Japanese Horror Top 5

[Stephen Cremin]

No, Don, I think both Mark Schilling and I would back you on RING 0.  Yes,
Rayns angle was strange but I suspect much to do with the fact that RING 0
wasn't directed by Nakata.  Personally, I'm really sick of all these butoh
dancers appearing in contemporary Japanese film (MONDAY, etc, even if I am
fond of Maro Akaji when he's just acting), but the movements of Nakama Yukie
in RING 0 in the cabin were really haunting.

Stephen


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>From: "Don Brown" <the8thsamurai at hotmail.com>
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Japanese Horror Top 5
>Date: Wed, Jan 31, 2001 14:11
>

>>With the recent discussion about best 10 samurai movies, I started
>>thinking... I'd be hard-pressed to come up with 10 Japanese scary 
>>movies I
>>really enjoy.  Anyone willing to stick their neck out and suggest a
>>horror/thriller top 10?
>
>Well, seeing that in New Zealand, access to Japanese film stretches only 
>about as far as Akira Kurosawa, I never had the chance to rent "Toire no 
>Hanako-chan" from the video store back home, but I've been trying my best 
>to catch up since I came to Japan.  A top 10 is out of the question, but 
>using a fairly wide criteria, here's at least a top five of Japanese horror 
>films I thoroughly enjoyed (and some which, even as a hardened horror movie 
>watcher, managed to give me the willies):
>
>Cure 
>Charisma 
>Audition 
>Angel Dust
>Ring 0: Birthday 
>
>Regarding Ring 0, which Tony Rayns recently panned, I found it to be a 
>somewhat original and off-kilter addition to the series, easily topping the 
>first two.  I get the feeling I'm alone on this one though.  After being 
>decidely unimpressed by the first two I was pleasantly surprised by the 
>direction that this one took, transforming the central demon Sadako into a 
>tragic and sympathetic figure, in contrast to her relentless Jason-like 
>boogeyman (boogey-person?) of Ring 1 and 2.  Perhaps it had something to do 
>with the fact that it did away with the whole confusing 
>phonecall-death-sentence and video-curse gimmick (how did a psychic trapped 
>down a well for thirty years manage to commission a video of her own 
>murder?  Kind of a Candid Cadaver type deal?).  What I was most impressed 
>by was the manner in which it managed to successfully expand Sadako's 
>previously one-dimensional character, turning her through 180 degrees and 
>back again, yet still maintaining the link with the previous movies in the 
>series.  I can't think of a horror series that has managed to pull off this 
>feat, let alone attempt it in the first place.  Unless you count Godzilla.
>Don Brown
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