Friday, January 06, 2006

The Death of J-Horror?




I wanted to share an awesome read from the great Japanese cinema site, Midnight Eye. In his article The Death of J-Horror?, Nicholar Rucka dissects and documents the lineage of horror in Japanese cinema, and vents about the shitty fare coming out these days. This is a serious must-read for any horror fan that frequents our blog.

While a nice read solely for his lamentations about the garbage that has been coming out the past years in Japanese horror, the best part of this feature is the reconstruction of the horror tradition in Japan, and the many references to horror/folk sources like Nanboku Tsuruya, Lafcadio Hearn and Edogawa Rampo--- along with much deserved praise for '50s/'60s/'70s cinema masterpieces like Yotsuya Ghost Story, Onibaba, Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan and Ugetsu.

Atrocity ukiyo-e, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Shinya Tsukamoto, Nobuo Nakagawa, Miike--- this article ties together all the great bits (and personal favorites of Same Hat!) of horror in Japanese art, literature and film together into a cohesive history. Please give it a read here.

Oh, also! --On the promising Japanese film tip, the film Rampo Noir, a collection of short pieces based on (my personal favorite short story writer) Edogawa Rampo's weirdo/detective tales, sounds RADICAL! I read this preview and got superemely excited. Now to wait for a U.S. release date!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey ryan! i have a copy of Kwaidan (the book).. so if you'd ever like to read it you can borrow it.
-cerise

Ryan said...

oooh nice! I would love to borrow it some time! I read the black hair story that makes its way into the movie in a classical japanese class once. where did you get it?
ryan!

Jim said...

Hi Ryan--

It was great to see you today at Adrienne's talk.

I found Rucka's article helpful and interesting. I'll also take a look at Midnight Eye.

Once I've made some progress on the J-Horror class I'll get back in touch.

Take care,

Jim Reichert