INN OF EVIL (Inochi Bonifuro) 1971

This is another masterpiece from filmmaker KOBAYASHI Masaki, noted director of HARA KIRI, KWAIDAN, and SAMURAI REBELLION. The Japanese title is actually translated as “We give our lives for nothing”, and is the true heart and soul of this story. Based on a novel by YAMAMOTO Shugoro, who also wrote the books upon which SANJURO, KILL, and AFTER THE RAIN, were based, it tells the tale of a group of thieves and murderers who find it within themselves to sacrifice their lives with no hope of personal gain. NAKADAI Tatsuya stars as Sada, an expert with knives, whose mysterious past comes to light as he leads a group of fugitives in their last-ditch battle to save their home, a dilapidated inn, which does not welcome strangers in its doors. KATSU Shintaro plays against type in a pivotal role as one of the only outsiders ever allowed to drink at the inn. Tension and suspense lead up to a conclusion like no other. A magnificent motion picture, and a true work of art.

Directed by: KOBAYASHI Masaki
Starring: NAKADAI Tatsuya, SATO Kei, SAKAI Wakako, NAKAMURA Ganemon, KATSU Shintaro

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Levi — yes, the rogue “w” must have come in earlier then. I’m basing all this on the comments of a Japanese friend, and maybe there’s something else he doesn’t know, but it seems likely some early translator distorted the pronunciation a touch, then spelled it that way.
Alas, the only Hearn I’ve read was an account of drinking blood in a slaughterhouse, and an amazing translation of Theophile Gautier’s La Morte Amoreuse. I must get some of his “j-horror” someday. He must be one of very few people who have been able to enter Japanese culture from outside and contribute to it as if he were a native.

Incidentally, I assume that Kwaidan was given that title in the West because that’s what Lafcadio Hearn’s book of Japanese ghost stories–which, for such a thing, is relatively well known, both here and in Japan–is titled. It may have been a mistaken transliteration, but, having stood for more than a century, it was applied to the film.