Horror anthologies are alive and well in Japan. From books and manga to television and film, the Japanese clearly enjoy their scares in segments. Especially during summer, a season where spirits are said to return to the mortal realm. And many times the literary side of kaidan (ghost stories) entail collections called kaidan-shū, a style of book born from the Edo-period game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (the gathering of 100 supernatural tales). Perhaps the most famous of these kinds of books, on account of its 1964 film adaptation, is Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904) by Yakumo Koizumi/Lafcadio Hearn. Meanwhile, more modern authors have dabbled in or embraced the kaidan-shū format.
Fuyumi Ono, who is known for writing the light novel series Jūni Kokuki, found herself amassing other people’s kaidan over the years. In time, these same accounts — including ones submitted to the magazine Yū — and several others were published as part of a book called Kidan Hyakkei (100 Ghost Stories). Only a tenth of all these tales would then be brought to life on screen in Kidan: Piece of Darkness. Few as they may be, those stories singled out for the 2016 film amount to an eerie, not to mention entertaining anthology.
Kidan: Piece of Darkness works under the guise of truth, seeing as the film’s narrator starts off by saying: “I sometimes receive mysterious letters, on which these stories are based.” That same disembodied voice — one belonging to Yūko Takeuchi instead of Ono herself — is heard every step of the way. Or rather, every chapter. Nevertheless, the author’s unidentified proxy is never too intrusive; she clarifies and provides additional details on occasion, and her contributions often serve as bookends for each tale. Unlike the storyteller in a round of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, though, the narrator here is more than a messenger of the weird and macabre. Her presence is intended to give Kidan a sense of credibility even when the segments are anything but credible.
Image: In the “The Overtaking” segment of Kidan: Piece of Darkness, a female ghost appears in the characters’ side-view mirror.
Up until recent times, horror anthology (or portmanteau) films were frequently helmed by a lone director, whereas today’s offerings tend to be more of a collaborative effort. Kidan is similar, although not because the film is stitched together from preexisting material (otherwise known as a “frankenthology”). Multiple filmmakers of varying backgrounds take part here; Mari Asato, Hiroki Iwasawa, Eisuke Naitō, Yoshihiro Nakamura, Hajime Ohata, and Kōji Shiraishi all direct as well as write. That many hands on deck indeed leads to an inconsistent presentation, however, it is never to the point of distraction. One might even say the variety helps keep viewers on their toes. Kidan is also not as obviously low in budget as a number of other Japanese anthologies from previous years. The better than usual and sometimes even cinematic production values make the film’s one-night-only theatrical screening more valid.
With ten tales to tell, Kidan does not have a second to spare during its 100-minute runtime. Hence the lack of a proper framing story. Yoshihiro Nakamura, writer of Dark Water (2002) and narrator of the ongoing Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video franchise, kicks things off with the fleeting yet amusing cold-opener “The Overtaking.” This mood-setter suggests a creepy-fun vibe that comes and goes throughout the film’s remainder. The four thrillseekers in this prelude are the only characters in search of the uncanny; their nocturnal encounter with a roadside specter was the undesirable outcome of an agnostic ghost hunt. Everyone else from here on out is taken by total surprise in their run-ins with the strange and unexplained.
After a curtain-raiser worthy of a chuckle more than a chill, Kidan goes straight into its most frightening segments: “Shadow Man” by Mari Asato (Fatal Frame). The first of Asato’s consecutive contributions is a dramatic shift in tone for the film; this story of a grandmother’s otherworldly intruder is agonizing at parts. Diegetic silence crescendos into a sinister commentative score as the eponymous character intermittently bangs on the outside of a window. So simple yet effective. And whether it was her intention or not, Asato captured that unique feeling innate to sleep paralysis. Then in “Tailing,” the director uses universal horror grammar to communicate the psychological impact of disturbing, real-life imagery. It echoes ghostly sad films like Lake Mungo.
Image: The injured children gather in “Let’s Carry On” from Kidan: Piece of Darkness.
In “Looking Out Together,” Hajime Ohata (ABCs of Death 2: “O is for Ochlocracy”) employs the same inciting incident as the last story, however, the central character’s involvement in said event is direct rather than inadvertent. To one’s surprise and maybe also pleasure, this and Ohata’s ensuing segment “The Woman in Red” each pack a wily sense of humor. They both border on absurdity. The popular tropes of “J-Horror”-style films — namely school students paying dearly for sharing a local urban legend — are squeezed into this second half of Ohata’s involvement, and the ending is a playful stab at the virality within films like Ringu and The Grudge.
The rule of thumb for anthologies is the quality varies from story to story. Kidan is not an exception, but at least its lesser parts are contained to one area of the film. Hiroki Iwasawa, a recurring director in the previously mentioned Noroi no Video franchise, leaves audiences wanting more with “Empty Channel” and “Whose Kid.” The former has the most promise of the two, seeing as a teenage boy listens in on a private conversation broadcast on a vacant radio channel. The spot of grotesque body horror aside, this disappointing tale lacks in payoff. Iwasawa’s second entry, a routine school haunting, leaves no lasting impression.
Eisuke Naitō (Liverleaf) delivers the last of these back-to-back stories, with each one in this block concerning children. “Let’s Carry On” turned out to be the real odd duck in this whole ensemble; one by one, the kiddos clowning around in a cemetery succumb to little but bloody injuries. The requisite supernatural angle is, from the look of things, an entity compelling the tykes to play. To escape this cemetery requires getting hurt. Folks still reeling over the infamous British public information film Apaches will no doubt feel a sudden tinge of déjà vu here as they witness gruesome booboos contracted in real time as well as in plain sight. Despite the deliberate use of repetitiveness, Naitō keeps his audience engaged. “Thief,” on the other hand, is a touch more intriguing, if not irritatingly vague. This penultimate segment about a woman’s disappearing pregnancy raises questions that, like everything else here, remain unanswered.
Image: Students encounter the namesake of “The Woman in Red” from Kidan: Piece of Darkness.
Kōji Shiraishi leaves everyone with a story that is akin to Sadako vs. Kayako in tone and appearance more than anything from his found-footage output. The filmmaker’s fans expecting something along the lines of Noroi: The Curse or other explorations of the occult should fret not because this master of the creeping crawl can still conduct a straightforward scare better than most. The ultimately diverting “Sealed” begins like a “ghost in the home” yarn before veering toward a satisfying “good for her” finish. It is a tidy conclusion elevated by simple but impressive practical effects.
When it seems like Kidan: Piece of Darkness is dipping in quality — in particular the middle portion — it picks up again and ends on a good note. It can even be said that the final stretch of segments is better than the entirety of other newer anthologies. Admittedly the best stories could have been saved for last, yet viewers always need an incentive to continue watching. Overall this is a solid collection of self-contained horrors that well exemplifies one of Japan’s most enduring pastimes.
Watch Kidan: Piece of Darkness on Vudu now.
Horrors Elsewhere is a recurring column that spotlights a variety of movies from all around the globe, particularly those not from the United States. Fears may not be universal, but one thing is for sure — a scream is understood, always and everywhere.
Image: The Japanese poster for Kidan: Piece of Darkness.
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