Kevin's Watch

Years ago, late at night, I caught a film on PBS. It was black and white, made in Japan in like the 30's. It was an amazing film. The title was in Japanese characters, so I never learned the name but maybe someone out there will know it because I'd love to see it again.

A potter is firing clay pots in a kiln when the village is attacked by warriors. Everyone evacuates to the forest until they have finished looting and pillaging. When the potter returns he finds that though untended, the pots in the kiln are the best quality, so he decides to take them to a large town a few days' journey away.

While there he is lured to the home of a beautiful noblewoman who entices him to stay for some time, forgetting his wife and children in town. A long time later he remembers them and goes looking for them in the town, but the people there deny that anyone is living in the big house on the mountain, that the noblewoman died centuries ago. When he returns he finds that the house is a ruin, and realizes he has been under a spell.

Meanwhile his wife and child give up on him and journey back to their village. Along the way, the wife starves to death. When he returns to his village he finds his house empty and dark, but his child has wandered there from the neighbor's house where he has been staying.

The cinematography was stunning and even though it was in Japanese with subtitles it was a beautiful and harrowing film. From what I understand, the story is a common fairy tale in both Japan and China.

Can anyone help me here?

Having absolutely no idea myself, I thought that posting something on the IMDB trivia boards would be a good idea. I usually don't post there but I have an account and thought it was probably a good idea to try.

www.imdb.com/board/bd0000001/thread/137162183

The tale itself reminds me of stories I'd read in short-story collections of asian tales (I'm pretty sure there's a story w/ similar elements in a Laurence Yep collection, but the guy plays chess instead of falling in with a mistress). And I'm pretty sure there are European tales which also have similar elements. But the bandit attack at the start and the reunion of the father and son at the end are unique elements I'm not familiar with. So...if you find out anything, tell me xD

EDIT: When I get back home, sometime after next weekend, I have pretty much nothing on my plate for a week. If I am feeling extraordinarily enterprising I will trull the wikipedia list of japanese movies to see if I can find a match. Most of them don't have on-site links to summaries of the story, but there's probably summaries somewhere online, and there's a chance they'll be in english.

Easy That's arguably the first ever Japanese horror film made: Ugetsu Monogatari, directed by Mizoguchi Kenji, filmed in 1953.

The title translates as: Tales of Moonlight and Rain.

This is an absolute classic in the genre, and hailed by many as one of the best ghost stories ever made. If you loved this, I'd strongly suggest watching the absolutely stunning Kwaidan (Stories and Studies of Things Strange), based off the folk tale studies of Lafcadio Hearn. Kwaidan is an amazing film, probably the best horror film ever produced in Japan, and certainly one of the best films ever made.

Hope that was of help. It's not a hard film to find, so I hope you end up enjoying it all over.

Thank you, Montresor.
Deer's description raised my curiosity as well.
I'll have to look for it.

Montresor wrote:Hope that was of help. It's not a hard film to find, so I hope you end up enjoying it all over.

Well in that case, I suppose you don't deserve a "Thanks" for your work.

*gives one anyway*

Read Deer's post, and thought, "Gotta email Montresor. Pretty sure he'll know what it is." Heh.

Fist and Faith wrote:Read Deer's post, and thought, "Gotta email Montresor. Pretty sure he'll know what it is." Heh.

We think a lot alike, Fist.

Thanks so much, Montresor!! And thanks for the recommendations also.

When I think of the long shot at the end of the film, starting with the wife cooking over a fire inside the house, panning full circle to the guy coming back to his village at night and back to the house which is now dark and empty and only the little boy who has wandered there from the neighbor's and fallen asleep, I still get chills. No CGI or anything, just an amazing and bone-chilling shot.

Will have to track this and Kwaidan down, sounds excellent.

Oooo...those circular shots, when done in an asian film, seem to be soo much more impactful, while american cin/dirs usually just do it for the art of it. In fact, that's probably my favorite thing about asian cinema - the shots and techniques used to tell the stories are almost never waisted, usually adding to the telling of the story in some fashion. Both Ugetsu and Kwaiden have been on my list for a while...mayhap they's be movin' up on der list'th.
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!!! Ugetsu is...amazing. Chilling...just like was said, chills from that final pull away and the music. Is this the original when it comes to twists? Oooh wow, what a film! It develops slowly, but man the feeling after you've watched the whole thing - astounding!