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Japanese Horror
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Japanese horror is
Contents
- 1Origins
- 2Japanese horror cinema
- 3Other sub-genres
- 4Other media
- 5See also
- 6References
- 7Further reading
- 8External links
Origins[edit]
See also: Japanese folklore
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. 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." The subject matter often portrayed in original Noh theater include vengeful spirits, demon plays, stories of death, and others. 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. 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. For example, the physical description of the ghost character Sadako Yamamura in Koji Suzuki's Ring series of novels is derived from what was seen in Noh and Kabuki theater performances.
Elements of Japanese horror in folk art are represented in the works of 18th century artist,
As for art and literary horror, Adam Johnson (2015) asserts that based on popularity and the large volume of ghost stories (kaidan) from the Edo period, medieval Japan was very superstitious and anxious. Collections of these stories were published in 1998 by Kihara Hirokatsu and Nakayama Ichirō called Shin mimi bukuro and met with such success, they inspired various series of books, film adaptations, manga and tv shows (Johnson, p8). Characters from theses kaidan, or yōkai, were metaphors for strange phenomenon and fears, like lost or misplace belongings, erratic behavior in others, and sudden, unexplained disappearances. Johnson goes on to note the forms that many of these yūrei from the Edo period form the basis of modern Japanese horror characters – the ghosts were mostly women, often wearing white gowns and had long, unkempt black hair. Many of these images were carried over into horror manga and films. One such example is the popular novel, Ringu, published in 1991 by Koji Suzuki. In it, the protagonist is terrorized by the apparition of a young, revenge-seeking woman, dressed in white with long black hair. This novel was eventually adapted into a film by the same name and became a horror movie icon.
Japanese horror cinema[edit]
History and evolution[edit]
Poster of the Japanese horror film Ghost-Cat of Gojusan-Tsugi (1956).
After the
J-Horror
In the 1980s, there is a distinct shift away from very 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 known as “J-horror”.[3]
In contemporary Japanese horror films, a dominant feature is
Influence[edit]
Hidetoshi Imura as Seijun from Tales from the Dead.
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). One Missed Call has received the worst reception of all, having earned the Moldy Tomato Award at
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[edit]
While this article mainly focuses on the contemporary "J-horror" style of
Kaiju monster films[edit]
Main article: Kaiju
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." Godzilla has also been cited as an inspiration by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton.
Zombie fiction[edit]
See also: Zombie
In addition to psychological J-horror, there are also 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). 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.
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. They sparked a revival of the zombie genre in popular culture, leading to a renewed global interest in zombie films during the early 2000s. 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) and Shaun of the Dead (2004), leading to the revival of zombie films during the 2000s. 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. 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.
The low-budget Japanese zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead (2017) became a sleeper hit in Japan, receiving general acclaim worldwide and making Japanese box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget.
Other media[edit]
Anime and manga and video games[edit]
See also: Category:Horror anime and manga
Horror manga are a modern evolution of serialized stories produced as texts in wood block print form during the Edo period.
See also[edit]
- Arima neko
- Horror film
- J-Horror Theater
References[edit]
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- ^ Finch, Travis. Haunted Boundaries: Ghost Stories in Isolationist Japan. Florida Atlantic University. p. 1.
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- ^ Dumas, Raechel (2018). "Monstrous Motherhood and Evolutionary Horror in Contemporary Japanese Science Fiction". Science Fiction Studies. 45: 24–47.
- ^ 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).
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- ^ The Grudge at Metacritic
- ^ One Missed Call at Metacritic
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- ^ Weedon, Paul (30 December, 2013). "George A. Romero (interview)". Paul Weedon
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Further reading[edit]
- See more Japanese horror films here Sleep With Your Lights On Because These Japanese Horror Movies Will Leave You Scared Shitless
- OCLC 303620401.
- ^ "Katsushika Hokusai: Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints of Ghosts". Thoughts on Papyrus. 2019-10-11. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2331-4.
- ISSN 1368-8790.