DAIEI GOTHIC VOL 2: JAPANESE GHOST STORIES
(1960-1970)
THE DEMON OF MOUNT OE (1960)
THE GHOST OF KASANE SWAMP (1969)
THE HAUNTED CASTLE (1970)
Japan's classic ghost stories are brought to the screen by masters of the genre, Tokuzo Tanaka (The Snow Woman) and Kimiyoshi Yasuda (Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare).
Newly restored in 4K, three more stories from the Daiei studio represent the Japanese ghost film at its most lavish and chilling.
THE DEMON OF MOUNT OE (1960)
Label: Radiance Films
Region Code: A,B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 113 Minutes 51 Seconds
Audio: Japanese 2.0 PCM Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Tokuzo Tanaka
Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Kojiro Hongo, Raizo Ichikawa, Shintaro Katsu
The Demon of Mount Oe (1960),based on the legend of Shuten-dôji, is a jidaigeki folk horror fantasy about mighty warriors who are sent to eliminate a shape-shifting demon who steals women from the imperial capital of Kyoto. It's a pretty epic costume melodrama with terrific swordplay, romance, tragedy, and of course mythological yokai monsters via a satanic bull monster and a giant-sized spider that shoots silly string! This is directed by Tokuzo Tanaka who directed the superior The Snow Woman (1968) from the first volume of the Daiei Gothic, it has some visually arresting set pieces with impressive production design and some occasionally terrific samurai swordplay. There are also some interesting character dynamics for sure, and I did enjoy that the big bad here turns out to be surprisingly human and not unsympathetic, but it is a bit long n the tooth and it does get bogged down a bit too much in the melodrama, and it doesn't help that the finale sort of fizzles out, but I loved the wild lighting style of the supernatural elements, and the magenta-lit bridge encounter is a standout.
Special Features:
- New interview with period film historian Taichi Kasuga (2025) (18:53)
- Blade of the Demon Slayer: a visual essay by Tom Mes (2025) (4:04)
- Trailer (2:56)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista
THE HAUNTED CASTLE (1970)
Label: Radiance Films
Region Code: A,B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes 31 Seconds
Audio: Japanese 2.0 PCM Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen
Director: Tokuzo Tanaka
Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Kojiro Hongo, Raizo Ichikawa, Shintaro Katsu
The Haunted Castle (1960) is a bakeneko film, a demon-cat flick, wherein blind monk is viciously killed by Lord Nabeshima (Koichi Uenoyama) after refusing to allow his sister Lady Sayo (Mitsuyo Kamei, Gambler's Life: Unstoppable Bloodbath) to become the lord's concubine. After learning of her brother's death the sister commits suicide and with her dying breaths implores her black cat Tama to drink of her blood, thereby transferring her grudge to it. With the feline now imbued with supernatural ability it assumes the human form of one of the lord's ladies-in-waiting and begins to wreak bloody havoc after infiltrating the inner-circle, killing his staff and working it's way up to him. This is a terrifically suspenseful and macabre demon-cat tale, it's shadowy and stylized, eerie, and when the various possessions are revealed they are quite ghoulish, the half-cat, half-human creatures has a long pink tongue, and piercing gold eyes, with some surprisingly strong bloodshed and great atmospheric colored lighting that brought to mind the films of Mario Bava. I love the bloody paw prints found around the estate, and feasting on raw fish from the koi pond, or crawling up the walls and over the roofs. This is a wonderfully macabre tale of a vengeful spirit, and is my favorite of the three films here. This was also directed by Tokuzo Tanaka (The Snow Woman) and would prove to be his last film for Daiei, but he went out on a banger for sure.
Special Features:
- New interview with J-horror filmmaker Mari Asato (2025) (17:08)
- A visual essay by ghost story scholar Zack Davisson (2025) (5:46)
- Trailer (2:10)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista
THE GHOST OF KASANE SWAMP (1969)
Label: Radiance Films
Region Code: A,B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes 34 Seconds
Audio: Japanese 2.0 PCM Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Kojiro Hongo, Raizo Ichikawa, Shintaro Katsu
While The Haunted Castle (1960) is my favorite tale on this set I must say the The Ghost of Kasane Swamp (1970) is a close second. Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, in this one samurai Lord Fukami (Saburô Date, Bullet Train) owes a debt to the blind masseur/money lender Soetsu (Kenjiro Ishiyama, Kwaidan), when he comes looking to collect the samurai lord says he's broke but to see his wife Sawano (Mitsuko Tanaka, Giants and Toys) to collect. The wife tired of her husband's cheating with maid Okuma (Reiko Kasahara, Island of Horrors), tries to repay her husband's debt with her body. Fukami then feigns surprise when he catches them in bed together and murders them both with his sword, and then dumps their bodies in a nearby swamp. The spirits of the murdered return however, scaring the lord to death, while also passing the curse onto the samurai lord's disinherited son Shingoro (Ritsu Ishiyama, The Fort of Death) and the money lender's estranged daughter Oshiga (Maya Kitajima, Haunted Samurai), both of whom curse themselves by seeking a hidden cache of money that the lender has hidden away. I quite enjoyed this one, again we have some intensely eerie moments that are atmospheric and dread-filled, vengeful spirits, and a disfiguring incident for Oshiga, who has forcibly taken control of a brothel, when the original brothel madame scald her horribly with water from a steam kettle, strongly recalling elements of The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959), and culminating in the darkened swamp where the bodies of the money lender and the scorned wife rest. I loved the old-school way that the apparition of the murdered appear tot he living here, and the image of Sawano's cold, dead arm sticking out of a wicker basket as Fukami's henchmen, Jinzo (Takumi Shinjo, Zatoichi at Large) and Senta (Kazue Tamaki, The Invisible Swordsman), are about to toss her body in the swamp, there's lot of cool visual flourishes here that make this ghost story quite a solid chiller.
Special Features:
- New interview with J-horror filmmaker Norio Tsuruta (2025, 17:36
- Select-scene audio commentary by horror film scholar Lindsay Nelson (2025, 24:24)
- A visual essay by ghost story scholar Zack Davisson (2025, 12:16)
- Trailer (2:22)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista
Limited Edition Box Set Special Features:
- New 4K restorations of each film by Radiance Films
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio for each film with Optional English subtitles for all films
- Newly designed box and booklet artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition 80-page perfect bound book featuring new writing by Amber T, Jasper Sharp, and Tom Mes, plus archival writing by Daniel O’Neill and original ghost stories The Goblin of Oeyama and The Vampire Cat
- Limited Edition of 4,000 copies presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases for each film and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Audio/Video: All three films arrive on their own dedicated Blu-ray disc framed in 2.35:1 widescreen with new 4K restorations presented in 1080p HD. All three look terrific, maintaining their natural filmic qualities with grain structures, and solid depth and clarity across the board. Colors look excellent, especially the bright colors of kimono and the garishly lit supernatural sequences. Black levels are generally pleasing, if slightly green-hued at times. Audio on all three come by way of uncompressed Japanese PCM 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well-balanced, age-related wear is not an issue, the atmospheric sound design and score come through nicely and dialogue is always intelligible and precise.
Onto the extras, Demon of Mount Oe (1960) include a New interview with period film historian Taichi Kasuga (2025) (18:55) studio strategy to release films at opportune times, like during Holidays and Golden Week, and how each studio had their own large draw stars they would include in these tentpole releases hightong the all-star cast including veteran star Kazuo Hasegawa, Kojiro Hongo, newcomer Raizo Ichikawa, Shintaro Katsu, Fujiko Yamamoto, Tamao Nakamura, the difference between yokai and kwaidan films, how the film tinkers with original story, changing to key elements, David knows for technically superior period films but this sort of fantastical film was new for them, background of director Tokuzo Tanaka, a relative newcomer at the time, and this would have been a surpringly prestige picture for him. We also get a 4-min Blade of the Demon Slayer: a visual essay by Tom Mes (2025) that offers the backstory for the real-life blade that inspired the sword in the film, 11 centuries old. He gets into its lineage and some disagreements over its rightful ownership post WW2, plus the 3-min Trailer.
For The Haunted Castle (1960) we get a 17-min New interview with J-horror filmmaker Mari Asato (2025) who talks about how demon-cat films are not being made to-day, this being based on the "Nsbeshima Disturbance" legend, highlighting the three main "bekeneko" stories, all of which have multiple fil adaptation, citing Ghost of Sahlga Mansion (1953), Black academy Mansion (1958), key differences between the original ralecand this film, appreciation of the optical and composite effects, the exorcism scene, how technically skilled it is, and the artistry of Daiei, the layered set design, noting this was Tanaka's last film for Daiei.
Also included is a 6-min A visual essay 'The Strange Case of Ikuko Mori' by ghost story scholar Zack Davisson (2025), examination of tge career of "The Snake Actress" Ikuko Mori, a former model turned Actress, star of The Snake Trilogy, the sordid details of her life and how this was her final film before going to prison for stabbing her lover, and the 2-min Trailer.
For the Ghost of Kasane Swamp (197) we start off with an 18-Min New interview with J-horror filmmaker Norio Tsuruta (20250, the grandson of a Daeie exec, he grew up on a steady diet of the studios offering, he gets into the different versions of the Ghost of Kasane Swamp, seven films, twice by Faeir in '60 !and '70, both directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda. Noting ker differences like the limited set, few extras and sex scenes in the latter, noting why this was.the influence of Vietnam newsreel footage and Hollywood,
how there are no heroes to root for. There;s also a 24-min Select-scene audio commentary by horror film scholar Lindsay Nelson (2025) gets into the visual style, different versions of the story, elements similar to Yotsura story, the old school visual trickery, a 12-min Visual essay by ghost story scholar Zack Davisson (2025) that taks about the macabre Edo-period ghost stories, noting the 7 versions and differences I'm the written, Kabuki and filming adaptations,
plus the 2-min Trailer.
The packaging mirrors the first set, we get a Limited Edition (of 4000) 3-film, 3-disc Blu-ray set arrives in a sturdy, side-loading Rigid Slipbox designed by Time Tomorrow with the oversized Removable Obi Strip on the spine, the three films each arrive in two clear, full-height keepcases with Reversible Wraps featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista. Also tucked away inside the slipbox is a Limited Edition 80-page Perfect Bound Book, also designed by Time Tomorrow, chock full of images and featuring new in-depth and enlightening writing on the films by genre experts Anber T, Jasper Sharp, and Tom Mes, plus archival writing by Daniel O’Neill and original ghost stories The Goblin of Oeyama and The Vampire Cat, as well as cast and crew info and notes about the transfer. It's a handsome set indeed, not only does it looks great on the shelf, but more importantly, the films themselves look gorgeous with an array of extras and writings that lend even greater depth of appreciation for these terrific Japanese tales of the macabre and fantastic.
Screenshots from the Radiance Blu-rays:
THE DEMON OF MOUNT OE (1960)
THE GHOST OF KASANE SWAMP (1969)
THE HAUNTED CASTLE (1970)
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