Kwaidan (movie)

    I've never really seen much of the old japanese movies, but this one has become a new favorite of mine. What I like about this movie is that it's not only telling one story but three in total. Like if someone was reading short stories of these old japanese tales. These three mini movies didn't scare me, but I was blown away by the beautiful visuals that the japanese has to offer. This movie was hard to find, but I'm glad that I found a website that has the movie.

    The story that I liked the best was The Woman of the Snow, it was the second story in the film. In this story, a young man (18 year old) thats an apprentice working with a older man, carrying lots of wood during a snow storm. When the older man is laying on the ground (tired from carrying all that wood in the snow), a woman appears in a white kimono and her face is ice blue. This woman appears and blows cold air on her victims, killing them in there tracks. It is said that she does this do consume their warm blood. When she see's the young man, she doesn't kill him (because he is still young). But she warns him that if he ever told a soul about what he saw (and what she did), she would come and kill him. Years have past and the apprentice has grown to be a man and is married to a beautiful girl and has three children. All is well for this family, but as the years past, the villagers notice that his wife hasn't aged at all (still has the young face when she met him).

     The husband thinks that the woman that he loves s really the snow woman from his past. He doesn't want to believe that, and he does the foolish thing he could do. He told his wife of the snow woman and how she looks like her. At that moment the promise is broken, his wife is the snow woman that killed that man long ago. What I find that was sorta touching is that she still didn't kill him for breaking the promise. She still cares about him and their three children. She makes the decision in leaving him with the children and tell him a new promise that he must keep. If he doesn't take good are of them, if she hears any complaints about him from the children. Then she shall return and kill him. It was in the end part of this story that made me feel that the snow woman really does love her husband and her children. But she must still be that fearful ghost/spirit that takes life from people. When she is gone and the husband leaves the sandals he made for her in the snow. I felt that he doesn't care anymore if she killed people in the past. He loves her and regrets ever breaking the promise.

    The other japanese stories were also good, and each one brought some fear as well as interesting visuals. What i found that all stories have in common, is that that someone is always dies and their is a ghost/ spirit that haunts people. I wish more movies were like these ones. A movie about three of four different stories, not connecting to one another. But a  movie about some short story that can be interesting to watch as well as haunts us in our dreams.