{"id":50252,"date":"2025-10-22T00:18:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=50252"},"modified":"2025-10-22T00:18:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:18:53","slug":"daiei-gothic-volume-2-japanese-ghost-stories-radiance-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/22\/daiei-gothic-volume-2-japanese-ghost-stories-radiance-films\/","title":{"rendered":"Daiei Gothic Volume 2: Japanese Ghost Stories [Radiance Films]\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Three further Japanese gothic takes from Radiance Films. (See review of Volume 1 here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Demon of Mount Oe (aka\u00a0<\/span>Ooe-yama\u00a0Shuten-d\u00f4ji) (1960)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Samurai team-up\u00a0to fight a supernatural creature. This one is a boatload of fun while not feeling all that gothic. Yes, it has gothic moments and some supernatural elements, but\u00a0by about\u00a0the midway point, the film becomes more of a\u00a0kaiju fighting adventure. That being said,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0fun, the monsters are beautiful, old school practical effects that have a ton of charm and\u00a0make\u00a0great foes for the army of samurai fighting them. The restoration on this one is\u00a0downright\u00a0beautiful and helps show the quality of the effects and the work of the wardrobe department on top of\u00a0showcasing\u00a0the good to solid acting from the cast.\u00a0The writing here is old-school and\u00a0just right\u00a0and a whole lot of fun. The acting works\u00a0well and really livens up the whole film. This one\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0feel gothic, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0so entertaining, it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0really matter.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Haunted Castle (aka\u00a0Hiroku\u00a0kaiby\u00f4-den) (1969)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sister of a murdered monk goes the supernatural route when she imbues her spirit into a cat for revenge purposes. This one is a bit nuttier than the other entries in these sets, almost feeling like it could be a predecessor to films like The Cat from the\u00a01990s while being more horror and gothic than science fiction\/comedy. There\u00a0is\u00a0some good creepy moments here but they may not be what one would expect.\u00a0The writing is good, the direction solid and very much of the era, and the acting works really well with the story.\u00a0The restoration looks great on\u00a0Blu-ray\u00a0and the sound is as good as it is going to get.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ghost of Kasane Swamp (Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi) (1970)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A remake of a 1957 film, this entry is the last film ever made by Daiei Studios and one that plays with a classic tale of a jilted spouse killing the one who broke their heart as well as that person\u2019s lover. Here, it leads to a ghost story of course where the ghosts are vengeful and the bodies\u00a0sorta\u00a0pile up. The film here is unfortunately the least memorable of the three in this set.\u00a0It’s\u00a0not bad, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also not great and feels\u00a0like something is missing. The writing is\u00a0ok,\u00a0and so is the direction; the acting works as best as can be with those elements. The film does look good, and the restoration looks and sounds more than decent.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The extras here are more than decent with each film having their own extras, some more interesting than the others. For The Demon of Mount Oe, the best extras are\u00a0the new interview with Taichi\u00a0Kasuga and the video essay by Tom Mes, for The Haunted Castle,\u00a0they are\u00a0the new interview with Mari Asato and the visual essay by Zack Davisson, and for The Ghost of Kasane Swamp,\u00a0they are the interview with Norio Tsuruta and the audio commentary by Lindsay Nelson on select scenes. The set also includes a lovely booklet with two original ghost stories.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three further Japanese gothic takes from Radiance Films. (See review of Volume 1 here.)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[420,477,824],"class_list":["post-50252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","tag-gothic","tag-horror","tag-re-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50253,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50252\/revisions\/50253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}