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J-Horror: The Definitive Guide to The Ring, The Grudge and Beyond
Navigating the numerous versions released in the U.S. and Japan of The Ring, The Grudge, Tomie and other films and sorting out the finest output of legends like Takashi Miike is an intimidating task. J-Horror breaks down each and every franchise, from the narrative to the talent behind the screen and other trivia, for a greater understanding and appreciation of the genre. Learn about the influence Japanese folklore and ghost stories had on J-Horror, and the influence of J-Horror on American cinema. Just don't forget your copy on the way to the video store!
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 16, 2018
i felt like it was a bit repetitive sometimes.some chapters could have been like 2-5pages shorter.i'd have also loved if there were more pictures.overall it was enjoyable and a great guide/introduction to japanese horror.if you love horror movies and you want to learn some shit, you should get it.it's kinda long tho
March 16, 2019
I got a lot out of this book, which I was reading to prep for a class I am teaching. It does have its problems, such as basically no original research and quite a few spelling mistakes and the like, but Kalat is easy to read and enjoyable.
Some things that stuck out to me:
J-Horror (as it is described here, the kind of horror that is exemplified by The Ring and The Grudge) has an audience primarily of young women.
The Ring remake was at the time the highest grossing horror remake ever.
The Korean Ring remake is actually more faithful to the source material, and was a big movie that was instrumental in the process of opening up Korea to Japanese films (which had been banned)
(Warning: gross) There was a story here that traditional Korean folklore belief was that if a woman dies a virgin, she is more likely to come back as a ghost due to the fact she never fulfilled her motherly purpose... and so sometimes virgins who had passed away would be buried at the side of the road because men sometimes take a leak there, and the sight of a men’s genitals was supposed to calm the spirit of the virgin or something...
In Hollywood and Japan, the producers find a movie project generally and then shop it around to directors. In Hong Kong, the director finds the project generally and looks for funding.
As mentioned previously, young women are the primary audience for some kinds of horror (though not for splatter horror), and apparently the primary attraction for them to attend is not a particular actor or director, but whether the trailer is scary.
Korean horror films are often profitable, but looked down upon by critics and many movie creators... and so Korean directors will sometimes direct a horror movie early in their careers to show what they can do, and then abandon the genre.
Korean horror movies apparently also tend to follow one particular pattern (something about broken families, a character who did something in the past that was horrible and then forgot about it or developed split personalities to deal with it, and looking into the past and uncovering those memories causes pain and destroys lives)... and it’s like comfort food, so to speak.
Even with J-Horror, the same stories are often recycled and refined, and a small group of directors created most of the iconic films.
I think it was Hong Kong films that the book said nowadays are almost always partially funded via crowdfunding!
J-Horror films from Japan tend to be dream-like and illogical, and so when they are remade in the USA, they are usually created to be less illogical, more clear.
Anyway, interesting book!
Some things that stuck out to me:
J-Horror (as it is described here, the kind of horror that is exemplified by The Ring and The Grudge) has an audience primarily of young women.
The Ring remake was at the time the highest grossing horror remake ever.
The Korean Ring remake is actually more faithful to the source material, and was a big movie that was instrumental in the process of opening up Korea to Japanese films (which had been banned)
(Warning: gross) There was a story here that traditional Korean folklore belief was that if a woman dies a virgin, she is more likely to come back as a ghost due to the fact she never fulfilled her motherly purpose... and so sometimes virgins who had passed away would be buried at the side of the road because men sometimes take a leak there, and the sight of a men’s genitals was supposed to calm the spirit of the virgin or something...
In Hollywood and Japan, the producers find a movie project generally and then shop it around to directors. In Hong Kong, the director finds the project generally and looks for funding.
As mentioned previously, young women are the primary audience for some kinds of horror (though not for splatter horror), and apparently the primary attraction for them to attend is not a particular actor or director, but whether the trailer is scary.
Korean horror films are often profitable, but looked down upon by critics and many movie creators... and so Korean directors will sometimes direct a horror movie early in their careers to show what they can do, and then abandon the genre.
Korean horror movies apparently also tend to follow one particular pattern (something about broken families, a character who did something in the past that was horrible and then forgot about it or developed split personalities to deal with it, and looking into the past and uncovering those memories causes pain and destroys lives)... and it’s like comfort food, so to speak.
Even with J-Horror, the same stories are often recycled and refined, and a small group of directors created most of the iconic films.
I think it was Hong Kong films that the book said nowadays are almost always partially funded via crowdfunding!
J-Horror films from Japan tend to be dream-like and illogical, and so when they are remade in the USA, they are usually created to be less illogical, more clear.
Anyway, interesting book!
October 24, 2022
well written but way too long. good reference for getting into j-horror though
October 3, 2020
Great analysis and reference! Finally finished it!
February 28, 2022
Why do I watch horror films? I do not even believe in the supernatural, let alone ghosts. Probably some childhood fear of darkness stays lodged in our minds, providing even those who consider themselves enlightened with a bridge to horror. And the atmosphere of horror films grabs you: the slow threat, the sure sense that something is about to happen...
J-Horror is a genre of Japanese film that originated somewhere in the middle of the nineties of the last century, culminated in films as Ringu and The Grudge, and now still leads a ghostly existence. It is a type of horror film that does away with baroque effects, has little or no CGI and seeks to shock with quiet understatement. This all in part, because the directors had only small budgets - most films were initially made for the direct-to-video market. As so often happens, compelling circumstances gave birth to a new genre.
Although J-Horror uses certain elements that are common to Japanese horror in general (whether film, Kabuki, drama etc.), such as female ghosts without feet but with grudges, it is a sub-genre and not representative of all Japanese horror. For example, in the sixties, much more lavish horror films were made and in 19th c. Kabuki grande-guignol was popular.
In most J-Horror a dead girl appears, often with the long black hair hanging down in front of her face. That not only makes her spookish, it also signifies that she is loose from all moral bearings and following her own desires - loose hair is traditionally an indication of wantonness in women.
Water also plays a large role, many of the girls have been involuntary exposed to the wet element (drowned in an old well, to mention something) and are therefore both wet and dead. Ask Freud whether he thinks this signifies anything special.
With "J-Horror, the Definitive Guide to The Ring, The Grudge and Beyond," David Kalat has written a history of J-Horror and done a very fine job. He dedicates whole chapters to the large franchises as Ringu, The Grudge and Tomie, listing the numerous films and their differences. He is a great help for navigating the dark landscape of J-Horror. And he does not confine himself to Japan, but also unravels the ramifications of J-Horror in Korea, Hong Kong and the United States.
In "J-Horror has Two Daddies" he details the history of the huge Ringu franchise and its founders, author Suzuki Koji and helmer Nakata Hideo. The surprising thing is that neither is really interested in horror: Suzuki seems more interested in how to be the perfect papa for his children and Nakata has since switched to samurai movies. But perhaps for that very reason they created the first peak of J-Horror and put the new genre firmly on the ghostly map. I'll never forget how the ghost of Sadako crawls out of the old well, a bit further each time we see her, long black hair in front of her face, and finally comes slithering out of the TV...
"The Haunted School" is about scared kids, for scared kids - demonstrating the strong roots of the genre in young heroes/heroines and juvenile audiences - no other than the American slasher films. The nineties saw an avalanche of movies about haunted schools, among which Hanako, Phantom of the Toilet is my favorite, if only for the title.
"Junji Ito will not die" delves into the macabre manga of Ito Junji (strongly recommended to those with strong stomachs) and the films based upon them, in the first place the Tomie franchise about a girl who is killed but refuses to die, her voracious appetite for love time and again bringing her back to life again. She seduces legions of young guys with only one objective: to kill them and then get herself killed...
While the Tomie films are not as good as the original manga, another work based on Ito's nightmarish stories, Uzumaki (The Spiral), made by (despite the name, Japanese director) Higuchinsky, is a great art film. Higuchinsky wonderfully captures the madness of Ito's universe in its total obsession with killing spirals.
In "You are the disease and Kiyoshi Kurokawa is the cure" another art director is introduced: Kurosawa Kiyoshi who far transcends the horror genre and often only plays with its conventions. The only pure J-Horror film he made is Pulse, the rest does not fit in any genre - Cure, for example, is more a dark thriller in the vein of Seven.
"A Ghost is Born" introduces the other great franchise of Ju-On, The Grudge, and its director Shimizu Takashi. At first sight a normal haunted house story, the terrible grudge these Japanese ghosts bear becomes a virus that threatens society. And that little boy with his white face and empty stare is really frightening, even more than his ghostly mother crawling down the stairs.
In "The Unquiet Dead" Kalat provides a round-up of the countless other J-Horror movies from this ten-year period. Some flicks worth watching are Shikoku, Inugami, Trick, Parasite Eve, Suicide Club... although none of these really fits the genre. It was all-round indie Miike Takashi who hit the bull's eye with One Missed Call. The film became famous because of its "ringtone of death," and I can assure you, you will look very differently at your phone after watching this movie.
"Whispering Corridors" takes us to Korea and K-Horror, a substantial amount of atmospheric, supernatural shockers. Whispering Corridors is one of them, as is Memento Mori, both in the haunted school tradition, but for me the strongest by far is A Tale of Two Sisters by Kim Ji-Woon. It is a creepy psychological horror tale with a convoluted plot that will leave you speechless.
We next travel to Hong Kong for the Chinese take on nightmares and ghouls, in the sophisticated The Eye of the Pang Brothers (what if your eyes become unreliable and in fact belong to someone else?) and the final chapter brings on the American remakes, which - although they cannot touch the originals and I do not see the reason for such remakes as everyone can watch the original films with subtitles - at least had the effect of bringing people to the original J-Horror films - including David Kalat as he tells in the opening of the book.
The book closes with a useful filmography running from 1990 to Kurosawa's Retribution from 2006. I only missed an index, which would have been useful in a book with so many names. On a positive note, the notes at the end of the individual chapters also have many pointers to articles on the web.
Kalat's prose is a pleasure to read. How "definitive" the book is, time will tell, but it certainly is a very detailed and balanced account, and warmly recommended to all film fans.
P.S. The 15 years since the book was published have seen a few horror films, but nothing of great significance - the J-Horror wave has long been over.
See my blog for my take on J-Horror: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/20...
J-Horror is a genre of Japanese film that originated somewhere in the middle of the nineties of the last century, culminated in films as Ringu and The Grudge, and now still leads a ghostly existence. It is a type of horror film that does away with baroque effects, has little or no CGI and seeks to shock with quiet understatement. This all in part, because the directors had only small budgets - most films were initially made for the direct-to-video market. As so often happens, compelling circumstances gave birth to a new genre.
Although J-Horror uses certain elements that are common to Japanese horror in general (whether film, Kabuki, drama etc.), such as female ghosts without feet but with grudges, it is a sub-genre and not representative of all Japanese horror. For example, in the sixties, much more lavish horror films were made and in 19th c. Kabuki grande-guignol was popular.
In most J-Horror a dead girl appears, often with the long black hair hanging down in front of her face. That not only makes her spookish, it also signifies that she is loose from all moral bearings and following her own desires - loose hair is traditionally an indication of wantonness in women.
Water also plays a large role, many of the girls have been involuntary exposed to the wet element (drowned in an old well, to mention something) and are therefore both wet and dead. Ask Freud whether he thinks this signifies anything special.
With "J-Horror, the Definitive Guide to The Ring, The Grudge and Beyond," David Kalat has written a history of J-Horror and done a very fine job. He dedicates whole chapters to the large franchises as Ringu, The Grudge and Tomie, listing the numerous films and their differences. He is a great help for navigating the dark landscape of J-Horror. And he does not confine himself to Japan, but also unravels the ramifications of J-Horror in Korea, Hong Kong and the United States.
In "J-Horror has Two Daddies" he details the history of the huge Ringu franchise and its founders, author Suzuki Koji and helmer Nakata Hideo. The surprising thing is that neither is really interested in horror: Suzuki seems more interested in how to be the perfect papa for his children and Nakata has since switched to samurai movies. But perhaps for that very reason they created the first peak of J-Horror and put the new genre firmly on the ghostly map. I'll never forget how the ghost of Sadako crawls out of the old well, a bit further each time we see her, long black hair in front of her face, and finally comes slithering out of the TV...
"The Haunted School" is about scared kids, for scared kids - demonstrating the strong roots of the genre in young heroes/heroines and juvenile audiences - no other than the American slasher films. The nineties saw an avalanche of movies about haunted schools, among which Hanako, Phantom of the Toilet is my favorite, if only for the title.
"Junji Ito will not die" delves into the macabre manga of Ito Junji (strongly recommended to those with strong stomachs) and the films based upon them, in the first place the Tomie franchise about a girl who is killed but refuses to die, her voracious appetite for love time and again bringing her back to life again. She seduces legions of young guys with only one objective: to kill them and then get herself killed...
While the Tomie films are not as good as the original manga, another work based on Ito's nightmarish stories, Uzumaki (The Spiral), made by (despite the name, Japanese director) Higuchinsky, is a great art film. Higuchinsky wonderfully captures the madness of Ito's universe in its total obsession with killing spirals.
In "You are the disease and Kiyoshi Kurokawa is the cure" another art director is introduced: Kurosawa Kiyoshi who far transcends the horror genre and often only plays with its conventions. The only pure J-Horror film he made is Pulse, the rest does not fit in any genre - Cure, for example, is more a dark thriller in the vein of Seven.
"A Ghost is Born" introduces the other great franchise of Ju-On, The Grudge, and its director Shimizu Takashi. At first sight a normal haunted house story, the terrible grudge these Japanese ghosts bear becomes a virus that threatens society. And that little boy with his white face and empty stare is really frightening, even more than his ghostly mother crawling down the stairs.
In "The Unquiet Dead" Kalat provides a round-up of the countless other J-Horror movies from this ten-year period. Some flicks worth watching are Shikoku, Inugami, Trick, Parasite Eve, Suicide Club... although none of these really fits the genre. It was all-round indie Miike Takashi who hit the bull's eye with One Missed Call. The film became famous because of its "ringtone of death," and I can assure you, you will look very differently at your phone after watching this movie.
"Whispering Corridors" takes us to Korea and K-Horror, a substantial amount of atmospheric, supernatural shockers. Whispering Corridors is one of them, as is Memento Mori, both in the haunted school tradition, but for me the strongest by far is A Tale of Two Sisters by Kim Ji-Woon. It is a creepy psychological horror tale with a convoluted plot that will leave you speechless.
We next travel to Hong Kong for the Chinese take on nightmares and ghouls, in the sophisticated The Eye of the Pang Brothers (what if your eyes become unreliable and in fact belong to someone else?) and the final chapter brings on the American remakes, which - although they cannot touch the originals and I do not see the reason for such remakes as everyone can watch the original films with subtitles - at least had the effect of bringing people to the original J-Horror films - including David Kalat as he tells in the opening of the book.
The book closes with a useful filmography running from 1990 to Kurosawa's Retribution from 2006. I only missed an index, which would have been useful in a book with so many names. On a positive note, the notes at the end of the individual chapters also have many pointers to articles on the web.
Kalat's prose is a pleasure to read. How "definitive" the book is, time will tell, but it certainly is a very detailed and balanced account, and warmly recommended to all film fans.
P.S. The 15 years since the book was published have seen a few horror films, but nothing of great significance - the J-Horror wave has long been over.
See my blog for my take on J-Horror: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/20...
March 2, 2021
I agree with a couple of other reviewers who found it a little repetitive - it started out very promising, but quickly devolved into "here's another J-horror franchise, and here are plot descriptions of each film in chronological order". Casual as the tone is, I still would have appreciated a touch more editorialising and asides.
January 6, 2020
This is a great book for anyone interested in where "J-horror" got it's start and those that helped to bring it to the forefront. My only complaint is that it can get a bit repetitive but it was a relatively quick read.
July 29, 2021
A bit repetitive and I wonder if Kalat inserts himself too much into his writing. Still, I came out of the book with a great foundational knowledge of J-horror narrative and visual tropes.
March 26, 2023
even though it was interesting and a great analysis i found it repetitive and boring at times
September 27, 2023
Spannend
November 30, 2023
i picked up (again) recs for horror movies prior to 2007. that said, who proofread this book? lotta typos left over. guy called uzumaki uzukami. my dude.
January 9, 2012
Released as "J-horror" gave way to "torture porn" and remakes of golden age American (sometimes Canadian) slasher flicks, this is a fairly well-rounded look at the "dead wet girls" phenomenon- a good primer for the casual fan looking to get into the genre, if a bit repetitive (not unlike the films themselves), especially if one already reads their share of Midnight Eye or similar resources for fans of outre Japanese cinema. Kalat has a steady, even-keel tone throughout, which helps mend the largely cut-and-paste nature of some of the chapters.
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May 28, 2013A good primer for beginners. The tone is a little odd, reading somewhere between academic and informal blog-post, but Kalat has a strong command of the material.
May 30, 2015
Excellent introduction to the history of Japanese horror films and how it started a global phenomenon. Includes a list of films to see at the end that are referenced in the book too.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews