The Water Was So Clear (餓鬼草紙, Gaki zôshi) is a 1973 drama film directed by Yoichi Takabayashi.

[1] It was chosen to be shown at Critics' Week at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and won the grand prize at the 1973 Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival.

An extreme close-up of the barrel of a shotgun, perhaps announcing the death of the priest, triggers the city scenes.

This plot is narrated through elegant camera movements and the contraposition of the contemplative life in the monastery and the crowded and noisy activities of the city.

[4] The original title, Gaki zôshi (Tales of Hungry Ghosts), comes from a narrative scroll, produced in the late Heian period (794–1185) and kept at the Tokyo National Museum, which depicts spirits condemned to eternal hunger and thirst, referred to as hungry ghosts.