J-horror Inquirer article

[tim.iles@utoronto.ca]

This thread is turning into a very interesting one, with two supporting but
divergent sub-strands emerging--as I see it, we have on the one hand the issue
of genre, ie., the appropriateness of a label--and on the other, the issue of
the nation, ie., another type of label! As Ian and Aaron have pointed out at
great length (in a good sense! ^_^) and with the usual erudtion, problems of
choosing an appropriate generic label for films that are "scary" situate
themselves precisely at the point of their historicity--that is, which label
applies to which film is a function of era often more than of content, with a
highly porous membrane separating the various genres. This membrane is the
fascinating part of genre-based film studies (auteurist film studies offer
different fascinations) but as a point of departure for the postmodern critic
the membrane becomes a site of network rather than barrier. At the moment I'm
not overly concerned with which generic label fits which film, as engaging as
that problem is--and indeed for some films, both Japanese and otherwise, the
issue of label obfuscates the really interesting aspects of the work--this is
not only an issue of contemporary film but extends back to the silent era, of
course--even a film like _The Cat and the Canary_ (in its 1927 incarnation by
Paul Leni) blended elements of drama, comedy, horror, and mystery.

The issue that I do find quite interesting is the issue to which Mark Anderson
speaks in terms of the prefix "J-" in the context of J-pop and the J-league,
when he writes: "My first response is  that a self-conscious sense of
cosmopolitanism and the exotic attraction of the foreign are more central to the
definition and self-identity of fans of J-pop and the J-League than to manga and
anime, although of course those layers are there in manga and anime too if you
go back far enough."

This issue of self-identity coalescing with a sense of or fascination with the
foreign is quite compelling--and it seems to me that, although Mark was talking
about _Japanese_ youth in his post, this is applicable to non-Japanese youth,
too, who seek out "J-this that or the other thing" as a defining element of
themselves, as they fit into a global fan culture. In my film courses and
classes on Japanese culture _the most popular_ segments deal with "J-horror" and
Japanese animation (thank goodness there's no "J-animation" as a word), and
these segments are popular precisely because Japanese products that the fans fit
into these categories of art are seen as fresh, exotic, and 'inspired' in some
way by something other than consumerism (I'm not saying that this is true of
these products, simply that, from the 'fanboy' perspective of some of the
students I have, this is the perspective with which they greet these works). So
where does this perspective come from, I wonder, since the Japanese film
industry is precisely an _industry_, as is the music industry and anime
industry--and, more intriguingly, what does this process of identification with
these "exotic and cosmopolitan" attractions tell us about the people engaged in
that act of identification?

I think the "J-phenomenon" suggests a disappointment with cultural industry
perceived as _industry_ when that industry is close to the consumer--what I'm
trying to say is that the J-horror film, or J-pop, even if every bit as
commercial, hackneyed (in many cases), cliche-driven (again, in many cases), as
"Hollywood" or non-Japanese films and pop music, is accepted as valid precisely
because it does not emerge from the nation of the consumer, whose own nation's
products might be seen as purely commercial or invalid because the mechanisms of
the industry which created them are too obvious, too visible to the consumer...
This seems to be the case with some of the members of the _anime club_ here at
UVic, or with some of the students who seem to be inordinately absorbed by J-horror.

Okay, a small post in a thread that's getting quite interesting indeed--but it's
convocation here today which means a free lunch of tiny sandwiches and sweets
for dessert! ^_^

Best,


Tim Iles
University of Victoria