Dark Tales of Japan (日本のこわい夜, Nihon no Kowaiya?) is a collection of five short horror films that are directed by five notable Japanese film directors.
The five tales are:
Episode 1
The Spiderwoman (くも女, Kumo Onna?) Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura; teleplay by Yoshihiro Nakamura; starring Shôzô Endô, Yoshinori Okada, Miyako Yamaguchi, Yôko Maki, Anri Sugihara, and Kanako Fukaura.
Two magazine reporters pursue a story about a local legend of a Spider Woman. Though the magazine's circulation has shot up 20% following their dramatic articles, they have yet to find a single shred of evidence backing up their stories. Then they hear about a young girl who claims to have been attacked by the horrible monster.
Episode 2
Crevices (すきま, Sukima?) Directed by Norio Tsuruta; teleplay by Naoya Takayama; starring Shunsuke Nakamura, Shigenori Yamazaki, and Kyûsaku Shimada.
Visiting the apartment of a missing friend, a young man is startled to find every crack and crevice of the apartment's interior sealed with red tape. Upon reviewing computer and video files, it appears his friend suffered from some sort of mental breakdown wherein he was completely obsessed with the terror that someone was watching him. But how could the friend have simply disappeared? As he and the apartment manager set out to remove the massive amount of red tape, very strange things begin to occur.
Episode 3
The Sacrifice (大生首, Ōnamakubi?) Directed by Kôji Shiraishi; teleplay by Kôji Shiraishi and Naoyuki Yokota; starring Yû Yamada, Moro Morooka, and Megumi Asaoka.
A young woman returns to her rural home from Tokyo to tend to her ailing mother. Once there, she realizes that her troubles with a co-worker stalker may have followed her to her family home. Haunted by childhood memories and the growing fear of the obsessed co-worker, she wakes in the middle of the night and discovers a terrifying sight.
Episode 4
Blonde Kwaidan (金髪怪談, Kinpatsu Kaidan?) Directed by Takashi Shimizu; teleplay by Takashi Shimizu; starring Tetta Sugimoto.
A Japanese man, visiting Hollywood for the first time, is very excited about meeting genuine blondies. However, there may be one blonde in particular who is too much for him...
Episode 5
Presentiment (予緘, Yokan?) Directed by Masayuki Ochiai; teleplay by Masayuki Ochiai and Toshiya Ôno; starring Teruyuki Kagawa and Hijiri Kojima.
After just committing the perfect embezzlement, a Japanese businessman boards the elevator to make his escape. Riding with him are three unusual passengers who increasingly display a deep knowledge about himself and what he has done. When the elevator suddenly breaks down, his real terror begins, with the strange company of folk inside the elevator and the police and rescue team outside.
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The Empress (Myung Se Bin) is in her early 30s, but she is still not married. Since, the 1st successor to the throne died, the royal family is in search for a new successor. Incidentally, they come to know of a young man who was in fact a son of the prince to a woman who left the Palace for her to be able to keep her pregnancy a secret. The young man's name was Lee Hoo (Se7en), more commonly known to his friends as Kang Hoo. Lee Hoo worked as a delivery boy at a Chinese restaurant, and was known for his 7-minute maximum delivery time. Lee Hoo had been brought up as more of a punk than a prince so his habits and his way of conversing were very different from the people of royal blood. Although he had never dreamt of living in the Palace, he one day finds himself immersing himself in its grandeur and improving himself to prove that he indeed deserves to be called the Successor to the throne.
