Masaki Kobayashi’s brilliant Kwaidan is one of the greatest movies ever made. A series of folktales told through an overarching folktale, Kwaidan is essentially the movie I would’ve dreamed of after seeing Hara-kiri for the first time. “Man, imagine if this guy made a horror film.” And this is the result. I wouldn’t call it classically scary, but it is unnerving and, more than anything else, gorgeously shot and directed. The hand-painted backgrounds are stunning; the costume design, the framing, the pseudo ‘stage direction,’ it’s all completely and totally magnificent. Across the tales are heartbreak, yearning, loss, and regret—the perfect potpourri for a director like Kobayashi. I adore this film and could could watch it on a loop.