
Kaidan Kimodameshi: Chilling Tales from Japan
July 1, 2025 at 11:00:00 PM
Location:
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard St
Brookline, MA 02446
About the Event:
From the Coolidge Corner Theatre's website:
Summer is a time for scares in Japan. As a way of chilling their bones in the heat, people challenge themselves to watch kaidan, or ghost stories. The Japanese word for this is kimodameshi.
Some say the reason for this tradition is the fact that Obon, the festival of the dead, falls in August. Other scholars attribute the phenomenon to Edo-period Kabuki theaters performing ghost stories outdoors in the summer to help audiences keep cool. Whatever the origin may be, we thought we’d contribute to this terrifying means of climate control!
In partnership with the Japan Society of Boston, we’ve programmed five films spanning 50 years of supernatural storytelling from Japanese filmmakers. From Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterful Ugetsu (1953), to the folk-horror fantasia Demon Pond (1979), through 2004’s hair-raising Hollywood horror The Grudge, and more, "Kaidan Kimodameshi: Chilling Tales from Japan" will certainly send a tingle down your spine this summer!
JSB members can get $3 off tickets by using the discount code provided on the Member Portal!
Screening Schedule:
Tuesday, July 1 at 7:00pm
A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.
Tuesday, July 8 at 7:00pm
Beware the haunted women who lurk in the bamboo forrest as black cats craving the blood of men!
Tuesday, July 15 at 7:00pm
Japanese renegade Masahiro Shinoda transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia.
Tuesday, July 22 at 7:00pm
One curse, one cure, one week to find it.
The Grudge (2004)
Tuesday, July 29 at 7:00pm
Once you see it, you can never forget. Once it sees you, you can never escape.