Kwaidan (Criterion Collection)

After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearns collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted. This version of Kwaidan is the originalthree-hour cut, never before released in the United States.