The Criterion Collection

To coincide with Film Forum’s current retrospective dedicated to the legendary Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, Ben Simington has fashioned, for the Mubi Notebook, a special feature—complete with audio accompaniment—on the evocative music and eerie soundscapes Takemitsu created for Masaki Kobayashi’s classic 1965 ghost story anthology Kwaidan. Simington pays tribute to the film’s “spectral atmospherics” with a short essay that praises “this incredible score’s ability to echo the uncompromisingly streamlined visual stylization of Kobayashi’s film,” along with six sample tracks, excerpts from Takemitsu’s music for the film’s opening titles and four stories, to provide clear-as-a-bell evidence of his brilliance. Minimalist and nightmarish, the music shows a composer at the peak of his unique powers. Just listening to the score from “The Woman in the Snow,” with its hissing wind and attenuated whistles, will make you feel like you’re trapped in the middle of a blinding blizzard.