Turning Japanese
A look back at a short-lived horror movie trend.
While the popularity of Japanese horror film remakes has seemed to have died out, there was a time not too long ago that horror movie aficionados had a taste for foreign cuisine when it came to their boo-feasts.
Hollywood, for a while, had embraced Japan when looking for guidance on how to build a better scare. From The Ring to The Grudge, Hollywood was churning out remakes of Japanese ghost movies like they were going out of style (which I guess they actually did eventually do).
With the past few years worth of horror movies cast under the shadow of Japan’s horrifying influence, American audiences were in need of guidance when it came to deciding how to best approach a film from the land of the rising sun. Luckily, their friendly neighborhood movie geek was there to give them a guided tour through the themes and motifs that surround Japanese-influenced horror films. What follows is a column I originally wrote for The Battalion.
DROWNING YOUR SCREAMS
From The Ring‘s Samara’s aversion to water to the titular role that it plays in Dark Water, H20 is a mainstay in Japanese horror movies.
It may be because Japan is surrounded by water or it could just be a reflection of the fact that drowning is a really painful way to die, but where there are ghosts, water is surely not far behind. It seems that in Japanese horror films, one can’t swing a mewing cat-boy around his head without hitting a bathtub that’s mysteriously filled with nasty water.
If confronted with this strange phenomenon, you should always remember to listen to that little voice inside your head called common sense.
Chances are good that the bathtub is filled with some kind of ghostly nasty and more often than not, the dirtier the water is, the creepier the ghost will be. Instead of dipping an appendage into the tub to look for the drain, turn around and walk away.
You don’t need to take a bath; you can just use Febreeze to freshen up.
I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR
It used to be that prepubescent boys could go to a horror film and rest assured that they were about to feast their ever-hungry eyes upon a scantly clad co-ed running from a killer with an almost too-phallic-shaped-to-be-coincidental knife.
Today’s girl-crazy boys in search of some dominance-wish-fulfillment-escapism have it tough though. Instead of nubile young females, Japanese-influenced horror movies feature strong independent women who can more then hold their own in a supernatural smack down. From Naomi Watts to Jennifer Connelly to Buffy the freakin’ Vampire Slayer, Japanese influenced horror movies have all had heroines who offer more to the fight than a good scream.
It’s not clear if this is a reflection of today’s progressive society or more of Hollywood pandering to the cash-carrying “tween” demographic, but one thing is clear: Women kick butt.
BETTER LIVING THROUGH MODERN TECHNOLOGY
For such an ancient tradition, ghost stories have been given a technological facelift courtesy of the modern Japanese horror film. Ghosts are no longer content with rattling chains and wearing sheets.
Instead, today’s dead utilize the latest in technological advances to further their scare tactics. When it comes to cursed videos and other tech-savvy ghost shenanigans, nothing is what it seems.
It could be Japan’s dependence on technology that drives their fear of technological breakdown.
The fact that America bombed the country during World War II could also shed some light into a potential subconscious fear of science. The boom of atomic radiated monster movies in the fifties is a reflection in itself of Japan’s paranoia.
Either way, if life reflects art, readers should be wary of anything they read or see in the media. In fact, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood releases a film about a haunted blog.
Boo!
