That will catch on your spam
filter!
I can make a case for serious
attention to this genre. I think all cultures have more in common with one
another than differences, but the differences are delightful and instructive.
That is especially so when they are disturbing to one another.
In the late 90's a series of
Asian Horror movies were made that had a tremendous impact on the horror film
genre. The Ring, The Eye, The Grudge, Pulse, and Spiral, were the most
important. The Ring was the best of them, based on the superb horror novel by
Koji Suzuki. All but the last have seen American made versions. On the American
Ring can compare, and I think it might be even better than the American
version. Spiral was brilliant, but perhaps too ethereal for mass market.
I recently discovered a
website, Asian-Horror-Movies.com, that has a very large collection of Asian
movies that you can watch online. All of the above mentioned movies are
available. The quality is not great, but the price is right and they are there
on demand.
Ju-on, or The Grudge (2003) was
one of the most frightening ghost stories I have ever enjoyed. At the small
risk of spoiling the surprise, it is a series of small stories, each with the
same horrific ending. But American fans may not know that the Japanese movie
was itself a remake of a version made for Japanese TV in 2000. I just finished
watching that.
The TV version is altogether
cheap in production. Poor special effects, modest cinematography (though I
can't really judge from the online presentation), good but not great acting,
and a very slow pace, all distinguish the TV effort from its polished 2003
incarnation. It was nonetheless marvelously effective. It also fills out the
story a bit more.
SPOILER ALERT.
The center of the action in
both movies is a modest Japanese house. In the TV version, the real estate
angle is prominent. How do you unload a house that is inhabited by a ghost that
gobbles up people whole? Answer: you lie. In the later version, there's a
social service angle. Social workers show up to take care of people living in
the house, and they get gobbled up along with everyone else.
The first version makes more
explicit what the movie version mostly hinted at: a jealous husband murders his
wife and son, and that sets off the chain of events. The boy ghost, Toshio,
appears frequently. He is a tragic figure, but all the more terrifying in so
far as he isn't malevolent but always signals the approach of mommy ghost. It
is her rage that is immortal and insatiable. Anyone who enters the house is
acquired by her, like the target of a smart missile, and once acquired there is
no defense. Anyone who comes into close contact with someone who is already
cursed risks infection. "The grudge," or curse, is like a virus: it
propagates itself.
Ju-on is in one respect more
like Western horror than typical A-Horror. In the latter, the spirit world leaks
into the living world more or less like an ecological disaster. It doesn't have
to be anyone's fault. In W-Horror, the root of all evil is sin. In Ju-on,
adultery that is the root cause of the terror. The violation of marriage vows
opens a rift in the fabric between worlds, with all manner of unfortunate
consequences. Tell that to a few Republican governors and Senators. Another
interesting thing about the TV version is that it reveals a deep angst in
Japanese society about children. There is a current of tremendous guilt about
having and protecting children that flows just under the surface of the film.
In a nation that has virtually stopped having children, it's no wonder.
The alternate versions of Ju-On
are book marked with two of the most frightening scenes in modern movie-making.
At the beginning of the TV version, a woman walks over a railway overpass and
then down backstreet. She stops dead before an unexceptional house (the house)
and looks in. If you've seen the other version first, that brief response to
the malevolent presence is very effective.
In the second version, after
nearly everyone has been consumed by the ghost, the camera focuses on a utility
pole with a missing persons notice tacked to it. You see the faces of missing
girls and boys. Where did they go? Then the camera pans out to the street. It's
empty. Paper is blowing in the wind. No cars. No people. Can we conceive that
the anger of one young woman, stored in an empty house like a super battery,
could eat the whole world? That is a real estate crisis.
If you like a good spooky
story, check out Asian-Horror-Movies.com. Tell 'em I sent ya.
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