General J-Horror Thread

[Terasawa]

That’s Onibaba.

[MaxRebo320]

That might be Onibaba, though it could also be Kuroneko (From the same director, ironically) if both women were ghosts. Its been a while since I've seen either, admittedly.

[edgaguirus]

It's Kuroneko. Thank you.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I saw Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell in October. While it has strong sci fi elements, it is effective as a horror film. The tense situation between the passengers provided more horror than the vampire in my opinion. Those people were so willing and ready to throw their fellow humans to the alien vampire just to save their skins. Films with similar plots and stories show the undeniable truth that man is often more horrifying than any alien or supernatural threat. The end of the film is also quite dark

Goke Body Snatcher from hell might be one of my all time favorite horror films. I love everything about it, like the character dynamics you mention, but also the colors and way the film is stylized.




Anyways, I find the genre (J-Horror) to be hit or miss. Similar to the Godzilla franchise, I think a lot of the best shit was from the golden age. Last decade there was a brief resurgence of horror films like The Grudge and Ring, both I liked. Dark Water is good as well. But recently, correct me if I’m wrong, there hasn’t been many horror films advertised. I’d be ecstatic to see a new horror film that’ll blow up into a classic someday in a Japanese theater.

Also, not really a pure horror film, but one cut of the dead was fantastic.

[eabaker]

Last decade there was a brief resurgence of horror films like The Grudge and Ring, both I liked.

Ring was 1998, so that was actually the decade before last. Feel old?

[JAGzilla]

I watched Ringu for the first time the other day via the Arrow Blu-ray, and liked it a lot. Are any of the sequels worth looking into? I would've paid the extra ten bucks and bought the whole set if I had any sense, but I don't, so I didn't. I might correct that if they're comparable to the original, though.

I'm also going to be picking up Dark Water soon, and I'll probably try Ju-On, too.

[eabaker]

I watched Ringu for the first time the other day via the Arrow Blu-ray, and liked it a lot. Are any of the sequels worth looking into? I would've paid the extra ten bucks and bought the whole set if I had any sense, but I don't, so I didn't. I might correct that if they're comparable to the original, though.

I'm also going to be picking up Dark Water soon, and I'll probably try Ju-On, too.

Defintiely none of them are comparable to the original. Some of them are atmospheric and creepy, and have some interesting concepts sprinkled here and there, but the original is definitely the only true classic of the bunch.

I do highly recommend the original novel. It's an interesting contrast with the movie, as it's much more sci-fi than supernatural.

[Jetty_Jags]

Does Kuroswa's Cure count as J-horror, or is that more mystery thriller?

[shadowgigan]

I watched Ringu for the first time the other day via the Arrow Blu-ray, and liked it a lot. Are any of the sequels worth looking into? I would've paid the extra ten bucks and bought the whole set if I had any sense, but I don't, so I didn't. I might correct that if they're comparable to the original, though.

I'm also going to be picking up Dark Water soon, and I'll probably try Ju-On, too.

Defintiely none of them are comparable to the original. Some of them are atmospheric and creepy, and have some interesting concepts sprinkled here and there, but the original is definitely the only true classic of the bunch.

I do highly recommend the original novel. It's an interesting contrast with the movie, as it's much more sci-fi than supernatural.

The novel is fantastic. Perhaps my favorite book of all time. Did you enjoy Spiral?

[eabaker]

I watched Ringu for the first time the other day via the Arrow Blu-ray, and liked it a lot. Are any of the sequels worth looking into? I would've paid the extra ten bucks and bought the whole set if I had any sense, but I don't, so I didn't. I might correct that if they're comparable to the original, though.

I'm also going to be picking up Dark Water soon, and I'll probably try Ju-On, too.

Defintiely none of them are comparable to the original. Some of them are atmospheric and creepy, and have some interesting concepts sprinkled here and there, but the original is definitely the only true classic of the bunch.

I do highly recommend the original novel. It's an interesting contrast with the movie, as it's much more sci-fi than supernatural.

The novel is fantastic. Perhaps my favorite book of all time. Did you enjoy Spiral?

I haven't read the book (I know, I really need to finish that series). The movie didn't wow me, but it was alright.

[shadowgigan]

Defintiely none of them are comparable to the original. Some of them are atmospheric and creepy, and have some interesting concepts sprinkled here and there, but the original is definitely the only true classic of the bunch.

I do highly recommend the original novel. It's an interesting contrast with the movie, as it's much more sci-fi than supernatural.

The novel is fantastic. Perhaps my favorite book of all time. Did you enjoy Spiral?

I haven't read the book (I know, I really need to finish that series). The movie didn't wow me, but it was alright.

I have similar thoughts. Thought the book was better than the film. I still have to read Loop. I can’t believe Suzuki came up with some of this stuff, absolute genius.

[shadowgigan]

Bumping this thread because I just re-read Ring and Spiral. Spiral is such a mindskreeonk I don't even know where to begin.

[Thatguy4683]

I been reading these j horror mangas on WEBTOON called Nocturne and I got to say these books are full of surprises I’ll link it down here

Nocturne

[cloverfan98]

Bumping this thread because I just re-read Ring and Spiral. Spiral is such a mindskreeonk I don't even know where to begin.

How does it compare to the 1998 adaptation? I gotta be honest I read the first Ring novel and while I enjoyed it alot I definitely prefer the movie. Have you read Dark Water?

[LSD Jellyfish]

I been reading these j horror mangas on WEBTOON called Nocturne and I got to say these books are full of surprises I’ll link it down here

Nocturne

I'm assuming this site is legal to use, otherwise please remove this link. However, I'll look into that.

I remember being 16ish and deep diving all the big horror mangas and stuff by Junji Ito.

Man, I need to get back into all this stuff.

[Thatguy4683]

I been reading these j horror mangas on WEBTOON called Nocturne and I got to say these books are full of surprises

I'm assuming this site is legal to use, otherwise please remove this link. However, I'll look into that.

I remember being 16ish and deep diving all the big horror mangas and stuff by Junji Ito.

Man, I need to get back into all this stuff.

Ok

[shadowgigan]

Bumping this thread because I just re-read Ring and Spiral. Spiral is such a mindskreeonk I don't even know where to begin.

How does it compare to the 1998 adaptation? I gotta be honest I read the first Ring novel and while I enjoyed it alot I definitely prefer the movie. Have you read Dark Water?

I can't decide which one I prefer. My perfect version would incorporate aspects of the film and book into one piece. One thing I will say about the book is I hate that Ryuji is a rapist. I don't see what that really adds to the story or why Suzuki felt compelled to include that bit. It's kind of disgusting, honestly. After reading the book and watching the film immediately after, I wish the film would have been longer and incorporated more of the investigative aspects of the book. As far as Spiral goes, I think I prefer the book, but need to watch the film again.

I have not read Dark Water yet. I just ordered Loop and S. Can't really say I have high hopes based on what I read, but who knows. After that I will get Birthday and Dark Water.

[H-Man]

Here are a handful of capsule reviews I've written about films over the past year:

The Sacrifice Dilemma Part 1 (2013) - Original title: Ikenie no dilemma - Directed by Shusuke Kaneko. The third year students of a Japanese high school--divided into four classes/homerooms--are called into school one morning shortly before their graduation. They receive strange wristwatches from one of the students, who had been informed to distribute them as part of a health code solicitation. Then, a TV screen in each of the rooms comes on and a creepy rabbit marionette informs them that they're all going to die, unless they make a sacrifice of one student. The sacrificial victim has to be thrown into an ominous hole on the schoolyard. Any attempt to leave the premises will be met with death. Any attempt to remove the wristwatch will be met with death. Let the games begin.

This feels like a precursor to The Belko Experiment, analyzing how people would react in a horrible scenario where their very humanity is placed to the test: any attempt to save your own life will inevitably make you a monster. Once it becomes clear that the game is not a hoax, the students all have to wrestle with what to do. The film is apparently the first in a trilogy, and the film ends on a cliffhanger with nothing explained. That would be all well and good, if not for the fact that the film's resolution goes against the established rules--or the rules weren't clear enough for me to make sense of what happens. Not bad, but not great.


School-Live! (2019) - Based on a manga, which was also adapted as an anime series in 2015. A handful of girls and their teacher survive the zombie apocalypse and set up shop at the school. They form the School Living Club as a way of dealing with the psychological fallout of the situation. One of them, the child-like Yuki Takeya, kinda enters her own world and imagines that the apocalypse never happened and becomes a source of unending cheer for her colleagues. They are joined by another student, Miki Naoko, who is a little more hardened by her experiences.

While the set up comes across as Dawn of the Dead, but at a school, the film is a lot deeper than that. The film is a coming-of-age tale, with the girls having to learn lessons about optimism, team work, leadership, allowing their differences to complement each other, and how to deal with tragedy and crisis. The focus is always on the girls, even when the zombies step into the foreground at the climax. We really do care what happens to them, even the more dour member of the trope. There are some twists and reveals at the end that are handled senstivitely, too. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, it could have been an exercise in fan service: full of gore and faux-lesbianism. But this is a really good little movie full of likable, vulnerable characters.

Long Dream (2000) - (orig. title: Nagai Yume) - TV movie. A short (58 minutes), intriguing subject about two neurologists working at a hospital. One of them is following up on his first cancer patient, Mami (Moonlight Whisper's Tsugumi); the other one has a rather peculiar patient: Mukoda Tetsurou (Shuji Kashiwabara, of Alien vs. Ninja) has dreams, or rather nightmares, that are taking up progressively more time in the dream world with each passing night. He says that in one dream, he spent eight years having to go the bathroom while looking for a place to go. His dreams are getting so long that he has difficulty both remembering what happened the previous day and is starting to mistake the content of the dream for actual reality. Moreover, his body is mutating during his sleep: he now looks like a humanoid version of the bug-eyed aliens from Invasion of the Saucer People. Meanwhile, the doctor assigned to him starts having visions of his deceased girlfriend, Kana (Gatchaman's Eriko Hatsune), and starts to think that she's waiting for him in the Dream World.

The film is very scary per se--there's only one jump scare--but it is eerie and unsettling. Obviously the premise is enough to make people imagine themselves in the same situation and chew on just how (heh) nightmarish it would be to, every night, descend into a deeper level of dream (a lá Inception). And at 58 minutes, the film never wears out its welcome, either.


Haunted School: Curse of the Word Spirit (2014) - (orig title: Gakkou no kaidan: Noroi no kotodama) - aka Kotodama: Spiritual Curse - Another "haunted place" J-horror film, less successful than others. After a few effective jump scares in the first act, the movie settles into a series of vignettes about students trapped into the titular locale: nine students in Year 1 Class 5, whose homeroom is located right next to the boarded up Class 4, which may have been subject to a freak gas accident 16 years before. There is also a young woman, Shiori (Anna Ishibashi, whom I thought was Tag's Reina Triendl), who is convinced that her deceased mother is trying to communicate something about the school to her. Finally, there are four amateur filmmakers (including the cute Hitomi Arai) who are trying to film a creepy pasta video and become famous on the internet. The film sort of jumps back and forth between these characters and the numerous creepy things they are subjected to, until a clunky exposition dump ties it all together, followed by a series of twists that I honestly had a hard time making sense out of.

The title suggests that the scary things happening to the characters are the result of their talking about the supernatural. It's an intriguing idea, especially once the major twist is revealed. However, the last few minutes sort of kills that because secondary and tertiary twists bring up questions that some viewers (myself included) may not be able to answer coherently. There are a few solid jump scares, although the movie does the thing I hate with the sound: the dialog is played rather low, but the musical stings accompanying the jump scares are friggin' loud: you have to increase the volume too much to hear the dialog, and then the jump scare almost ruptures your ear drum. I also didn't like how the characters are named gradually throughout the film, so by the final scene, I'm still learning the names of the main characters. Count this one as a miss, all things considered.


Black Rat (2010, d: Kenta Fukasaku) - original title: Kuronezumi - So a few years ago, a mobile game called "Granny" came out. It's a first-person survival horror game in which you guide a nameless character through the blood-soaked halls of a dilapidated house, trying to escape before falling prey to the title character, a pyschotic old woman wielding a baseball bat. Last year (or so), the game was parodied on the Roblox platform as "Piggy," in which your character is chased around by characters from the famous "Peppa Pig" cartoon. I bring this up because the film's central conceit: a bunch of teenagers being stalked through the halls of a school by a schoolgirl wearing a large plush rat mask made me think of that game. I even joked with my daughter that I was watching a film adaptation of "Piggy".

About two months after the suicide of their friend, Asuka (Rina Saito), six graduating teenagers receive a mysterious text message from Asuka inviting them to their homeroom at midnight. Four of them--nerdy Takashi, pretty boy Ryota, shallow and bubbly Saki, and bookworm Kanako--arrive on time, only to discover a killer in a rat mask and the fifth member of troupe, Kengo, who's already been beaten to death by a baseball bat. The killer stalks the other four and we learn just how this group of friends fell apart prior to Asuka's suicide.

Beyond the visual of the killer being a girl in a rat mask, the film is pretty conventional, even by Western standards. It plays the supernatural card ambiguously, and even when the rational explanation pops its head near the end, there's still a subtle hint of the supernatural lingering in the proceedings. One thing I did like was how Saki, the girl who most fits the slasher archetype of "the slut", becomes the Final Girl and even goes all Yukari Oshima on the killer at the end. And with a short running time--less than 80 minutes--it never wears out its welcome.


Cursed (2004, d: Yoshihiro Hoshino) - original title: 'Chô' kowai hanashi A: yami no karasu - On paper, this sounds like a parody of Ju-On: The Grudge, in which instead of a haunted house that curses anyone who steps foot inside, you have a haunted convenience store that curses anyone who steps inside (or at least makes a purchase). That said, the premise is played completely straight. The film doesn't have so much a plot as just a collection of vignettes of people who enter the Miyasato Market, make a purchase, and then suffer a horrible fate afterward. The characters holding it together are a girl who works the day shift (although she's called a part-time worker) and the female representative a larger chain of convenience stores that has bought out the Miyasato Store and is doing the inventory before the turnover.

The vignettes range from bizarre (usually those involving the two owners of the convenience store, who may already be under the ghosts' spell) to creepy (the one customer who's stalked by a sledge hammer murderer on her way home). There's a triple haunting sequence--where we jump back and forth between three people being attacked by supernatural forces--that starts out great but is ultimately ruined by the melodramatic music that plays as each individual story reaches its respective climax. An explanation is given for the haunted nature of the locale, although it ranks with H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shuttered House" in terms of disappointment. The film also doesn't have much of a climax, either. Surreal enough to be worth a view, but I'm not sure if it'll become a classic in most people's books.

[H-Man]

The Vanished (2006) - original title Ame no Machi - Souta Kaneichi is a writer for a trash mag about the occult with a troubled past who receives a strange assignment: investigate reports of dead kid in a rural area whose autopsy revealed the complete absence of internal organs in the child's body(!). Souta's investigation leads him to a small village where, thirty years before, some thirty school children disappeared without a trace. Upon visiting the school--now transformed into a museum of sorts--Souta notices that one of the children in the thirty-year-old yearbook photo is the same one whom he had seen on the autopsy table...the same one who happened to get up leave the hospital.

The Vanished starts out very interesting with some eerie scenes and a great mystery. What's up with the dead kid with no organs? Why does he/it still move around? What is its connection with the story of the missing children? What exactly happened to those children? The first half is very intriguing and enjoyable as new clues are introduced and the mystery grows in scope. The problem is that the first half is followed by the second one. The second half becomes a low-octane siege flick with only a few obscure attempts at an explanation, a confrontation with one of the missing children ruined by bad effects, a lack of follow-up on the earlier scenes establishing Souta's disturbing past, and a generally insatisfying denouement.


Tomie: Forbidden Fruit (2002) - Fifth entry in the long-running film series based on Junji Ito's popular manga. The gist of the story is that there's a pretty young girl named Tomie. She is a self-centered, manipulative narcissist who is apparently irresistible to men. She ultimately drives them to insanity and ultimately murder. However, Tomie is also immortal, so she always comes back to life to terrorize other families while her murderers usually end up in asylums, prison or killing themselves.

In this film, a young girl named Tomie (Aoi Miyazaki) is a loner who is bullied at school, whose dad (Jun Kunimura, of Godzilla Final Wars and Shin Godzilla) is emotionally distant and whose mother is dead. Tomie befriends another girl named Tomie (Nozomi Andoh), who may be the same young girl that her dad carried a torch for as an adolescent, before his friend dismembered her and hung himself. Tomie #2 starts coming onto to dad, promising him that they may be together forever...but only if he kills his daughter first.

The film is more a drama with some horrific touches. I kinda liked the scenes of the two Tomie girls interacting, even though evil Tomie's narcissism is evident from the start. The film loses its footing in act two. The whole bit about Tomie #1 taking care of Tomie #2's head as it grows back into a body, reminds me of a blackly comic version of Deadpool played completely seriously. The climax is not as exciting as it should be, save a brief scene where the crazed dad unwittingly solves Tomie #1's bully problems. The ending is kind of happy, in that it implies that all characters get what they want without it having to be at the expense of the other's life.

[H-Man]

If u haven't seen Pulse u gotta c it it's so unsettling and despressing but not so much scare though.

Pulse (2001, d: Kiyoshi Kurosawa) - Orig. title - Kairo - Eerie ghost story about a supernatural force that is associated with computers that drives people into depression and often suicide. There are two parallel stories: the first involves the employees of a floriculturist business--Michi, Junko, and Yabe--whose co-worker might have been the first victim. The second storyline involves a college student, Kawashima, who is testing the internet (ah, the quaint days of dial-up internet) when he receives spooky invitations to websites that show ghosts. The head of the school computer lab, Harue, commits herself to investigating his claims. A lot more understated than I thought, but interesting to watch all the same.