It is no coincidence that most culturologists claim that the new century is the century of Asia. The whole world crashed like an avalanche stream of Japanese cinema, literature, anime. Moreover, many films are exotic, original, and this phenomenon in an instant became the subject of heated discussions and in-depth studies. Even Japanese horrors are contemplative cinema, at the same time the emphasis in it is exclusively on the visual series, and all the true depths of meaning, moral subtext are hidden in the images.
The essence of such films is not even concentrated in the semantic core, but in some abstract touches to the human subconscious, to the soul. Intricate or sometimes deliberately simple shots that show us Japanese horrors cause a storm of emotions, a lot of feelings and associations. At the same time, the straightforwardness and simplicity of the plots are illusory, because
Japanese films of the j-horrors category, instead of literary sources or previously captured tapes, rely only on a distinctive national mythology. However, the most important thing in these films is the aftertaste, because in most cases only after the end you can determine exactly whether the film was liked or not. Sound effects go hand in hand with a unique emphasis on the visuals, most often silence. At the same time, unlike American or European cinema, Japanese has extremely few cultural references, but there is plenty of all-consuming aesthetics, frightening the slowness of everything that happens. Japanese horrors are doomed to success. And the reason is not even in the originality, specificity of the plots, not in the exotic, they are working on the inside of the picture, as if showing the viewer events from the opposite side, often in reverse chronology. Perhaps this is what keeps them in terrible tension until the very end, they do not allow the viewer to relax.
Recognition from remakes
Many Japanese horrors have gained worldwide recognition thanks to their American remakes. The most famous of them are “Curse” and “Call”. The image of inexorable evil in both films appears in the face of a young child - a dead girl in The Bell and the same little boy in The Curse, who brutally avenge their painful death for the guilty and guilty without guilt. In these paintings, the attitude of the Japanese to the spirits of the dead is clearly demonstrated, which is one of the most important and fundamental elements of the national religion - Shintoism. With all due respect and even veneration in the films of this genre, the Japanese are trying to calm or, more simply, destroy the evil in the face of precisely these spirits. It can be assumed that the directors are obsessively trying to demonstrate a certain fear of the spirits of the dead. And people are afraid to anger them at least with something and thereby incur their fierce rage. Japanese "Call" (1998) directed by Hideo Nakata was re-shot in South Korea - the film "Call: Virus", and after that in the USA - the same "Call". The American “Curse” (2004) is a clean remake of the Japanese horror film “Ju-on: Anger”, soon after the success of the first picture, “Curse-2”, “Curse-3” are released. At the moment, these two films are the highest-grossing Asian films of the described genre, suggesting that these are the best Japanese horrors. However, this is not all.
Scary exotic
The categories of “terrible Japanese horrors” include: “Suicide Club” (2001), “Pulse” (2001), the bloody “Movie Proof” (1999), the iconic “Royal Battle” (2000), the mystical “Dark Waters” (2001) , non-standard “Prediction” (2004). It will be useful to recall the film adaptation of the Japanese manga comic book Ichi-Killer (2001). And finally, another intriguing thrash from the unique world of Japanese horror films - “Tokyo Blood Police” (2008).