J-horror Inquirer article

Thu Jun 8 13:09:15 EDT 2006

Thank you again--you're helping me a lot. I did find that there's one "nice" movie remake--"Eight Below," a movie about the Antarctic, to be released in a few months, a remake of Kurahara's "Nankyoku" (1983), which is available with subtitles as "Antarctica," but only on VHS--I think both versions are supposed to be heartwarming. "Pulse," as you know, is the remake of Kurosawa Kiyoshi's "Kairo," and the film is in turn based on a novel, "Kairo," also by Kurosawa (unless the novel was written after the movie). The book is also available in French translation, but not in English yet, as far as I know.

Michael McCaskey

----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Harper <jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thursday, June 8, 2006 11:55 am
Subject: Re: J-horror Inquirer article

> I think this halfway counts: Hideyuki Hirayama's TURN was picked 
> for the remake treatment a couple of years ago, with Marcus Nispel 
> set to helm. It's not a horror film, although the remake was 
> apparently set to focus on the more 'horrific' possibilities of 
> the concept. I don't know what the status is now though. There was 
> a remake of CHAOS in the pipeline, but I think that's been dropped 
> now.   
>  Jim Harper.
> 
> Michael McCaskey <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> wrote:
>  Many thanks! I gave a lecture comparing recent Japanese films 
> with more recent US remakes a year ago, and have been asked to do 
> an updated lecture on the same topic a couple of months from now. 
> This material from you has led me to several new items, and 
> includes useful links as well.
> 
> It seems that in recent years, apart from Shall We Dance, and a 
> contemplated near-future Ikiru remake, Americans are indeed 
> largely focused on remaking Japanese horror movies.
> 
> Does anyone know about any other non-horror remakes, recent or on 
> the horizon? Scorsese has talked about a remake of Shinoda's 
> Chinmoku/Silence (1971), based on Endo's novel. This remake is 
> supposedly going to be released in 2008, but I don't know if work 
> has actually begun on it yet. It seems to me that I also came 
> across a notice about a recent Japanese remake of Chinmoku.
> 
> Many Thanks,
> 
> Michael McCaskey
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: wgardne1 at swarthmore.edu
> Date: Thursday, June 8, 2006 8:56 am
> Subject: J-horror Inquirer article
> 
> > For those who follow American media coverage on Japanese film, 
> > there was an article in today's 
> > Philadelphia Inquirer about the death and un-death of J-Horror. 
> > The online version also includes 
> > links to some web resources.
> > 
> > http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/14765415.htm
> > 
> > a copy is pasted below--
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Will Gardner
> > Swarthmore, PA
> > 
> > -------------
> > J-Horror haunts Hollywood
> > http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/14765415.htm
> > Posted on Thu, Jun. 08, 2006
> > 
> > 
> > The Asian film phenomenon has studios scrambling to do remakes. 
> > But you can scare up the 
> > even creepier originals on DVD.
> > 
> > 
> > By Tirdad Derakhshani
> > Inquirer Staff Writer
> > 
> > 
> > In "Ju-On," Megumi Okina plays a young woman who discovers the 
> > house she bought is 
> > occupied by vengeful spirits - of the previous tenants, brutally 
> > murdered.
> > J-Horror is dead.
> > J-Horror has never been bigger.
> > 
> > Banking on the success of two American remakes of Japanese 
> films, 
> > The Ring and The Grudge, 
> > Hollywood has at least 16 more remakes of so-called J-Horror 
> films 
> > in various stages of 
> > acquisition, production and release - a major gamble on a minor 
> genre.> 
> > During the late '90s, the Asian cinema - not just Japanese - 
> > produced a bunch of deliciously 
> > surreal and creepy flicks, including Tomie (she's so lovable, 
> > you're compelled to kill her) and 
> > Phone, about the cell phone from hell ("Can you hear me now? 
> Good: 
> > you're about to d-d-d... 
> > aaagh!!").
> > 
> > Even as the phenomenon is being promoted in Everytown U.S.A. 
> (the 
> > next remake, of Kiyoshi 
> > Kurosawa's Pulse, opens July 14), cineastes and critics say the 
> > original J-Horror mini-movement 
> > is over. Kaput. R.I.P.
> > 
> > Yet the transformation of the genre from cult to cash cow has 
> had 
> > one great side effect: It has 
> > opened up the home video market to obscure Asian titles, many of 
> > which are available from 
> > small distributors, including Tartan Films USA and Media Blasters.
> > 
> > Tartan U.S. president Tony Borg said his Asia Extreme line, 
> > launched in January 2005, appeals to 
> > the "17- to 28-year-old video gamer, anime fan and Maxim 
> magazine 
> > reader... . The 
> > demographic is very young, hip, cool and edgy."
> > 
> > Oh, the (J-) horror
> > 
> > The "annoying" term J-Horror was, according to filmmaker and 
> > critic Nicholas Rucka, slapped 
> > onto a few, hard-to-categorize Japanese imports such as Ringu, 
> Ju-
> > On and Séance, by fans. The 
> > '90s movies seriously wigged out horror devotees with their 
> > gruesome, weirdly paced stories of 
> > ghosts most sorrowful and vengeful.
> > 
> > Rucka, who writes for Midnight Eye, an online journal about 
> > Japanese film, said the movies 
> > eschewed computer-generated effects, instead relying on great 
> > lightning, cinematography and 
> > offbeat stories.
> > 
> > In contrast to Western tales, which are "logic- and morality-
> > bound," Japanese yarns presuppose 
> > "a belief that spirits inhabit most everything, from inanimate 
> > objects to living creatures," Rucka 
> > said. So there's need to explain the haunting, and the story can 
> > give a deeper sense of the 
> > ghost's psychology and its interaction with the world.
> > 
> > He said the success of the American version of The Ring in '02 
> > pushed the Japanese industry - 
> > which had already exhausted the genre - to keep cranking out 
> > identical films about "vengeful 
> > ghosts [with] long stringy black hair, impossible physical 
> > gymnastics, meowing little ghost boys, 
> > cursed videos or cell phones or computers..."
> > 
> > The effects-driven Ring, he said, was just too excessive. It 
> > "missed the point. The original was 
> > restrained, subtle, atmospheric... because that actually 
> > heightened the tension and the horror."
> > 
> > Travis Crawford, who programs the "Danger After Dark" series for 
> > the Philadelphia Film Festival, 
> > said, "Some of my favorite horror films have been remakes, 
> > including [Philip] Kaufman's Invasion 
> > of the Body Snatchers and David Cronenberg's The Fly... but I 
> have 
> > yet to see one of those [J-
> > Horror] remakes that hold a candle to the originals."
> > 
> > "That whole wave of Japanese horror had already peaked by 2001," 
> > he said. "Now it's just caught 
> > into a cycle of redundancy." (There are nine versions - 
> including 
> > sequels, prequels and a 
> > television spin-off of The Ring in Japan, the States and Korea, 
> > with a 10th, The Ring 3, due next 
> > year.)
> > 
> > The few great filmmakers who have emerged from the J-Horror 
> scene, 
> > such as Kiyoshi 
> > Kurosawa, use horror metaphorically to explore the human 
> > condition, said Smithsonian film 
> > programmer Tom Vick. Films such as Séance and Cure show that 
> "the 
> > whole universe is this 
> > mysterious force which is controlling you and which is 
> potentially 
> > dangerous."
> > Dead or alive
> > 
> > "I say humbug to the whole 'J-Horror is dead' thing!" said 
> > Hollywood screenwriter Ste-phen 
> > Susco, who wrote the screenplay for the remake of The Grudge and 
> > The Grudge 2, due out in 
> > October. Susco said he conceived of The Grudge as a small-budget 
> > homage to the Japanese 
> > original. But he had a hard time selling the idea in early 2002.
> > 
> > "Studio execs... are baffled by Asian horror, which is so unique 
> > and unconventional," he said. 
> > "Right, there's no happy ending," he said, in imitation of the 
> > pitch to a studio exec. "And, no, 
> > you can never kill the bad creature; and, yep, the film has a 
> lot 
> > of spiritual stuff... ."
> > 
> > Fast-forward a few months to October 2002, when The Ring racked 
> up 
> > $129 million at the U.S. 
> > box office. "Everybody," Susco said, "started calling us again."
> > 
> > He said the remakes aren't as extreme as the films by Japanese 
> > masters such as Takashi Miike, 
> > who directed Audition and Visitor Q.
> > 
> > "Thank God for the rise of the DVDs, because that way people can 
> > at least see those movies," 
> > Susco said.
> > 
> > The ghost in the DVD
> > 
> > So there's no need to commit seppuku. J-Hope springs eternal - 
> on 
> > DVD. Two lines are perfect 
> > for the task: Tokyo Shock by Media Blasters, and Tartan's Asia 
> > Extreme collection.
> > 
> > Media Blasters' Richard York exudes optimism, with reason. 
> > Launched in 1998, his Tokyo Shock 
> > line has more than 125 titles in extreme genres, such as horror, 
> > action, gangster and samurai 
> > films. Its films include Bushinsaba, by Phone director Byeong-ki 
> > Ahn, and Takashi Ishii's deeply 
> > disturbing film about a woman seeking revenge on her three 
> > rapists, Freeze Me.
> > 
> > "We are also film fans ourselves," said York, who said the 
> company 
> > is seeking out films from 
> > Korea and Thailand, where some of the best horror fare is being 
> made.> 
> > The Asia Extreme line, which has 28 titles, is a series of 
> > gorgeously packaged DVDs, including 
> > the fabulously melodramatic Korean schoolgirls ghost story, 
> > Whispering Corridors, and its two 
> > sequels; Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Ironman and his heart-
> > rending tone poem about a 
> > med student who has to dissect his ex-lover, Vital; and 
> Marebito, 
> > the first truly great film by 
> > Grudge director Takashi Shimizu.
> > 
> > Tartan company also distributes some of its titles theatrically, 
> > including Lady Vengeance, the 
> > last entry in Korean director Chan-wook Park's brilliant 
> Vengeance 
> > trilogy, which opened in 
> > Philly on Friday.
> > 
> > Borg, Tartan's U.S. president, said the abundance of Hollywood 
> > remakes "will actually help us, 
> > by raising genre awareness." Think of it as a form of cultural 
> > consciousness-raising: Borg said 
> > Wal-Mart - Wal-Mart! - enthusiastically carries one of Tartan's 
> > first titles, A Tale of Two Sisters.
> > 
> > (Wal-Mart J-Horror. Wal-Mart J-Horror. Wal-Mart J-Horror. The 
> > room's beginning to spin...)
> > 
> > J-Horror Resources on the Web
> > 
> > A selection of Web sites about Asian horror films.
> > 
> > News and Information
> > 
> > Kyonsi Online Reviews, news and DVD sales: www.kyonsi.com.
> > 
> > Midnight Eye Online Journal about Japanese Cinema: 
> > www.midnighteye.com.
> > Tom Vick's blog tomvick.blogspot.com.
> > 
> > The Ring fan site www.theringworld.com.
> > 
> > Subway Cinema Organizes the New York Asian Film Festival, June 
> 16 
> > to July 1: 
> > www.subwaycinema.com.
> > 
> > DVD Distributors
> > 
> > ArtsMagic DVD www.artsmagicdvd.com.
> > 
> > Asian Pulp Cinema www.asiapulpcinema.com.
> > 
> > Asian Vision www.asiavisionfilms.com.
> > 
> > Elite Entertainment: www.elitedisc.com.
> > 
> > Media Blasters www.media-blasters.com.
> > 
> > Panik House www.panikhouse.com.
> > 
> > Tartan Films USA www.tartanfilmsusa.com.
> > 
> > Tartan's Asia Extreme www.asiaextremefilms.com.
> > 
> > Unearthed Films www.unearthedfilms.com.
> > 
> > 
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
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