman, asking if he can borrow one of her arms for a night. In The Days After, a man and a woman are visited by their dead son. But is it really him?