Kwaidan is an anthology of Japanese ghost stories, or rural legends if you will. The film features four stories of varying length, that are not so much scary, as creepy. Kobayashi creates a somber, and unsettling mood that pervades over the entire work.
The stories of a Samurai being repaid for the wronging of his first wife, a woodcutter's brush with a doomed soul in the snow, a young blind monk's musical performance for the dead, and the consumption of a soul in a cup of tea, all boil down to very basic ghost stories that would be familiar to any culture. No translation is needed for scenes of waking up next to a corpse, or suddenly finding your companions to be ghosts. These are primal fears.
The stories themselves being pretty basic campfire fodder, what elevates the film are the sets and sound design. Kwaidan was shot entirely in the studio which allowed immense control, and precise decoration. Every frame is filled with beautiful imagery that helps to unsettle a viewer. Whether it be a mysterious cloud on the horizon of a snow storm that looks quite like a huge gazing eye, or the fog enshrowded cemetary that protects a ghoulish royal court, every single set is so lavish, dense and gorgeous that I often found myself ignoring the plot, and simply staring at the backgrounds.
Kobayashi is a true master of Japanese cinema. Kwaidan may be of his less ambitious, and more commercial works, but it no less shows his masterful hand. It's a damm creepy movie, that is beautiful too. Either one is reason to give it a shot.