With a history than goes back to the 17th century, “Botan Dōrō” or The Peony Lantern exists as one of the most enduring and famous Japanese ghost stories. This tale received another adaptation with 1968’s The Bride from Hades.

During a summer Obon festival, Hagiwara Shinzaburô (Kôjirô Hongô) meets a lovely woman named Otsuyu (Miyoko Akaza). He immediately becomes smitten with her.

A few catches emerge, one connected to the fact Shinzaburô remains committed to marry Kiku (Atsumi Uda), albeit as part of an arranged situation closer to a business transaction. In addition, Otsuyu is a ghost.

And not one of those friendly Casper sorts, either. Burdened with a problematic past, Otsuyu comes back with ulterior motives.

While many – most? – horror films telegraph their intentions from the get-go, Hades follows an entirely different path. Indeed, the entire first act proceeds without even a hint of anything potentially terrifying on the horizon.

This might frustrate genre fans who wants their scares now. However, I like these choices, as they allow the narrative to evolvein a natural manner.

Through that opening segment, Hades presents as a romantic drama. Shinzaburô teaches poor kids to read despite the condemnation of his elders, and he appears to offer a misunderstood nice guy conflicted between family pressures and his own desires.

As such, we expect the story to play out as a conflict between Shinzaburô and his elders. The shift toward something supernatural becomes gradual and subtle.

Which remains the case through the entire movie. Even when Hades opts for material that leans more horrific, it remains understated.

That works, as it allows the tale to get under the viewer’s skin without overt stabs at scares. The film seems more atmospheric and creepy than broadly frightening, and I like that tone.

Unfortunately, Hades loses focus in its third act. At that point, it detours much too often to concentrate on Banzô (Kô Nishimura), Shinzaburô’s goofy sidekick.

A little of Banzô goes a long way. The decision to spend so much time with him during a potential climax backfires.

This doesn’t ruin Hades, however. Even with this oddly comedic misstep, it still becomes a generally satisfying tale.

The Bride from Hades appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Taken from a new 4K transfer, the image looked very good.

Overall sharpness appeared positive. Though a little softness crept in at times, this didn’t become an issue, as the majority of the film boasted appealing accuracy.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and the movie lacked edge haloes. Grain felt light but appropriate, and the flick suffered from no print flaws.

As befit a subdued spooky tale like this, Hades came with an understated palette that favored browns and blues. The disc reproduced these with clarity and richness.

Blacks came across as deep and dense, while low-light shots seemed smooth and well-rendered. Expect a high-caliber visual presentation here.

Though not up to the same standards, the film’s LPCM monaural audio seemed acceptable – well, at least given my expectations for Japanese films of this one’s era. They often tended to suffer from rather rough quality.

No one should anticipate crisp and clear audio here, but at least the track didn’t suffer from the worst of its peers. Speech leaned a bit edgy and thin, but the lines seemed reasonably clear.

Neither music nor effects boasted much range, and they also came with some shrill or distorted tendencies – especially when the score went louder. Nonetheless, they stayed within the realm of acceptability much of the time and never degenerated into poor quality.

No issues with noise impacted the track. Again, this never turned into an appealing mix, but it felt acceptable given its age and origins.

A few extras appear, and we locate an audio commentary with film historian Jasper Sharp. He delivers a running, screen-specific look at the source tale and its adaptation, prior versions of the story, genre domains and aspects of the era’s Japanese film industry, cast/crew and related topics.

Overall, Sharp offers a solid commentary. He touches on the expected subjects in a positive manner and keeps the chat on track from start to finish.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we find an Interview with Filmmaker Hiroshi Takahashi. This reel spans 17 minutes, 39 seconds.

The screenwriter for the original Japanese edition of The Ring, Takahashi discusses the source narrative for Hades as well as its adaptation and impact on Japanese horror. He provides a good perspective on the film and the Japanese film industry.

For two acts, The Bride from Hades offers a satisfying ‘slow burn’ horror flick. Although the final segment goes for an oddly comedic tone, this doesn’t undercut the movie’s positives too severely. The Blu-ray comes with very good visuals, mediocre audio and a few useful bonus features. Despite some missteps, this turns into an effective tale.

Note that as of October 2024, this Blu-ray of Hades appears only as part of a three-film package called “Dalei Gothic: Japanese Ghost Stories”. It also includes The Snow Woman and The Ghost of Yotsuya.