Thursday 12 January 2012

A Genre that inspires me, J-Horror.

J-Horror, is Japanese Horror. More commonly it is known as J-Horror than 'Japanese Horror', J-Horror are said to be some of the scariest films out there. Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror, anticipation and quite often involve ghosts, many contain themes of folk religion for example; Possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition and yokai Examples include; Ringu (Japanese original of 'The Ring'), Ju-on: The grudge, One missed call, Kairo (also known as pulse). J-Horror differs to western horror as it focuses more on fear, and the unknown where as western horror focuses on monsters and objects that can be seen.

Ringu  リング (1998)

The ring is about a video tape recorded by a boy in Izu which bears a curse that kills the viewer seven days after watching. The victims receive a call instantly after watching the tape, seven days later they are killed by an unseen force.

The ring inspires me as it uses human fear and psychology to scare the viewer. Instead of having a force that can actually be explained. The girl in the ring is also scary as her long black hair is dropped across her face, her head is bowed down most of the time, until just before you die, only then do you see her face. The suspense of not knowing is what adds fear to Ringu.



2 comments:

  1. It's fantastic you are producing these extra blogs which will lead to a good grade. Please keep it up! Remember what we discussed in class - the difference between Japanese and Western horror is the folklore that the film's are based on. To try and tell a whole folklore story would obviously be too much - but you might try and think of some key imagery and iconography that you can borrow.

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  2. I recently researched into a Japanese folklore tale 'Yotsuya Kaidan (四谷怪談), the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon' Sadoko from Ringu is closely based on Oiwa from the story. ~ Kiah

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