Japanese horror
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Japanese horror is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horror.[1] Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror, tension building (suspense), and the supernatural, particularly involving ghosts (yūrei) and poltergeists.[2] Other Japanese horror fiction contains themes of folk religion such as possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition, and yōkai.[2] Media in which the genre of Japanese horror fiction can be found include artwork, theater, literature, film, anime and video games.
Origins
The origins of Japanese horror can be traced back to the horror fiction and
Later, the term yōkai evolved to refer to vengeful states that
Kabuki and Noh, forms of traditional Japanese theater, often depict horror tales of revenge and ghastly appearances.[5] One difference between these two forms of theater is Noh is formal and targeted for upperclassmen while Kabuki is interactive and seen as "the theater of the people."[5] The subject matter often portrayed in original Noh theater include vengeful spirits, demon plays, stories of death, and others.[5] Many of the storylines of these traditional plays have inspired modern horror depictions, and these stories have been used as source material for Japanese horror films.[5] In fact, Kabuki was a major subject of early Japanese films, and Kabuki gradually was woven into the framework of the modern horror films seen today.[5]
Elements of Japanese horror in folk art are represented in the works of 18th century artist,
Japanese horror cinema
History and evolution
After the
The 1980s
In the 1980s, there was a distinct shift away from gory, slasher-style films of violent spectacle, towards the psychologically thrilling and intensely atmospheric type, led by the director Norio Tsuruta. Tsuruta's 1991 and 1992 film series Scary True Stories began a categorical shift in these films, which are sometimes abbreviated to "J-horror".[12]
In contemporary Japanese horror films, a dominant feature is
Influence
Since the early 2000s, several of the more popular Japanese horror films have been remade. Ring (1998) was one of the first to be remade in English as The Ring, and later The Ring Two (although this sequel bears almost no similarity to the original Japanese sequel). Other notable examples include The Grudge (2004), Dark Water (2005), and One Missed Call (2008).
With the exception of The Ring, most English-language remakes of Japanese horror films have received negative reviews (although The Grudge received mixed reviews). and released in early 2017.
Many of the original directors who created these Asian horror films have gone on to direct the English-language remakes.[citation needed] For example, Hideo Nakata, director of Ring, directed the remake The Ring Two; and Takashi Shimizu, director of the original Ju-on, directed the remake The Grudge as well as its sequel, The Grudge 2.
Several other Asian countries have also remade Japanese horror films. For example, South Korea created their own version of the Japanese horror classic Ring, titled The Ring Virus.
In 2007, Los Angeles–based writer-director Jason Cuadrado released the film Tales from the Dead, a horror film in four parts that Cuadrado filmed in the United States with a cast of Japanese actors speaking their native language.
Other sub-genres
Kaiju monster films
The first influential Japanese horror films were
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), a re-edited Americanized version of the original Godzilla for the North American market, notably inspired Steven Spielberg when he was a youth. He described Godzilla as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies" because "it made you believe it was really happening."[22] Godzilla has also been cited as an inspiration by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton.[23]
Zombie fiction
There are numerous Japanese works of
According to Kim Newman in the book Nightmare Movies (2011), the "zombie revival began in the Far East" during the late 1990s, largely inspired by two Japanese zombie games released in 1996: Resident Evil, which started the Resident Evil video game series, and Sega's arcade shooter House of the Dead. The success of these two 1996 zombie games inspired a wave of Asian zombie films, such as the zombie comedy Bio Zombie (1998) and action film Versus (2000).[24] The zombie films released after Resident Evil were influenced by zombie video games, which inspired them to dwell more on the action compared to older George Romero films.[28]
The zombie revival which began in the Far East eventually went global following the worldwide success of the Japanese zombie games Resident Evil and The House of the Dead.[24] They sparked a revival of the zombie genre in popular culture, leading to a renewed global interest in zombie films during the early 2000s.[29] In addition to being adapted into the Resident Evil and House of the Dead films from 2002 onwards, the original video games themselves also inspired zombie films such as 28 Days Later (2002)[30] and Shaun of the Dead (2004),[31] leading to the revival of zombie films during the 2000s.[29][30][32] In 2013, George Romero said it was the video games Resident Evil and House of the Dead "more than anything else" that popularised his zombie concept in early 21st century popular culture.[33][34] The fast-running zombies introduced in The House of the Dead games also began appearing in zombie films during the 2000s, including the Resident Evil and House of the Dead films, 28 Days Later, and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake.[27]
The low-budget Japanese zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead (2017) became a sleeper hit in Japan, receiving general acclaim worldwide[35] and making Japanese box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget.[36]
Other media
Anime and manga
Horror manga are a modern evolution of serialized stories produced as texts in wood block print form during the Edo period. These graphic novels usually deal in historical tropes of horror that are based on Buddhism rokudo (six realms) and the frightening notion of fluidity, that one can move between these realms unintentionally, like moving between heaven, earth and hell, and non-duality, that the realms are intermingled. Some popular Japanese horror films are based on these
Video games
Examples of Japanese horror based video games include Resident Evil, Ghost House, Castlevania, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame.
See also
References
- ISBN 9780748624751.
- ^ a b "A Brief History of Japanese Horror". rikumo journal. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ^ a b Johnson, Adam J. (2015). The Evolution of Yōkai in Relationship to the Japanese Horror Genre (MA thesis). University of Massachusetts Amherst. pp. 1–116.
- ISBN 9789004212602. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Petty, John E. Stage and Scream: The Influence of Traditional Japanese Theater, Culture, and Aesthetics on Japan's Cinema of the Fantastic (MS thesis). University of North Texas. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- ISBN 9789004212602. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- ISBN 9789004212602. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- ^ "Katsushika Hokusai: Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints of Ghosts". Thoughts on Papyrus. 2019-10-11. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
- ^ ISBN 9780748624751.
- ^ a b c d "A Brief History of Japanese Horror". rikumo journal. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ^ S2CID 154836006.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2331-4.
- .
- ^ Martin, Daniel (2009), 'Japan’s Blair Witch: Restraint, Maturity, and Generic Canons in the British Critical Reception of Ring', Cinema Journal 48, Number 3, Spring: 35-51.
- ^ Balmain, Colette (2008), Introduction to Japanese Horror film (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
- ^ McRoy, Jay (2007), Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Cinema (Rodopi).
- ^ "The Ring". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
- ^ The Grudge at Metacritic
- ^ One Missed Call at Metacritic
- ^ "Paramount to Make The Ring 3D". /Film. April 26, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
- ^ Kogan, Rick (September 15, 1985). "'It Was A Long Time Coming, But Godzilla, This Is Your Life". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
- ISBN 9781550223484.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-3265-0.
- ^ ISBN 9781408805039.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-61147-864-8.
- ISBN 9781569766835.
- ^ a b Levin, Josh (2007-12-19). "How did movie zombies get so fast?". Slate.com. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
- ISBN 9781408805039.
- ^ a b Barber, Nicholas (21 October 2014). "Why are zombies still so popular?". BBC. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ Huffington Post. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
- ^ "12 Killer Facts About Shaun of the Dead". Mental Floss. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ "How '28 Days Later' Changed the Horror Genre". The Hollywood Reporter. 29 June 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ Weedon, Paul (17 July 2017). "George A. Romero (interview)". Paul Weedon. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
- Vice. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
- ^ "One Cut of the Dead (Kamera o tomeru na!) (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- ^ Nguyen, Hanh (31 December 2018). "'One Cut of the Dead': A Bootleg of the Japanese Zombie Comedy Mysteriously Appeared on Amazon". IndieWire. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
Further reading
- da Silva, Joaquín. "J-Horror and Toshi Densetsu Revisited". EigaNove.
- See more Japanese horror films here Sleep With Your Lights On Because These Japanese Horror Movies Will Leave You Scared Shitless Archived 2019-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Media related to Japanese horror films at Wikimedia Commons