Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

I enjoyed "Kaidan", don't get me wrong. But I couldn't like it more simply because the story seemed overly burdened with too many plot elements and was unnecessarily circuitous. I really believe eliminating a few plot points would have actually made for a better film.The story begins unusually. There is a prologue but it's presented like a play--with obvious sets and a narrator. The tale involves a money lender who is viciously murdered by a samurai in order to avoid repaying an honest debt. As the man dies, he curses the man--saying that his child will one day exact revenge on the murderer's family. Believe it or not, none of this is actually needed for the film. When the murderer's son is eventually accorded his fate, it really is NOT because of his father's sins but his own, as Shinkichi is an evil and selfish man in his own right. Plus, he ends up destroying the daughter of the man his father murdered--and for this and his subsequent actions, he really deserved EVERYTHING he deserved. But, enjoyable as it was, it sure took a long time to get to this point. Very stylish, very beautiful but also too many things that got in the way of point A and point B. Good but flawed.

This ghost story is kind of stylish, but frankly, not very scary, which is what I've come to expect from Japanese horror films.The plot is that there's some kind of curse, or maybe multiple curses, which result in the son of a Samurai watching his wives and daughter die horribly, sometimes at his hands when he thinks he's fighting off a ghost.There are a few effective scenes, and couple that look just plain silly.But I'm never really engaged in the characters. I think the problem is the weak protagonist, whose love life is often the cause of disasters. Let's just say, it's always sad to see a guy lose his head over a woman and leave it at that. Literally.

In the Nineteenth Century, the acupuncturist Soetsu lives with his daughters Oshiga and Osano in the Shimousa Province, Japan. He saves some money, becomes a moneylender and lends his money to the samurai Fukami. Three years later, he visits Fukami to collect his money and the samurai kills him and dumps his body in the Kasane Swamp, where bodies disappear and never return to the surface. However, before dying, Soetsu curses Fukami and the samurai goes crazy and kills his wife.Twenty-five years later, Fukami's son Shinkichi, who is a street vendor of tobacco, meets Oshiga, who is a singing teacher in Edo, and they fall in love with each other. Oshiga is older than Shinkichi and financially supports him. She becomes infamous in Edo and when her student Ohisa flirts with Shikichi, she becomes jealous and decides to give no more classes to her. Shinkichi decides to leave Oshiga and move to his homeland Hanyu with Ohisa. Oshiga has an argument with Shinkichi and he hits her face with the Bachi of her Shamisen. Oshiga has an infection in her face and dies; however, she curses Shinkichi and promises that she will haunt and take to the grave any woman that he loves. "Kaidan" is a great Japanese ghost story about deadly jealousness, curse and doomed love. This stylized slow-paced film combines romance, drama and supernatural genres with a magnificent cinematography. The romance between Oshiga and Shinkichi in Edo shows beautiful locations and the camera work uses angles and movements to show details sometimes in a corner or in another room or space. I believed that Hideo Nakata's "Kaidan" would be a remake of the 1964 Masaki Kobayashi's classic masterpiece, but they are totally different stories. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Maldição do Rio" ("The Curse of the River")

This movie is not at all what I expected. This really isn't an horror movie but one that is a real costume drama, with some supernatural elements in it. So you could say that it's a positive thing that this movie surprises and tries to do something original but unfortunately the end result is a very mixed bag.I can still say that I was really a fan of the movie its look and style. It's really a beautiful looking movie, that at times picks a more surreal look, which enhances the movie its atmosphere. Most of its money and efforts really went into its visuals but I had only wished they had tried to spice up the story a bit more, instead.The movie really didn't had a very engaging story in it and it seemed to be all over the place at times. It besides just isn't a very exciting story, since you're constantly waiting for something good or interesting to happen. Sometimes there does but overall it's far too little to make this movie stand out.Perhaps director Hideo Nakata was simply trying too hard, by putting in far too many different movie elements and genres together. He needs a good movie again desperately, since his last few movies haven't been received too well, though I'm sure he still has plenty of credit left with movies such as the original "Ringu" and "Honogurai mizu no soko kara" under his belt.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/