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This is my favourite coffee cup now. I really like the design and the weight. Its perfect and very cute to look at and comfortable to hold. The delivery was fast and it came well wrapped too!

Reviews

For those looking for cheap jump scares and gory special effects creatures, steer clear of Kwaidan. You will be as disappointed as you will be confused. Kwaidan is a horror movie in the classic storytelling tradition. The horror is in the atmosphere and in the imagination of the viewer not in the jump cut or special effect. The film is simply gorgeous! It's more like a moving picture scroll than a film. Kwaidan has a dream-like quality that takes you into the realm of the subconscious world of fairy tale. Kwaidan consists of four short stories. Black Hair - is about a selfish samurai who abandons his poor wife to get position and a wealthy wife. He grows tired of her and his new life and longs for his old wife. Their reunion is bittersweet and ghoulish. The Snow Woman - the beginning is just surreal with an imaginative painted backdrop from which the eyes of the snow spirit appear. It feels like stepping into one of those hoary old forests of fairy tales. Yuki Onna is the snow woman who freezes her victims. She represents the beauty and cruelty of winter. In this tale she lets a young woodsman live so long as he never tells his tale of their meeting. Hoichi the Earless - this is my favorite story! It tells of a blind biwa player who unknowingly plays for the ghosts of a defeated samurai clan. The battle scenes are beautiful and sad. The colors, the imaginary, and the sound of the biwa combine to make this story a masterpiece in every respect. To protect Hoichi from these restless forlorn spirits, he is covered in Buddhist texts from head to toe all save his ears... In a Tea Cup - this is a strange story that never really gets explained as the viewer will discover at the end. A samurai retainer to quench his thirst drinks from a tea cup from which the image of strange smiling man appears. Later the samurai is visited by this strange samurai and his retainers. If you like movies and you like good old fashion ghost storytelling then Kwaidan is for you. Just the set pieces alone are worth watching the film for.

All of the story lines are too predictable and overdone if not over"acted"...this is far off from the Japanese classic, Ugetsu. The beauty of the cinematography in this movie is symbolic and spirited, sometimes surreal, but cannot compare to that of the past masters.

Poor image quality was put onto a US theatrical cut of KOBAYASHI's masterpiece. What a shame! I'd rather believe Criterion didn't release this. In my opinion, MoC has released the best edition so far. Full-length director's cut, with brand new image restoration, although the trailer was lost, does it matter?

Haunting sets and sound effects for this series of Japanese tales of fantasy and horror. Memorable and worthy of the awards won.

Kwaidan is an anthology of four horror stories (The Black Hair, The Woman of the Snow, Hoichi the Earless, In a Cup of Tea) that have inexplicably garnered the praises of many fans of Japanese cinema, thus earning itself an 8/10 average rating on IMDb. Unfortunately, the film simply doesn't deserve the high rating, and it most definitely does not deserve 164 minutes of anyone's time. As a horror feature, Kwaidan fails miserably. Quite literally, there is not one scene in any of the short films that is even marginally disturbing. In fact, the attempted horror was so badly executed that it came off as comedic. (1) The Black Hair spends 95% of its running time with the rather boring life of a man who leaves his wife for money and prestige, only to end with an incredibly stupid resolution - a wig that twitches on the ground, making the man grow old quickly. (2) The Woman of the Snow started off promising, but then ended horribly with the ghost deciding not to kill the man, even though the entire story was based on that commitment. (3) Hoichi the Earless had one scene that was a bit gruesome, but the title of the film gave it away about an hour or so before it happened, thus diminishing its impact to almost nothing. (4) In a Cup of Tea employed the worst horror elements I've seen in some time. A man sees a man's smiling face in his cup of tea. Oooh, I'm scared. If anyone is looking for a few chills, stay far, far away from this one. The lack of horror is not compensated in the least with interesting dialogue or dramatic elements. The acting is not very good, and almost no interesting narrative occurs in the films 164 minutes. When one tries to find some kind of point or moral to these stories, one finds that there is very little actual content to warrant an objective conclusion. The filmmakers seemed intent on creating the most superficial, meaningless plot lines and characters possible. The motives for the supernatural entities are usually ambiguous. In addition, Kwaidan was just plain boring. And no, I don't mean slow-paced; I mean boring. Tokyo Story was slow-paced, but interesting. Cure was slow-paced, but interesting. I could list another 50 deliberately-paced films that move slower than molasses in January, but were still riveting. Kwaidan is just boring. There's almost nothing in this film that's noteworthy, but the exception to this is its cinematography. The special effects were used well to create an otherworldly atmosphere, especially in The Woman of the Snow. Of course, this is just window-dressing to an otherwise shallow, below-average film that is in the end not very entertaining at all. What annoys me the most is when defenders of this film claim that it is far superior to Asian horror films made during the past decade. Such a claim is totally misguided. Kwaidan has NONE of the masterful storytelling found in A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), NONE of the impending doom-like atmosphere of Kairo (2001), NONE of the creepiness or cleverness of Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003 theatrical), NONE of the interesting concepts found in Cure (1997), and NONE of the psychological contributions seen in Audition (1999), just to name a few. Basically, Kwaidan has NOTHING memorable whatsoever, while the Asian horror films of the past decade have just about EVERYTHING except the convenient luxury of being made before 1970 - a time that Kwaidan lovers consider their Garden of Eden, where every movie was a "work of art" or a "masterpiece." Give me a break. I ponder at the reasoning behind the high rating here. Then I remembered: it's a boring Japanese film made in 1964. That's just about enough to impress any art house snob, or anyone who wants to feel "cultured" by liking a really bad horror film from the 60s.

Reviews

Quickly following the release of "Bram Stoker's Dracula," "Dracula Rising" is an obvious attempt to cash in on the blockbuster hit of Francis Ford Coppola. This is nothing unusual, familiar tactics in the market for small studios, and what really matters is the film itself. Sadly "Dracula Rising" is very boring. Theresa (Stacey Travis) is an art restorer traveling to Eastern Europe. Christopher Atkins (yes, the boy in "The Blue Lagoon") is Vlad, son of Vlad the Impaler, and younger Vlad believes that Theresa is a reincarnation of his long-dead sweetheart when he was a monk 500 years ago. Now I have told you the story, which is a pretty familiar one, but is still OK. "Dracula Rising," however, tells it very slowly with countless flashbacks and overacting. It is strange, but "Dracula Rising" sometimes forgets it is a vampire film. It does not have much blood, but instead it includes one lengthy "love scene," one car explosion and one miniature set of "the underworld" where one character hurls an animated lightening to his opponent, very cheesy effects you see in old sci-fi films. "Dracula Rising" is produced by Roger Corman, who two years later produced "Burial of the Rats" for TV, based on a great short story from the author of "Dracula." For this film he again uses the source material from Stoker, but the film's content has almost nothing to do with the book. Sometimes he produces a decent adaptation of gothic novels - "Game of Death" ("aka The Suicide Club") is worth watching - but as for "Dracula Rising" this is a big disappointment.

I bought this film partially because it starred Stacey Travis, who was great in HARDWARE (a wonderfully stylish post-apocalyptic TERMINATOR ripoff). I also liked her in GHOST WORLD (a poignant coming-of-age story co-starring the always interesting Steve Buscemi). But DRACULA RISING falls far short of the quality of these two films. Released in 1992, DRACULA RISING seems "inspired" by BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, Coppola's film about Dracula seeking the reincarnation of his ancient love. DRACULA RISING was produced by Roger Corman's New Concorde Productions, and it's typical of Corman to rush out knockoffs of recent hits. This is one of Corman's more boring knockoffs. In DRACULA RISING, Dracula's son (played by the guy from BLUE LAGOON) seeks the reincarnation of his ancient love (Stacey Travis). He meet her in some ultra-low budget Los Angeles warehouse party. She then flies to Transylvania (the film was shot in Bulgaria) to restore a painting in a monestary. Not much happens after that. Lots of flashbacks to their initial love. An evil vampire (sort of a friend/foe of Dracula's son) menaces Travis for a while, but promises to leave her for Dracula's son, who in turn does nothing much. He just mopes and moans and bares his fangs in angst, wanting Travis but not wanting to condemn her to a life of vampirism. Lots of boring soul-searching as the characters wander in the night, wander in the monestary, wander in catacombs, wander as they dream or experience flashbacks. Travis is just sort of ... there. Not doing much. There is some soft-core porn, shots of Travis and the guy filmmed underwater while they swim nude. The Bulgarian location looks authenticly Transylvanian, but the place is deserted aside from a servant girl. This low budget film couldn't afford many extras, aside from some angry villagers in a flashback. I know a film is bad when I keep looking at the time, wondering how much longer the film will last, and am dejected that only a half hour has elapsed when it feels more like an hour. The actors playing the two vampires aren't great. They bare their fangs and look menacing or angst-ridden, in a kooky unconvincing way. What's worse, their hair is cut short and looks stylishly blow-dried. Even in the flashback scenes set in the late 1400s, their hair is short and stylishly blow-dried! Travis is pretty, but lacks charisma. (She was better in HARDWARE and GHOST WORLD, really.) Film reminds me of EMBRACE OF THE VAMPIRE, another low budget, soft-core vampire film that really dragged and dragged and bored the hell out of me.

Poor Count Dracula. In over 70 years of moviemaking, the bloody vampire has been played by everyone from Bela Lugosi to Leslie Nielsen; Gerard Butler to Frank Langella; Christopher Lee to David Peel; and so on and so on. Now, Christopher Atkins from THE BLUE LAGOON plays the vampire's son, a blond charmer who doesn't really want to be a vampire, and who is mooning over his lost love from 500 years ago. She is now embodied in an art restorer's persona, played lazily and lifeless by Stacey Travis. Doug Wert plays the bad vampire as if he was in a Saturday Night Live skit, which would have worked had the movie had its tongue in its cheek. Alas, though, it tries to be a Gothic romance horror film, and doesn't capture the essence of any of them. Burdened with repetitive flashback scenes that tell us how Atkins and Wert became vampires, the movie lopes along at a snail's pace, and the climax is amazingly funny. With special effects straight from the dark age, we are treated to Atkins who is now dressed in white and who can shoot sparks from his hands, and summon demonic bats. DRACULA RISING joins the countless vampire movies that just don't have any bite!

I bet you Bram Stoker is rolling in his grave. This vampire movie may put you to sleep, especially the main character. At times he is convincing, then he gets this crazed look in his eyes which makes you giggle. The storyline is surprising though, a new look at a Dracula tale. Don't expect to much, but, if you are a vampire fan and have nothing to do watch it....

A brilliant art restorer is called to work on an ancient painting that has been badly burned. Little does she know that she looks exactly like the woman that Dracula's son loved a century ago and was burned at the stake, falsely accused of witchcraft. It's a story of eternal love and conflict. Modern vampire lore with the flavor of classic gothic vampire tales mingled into it. It therefore may be a little slow paced for people who only like the "Blade" speed of films but I think most folks who enjoy vampire films will find something to like about this one.

Reviews

This is not a review about the film itself but the Alpha Video transfer: it's horrible. Really horrible. In fact, I believe this a complete ripoff. Who in their right mind believes that the transfer on this DVD is anything close to watchable? I'd like to see the folks from Alpha Video sit through it and try to watch it. I'm sure they could not watch it for more than 5 minutes. Avoid this DVD at all cost. Hopefully the film will have a presentable transfer one of these days.

I only gave this movie 1 star due mainly to the horrible quality of the dvd transfer. I would warn anyone buying vintage movies to check if it is a Alpha Video release. They consistently produce the worse quality movies imaginable. I have seen a number of different titles from them and the are shockingly poor. The With's Curse may be the worst. It is not even in color. It looks yellowish-brown...everything! You have to go into the movie knowing it's just pure fantasy. In saying that, it is still bizarre that this gladiator shows up out of nowhere in 16th century Scotland to help right some wrong or stop injustice. Still, I really like this movie. It's a lot of fun. I hope a real studio produces this title some day. For now, if you want it, you will have to suffer with a Alpha release.

What do Greek mythology and 17th-century Scotland have in common? Absolutely nothing - yet the two are paired together in The Witch's Curse. It all starts with Martha Gunt, a true crag of a witch burned to death at ye olde stake at the start of the film. She claims the high and mighty judge is just getting back at her for her refusal to accept any of the woo the guy was pitching to her back when she was young and pretty (and, by the look of her, that must have been about 300 years ago). Anyway, she puts a curse on the whole town. A century later, the young women of the village keep going mad and trying to hang themselves off the dead, haunted hanging tree (which bursts forth with blooms whenever a young wench bites the dust). Then who should come to town but Martha Gunt - on her honeymoon, no less. This Martha is just an ancestor of the old witch, but that doesn't stop the villagers, ever ready to grab pitchforks and torches, for trying to put her to death for witchcraft. Then, from out of nowhere, comes Maciste (Kirk Morris). Remember, this is 17th century Scotland, but Maciste comes strolling up with nothing but a loincloth between his well-oiled muscular body and God. After getting the innocent girl what amounts to a temporary stay, he pushes over the haunted tree, finds a gateway to hell underneath, and goes down to convince the old witch to release her curse. Here's what you need to know about Maciste - sure, he's a big strong man, but this guy couldn't pick up a spoon without heaving and straining so badly you'll find yourself reaching for the phone to call the paramedics. And that's all he does - pick up rocks and trees, rip chains apart, and - on one occasion - power-jump. It's hard not to call this guy Hercules. After all, he helps out such Greek mythological characters as Prometheus and that boulder guy while he's in hell, glistens and bulges and dresses like Steve Reeves, and - in some releases of the film - is referred to as Hercules. Doing a little quick research, I was amazed to discover that this Maciste guy is actually a legendary Italian movie character (did I mention the film was made in Italy?) featured in dozens of films (going all the way back to 1914). I have to assume some of those other films were better than this one. Apparently, the guy just shows up anywhere and everywhere, free of any restraint an actual back story would entail, and helps battle evil. Speaking of 1914, the color of this film is so degraded that it oftentimes looks like one of those early sepia-tone movies that preceded the talkies.

THE WITCH'S CURSE is one of the worst sword and sandal epics to grace our screens. The DVD transfer is horrible; the colors are washed out and the sound atrocious. But even if it had the crystal clarity of a better transfer, the material is so bad, it wouldnt help. Kirk Morris, one of those hunky 60s bodybuilders, plays Maciste, a muscleman who appears out of nowhere and goes to hell literally to put and end to a witch's curse. The movie takes place in 16th century Scotland, so what is this Roman gladiator even doing there? Morris has little dialogue, and he spends most of his time showing off his muscles by lifting trees, moving rocks and ditto ditto. It isn't even campy enough to be funny. What a waste of time and effort.