Kobayashi is the most underrated of the classic Japanese directors. Ask most people their favourite from this era and you are far more likely to hear names like Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naurse etc. Despite this, Kobayashi churned out a broad range of masterpieces, covering war epics (
Human Condition), anti-samurai dramas (
Harakiri and
Samurai Rebellion) and even collage-level baseball scouting (
I Will Buy You).
Kwaidan is not my favourite of his films, that honour goes to
Samurai Rebellion, but it is his most visually astounding film. It contains some of the best use of colour I have seen, and this from his first colour work!
Top 3:
 |
| Put hand-painted backdrops together with bold colours in a long shot and you're pretty much guaranteed to win my heart. |
 |
| Eyes in the sky look on through the trees. Really striking imagery. |
 |
| More great imagery here and one of the most iconic images in Japanese cinema. |
The rest:
 |
| Nice composition with the gateway framing the painted backdrop and flora. |
 |
| Very striking colours with the saturated red backdrop mirrored in the flag. |
 |
| More wonderful colours. |
 |
| I really like the set design for the entire film. This is a good example, with the hut hidden away in the foliage. |
 |
| Another favourite shot. |
 |
| Surreal imagery and rising fog. |
No comments:
Post a Comment