Nighthawk’s Top 10 Japanese Horror Movies – Part Two

5. Ringu (1998):
Nope, not number one. Surprised? Well, if I was going on popularity this would probably hold that spot but it’s my list, damn it, and maybe I’m just in black haired creepy white ghost girl overload but Ringu wasn’t the best of the best. Nope, not even the best of the best black haired creepy white ghost girl story. We’re getting there. I does have the distinction of being the first modern J-horror flick and the most popular flick to Western audiences. It’s actually been remade in both the US and Korea. Based on a novel by Koji Suzuki, Ringu still holds the spot as the highest grossing Japanese horror film as it took $137.7 million to the bank. Two sequels and a prequel as well as a video game would ensure the Ring Girl, no cat sounds from her, kept bringing home the bacon. Mmmm, bacon. It has been credited as giving birth to the revival of horror films in Japan and a boom followed. The plot isn’t as hard to follow as some of the flicks that came after wards. There’s a tape. You watch the tape. The phone rings. You answer the phone. You die in a week. You know, how about you don’t answer the phone? What if you let the Ring Girl go to voice mail? Oh, wait, we already had that flick! So, again a theme of these J-horror films is the ghosts coming into the “real” world via technology. Here it is a video and is my personal favorite as it sets up a nice hook in having seven days to save yourself or dwell upon your immanent death. So, when our lead character watches the tape, similar to entering into Cat Boy’s house, she’s cursed and now has seven days to unlock to mystery of the ghosts and save herself. I thought the tape was a Maguffin until the final moments in the film when it actually serves a purpose the unifies things and provides an escape clause but not before one of the freakiest moments in any horror flick makes your eyes bulge in one of those great cinematic “Holy Shit” moments. The ending also makes the title of the film make sense…kinda of. I spent the whole movie looking for a damn ring! There are a few similarities to the film Poltergeist as Suzuki was inspired to write his novel after viewing the 1982 flick. Recently the ending was granted the status of #6 in the UK’s Scariest Film Moments. I wouldn’t rank it that high but it is a lasting image so stop reading this and rent Ringu and see it for yourself. Just don’t answer your phone afterwards.


4. Uzumaki (2000):
Take all of the wacky shit you’ve seen or heard about Japan, mix it all up real nice, give it to David Lynch and wait for it to vacate his body and what you will have floating there will be Uzumaki, one of the strangest flicks I’ve seen in recent memory. Okay, it’s not Eraserhead weird but it’s in the same class. Maybe in the same row and for those of you who have seen the madness that is Eraserhead you’ll know what category of weird you have just entered. Kind of hard to explain this one as it is all over the place but it concerns a small town battling against spirals. I know that sounds strange but what did I tell you a sentence ago! Spirals are the enemy here. There is a certain charm to this flick that is endearing. I like goofy small town tales. I think that is why I loved Twin Peaks so much. Yeah, the mystery was great but the odd characters were far more intriguing. This is a fun movie with a supernatural twist, pun intended. Lots of goofiness which I just ate up. The use of CG is done in a very interesting way and the color palate is dark and offsetting. If the Japanese know anything it is how to do insane comedy and when you start tossing in elements of horror into the mix you got something like Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive. Like that film, Uzumaki isn’t a gleaming diamond of cinema but the building craziness involved leading to the ultimate twist ending, another pun intended, made this film much more then what I thought it was going to be. This story also originated in manga and there is a very comic book feel to the movie. My favorite character has to be the Japanese equivalent of Skut Farcus, popping up here and there until his ultimate…well, watch and see. The love story in this film doesn’t seem contrived like other films and there is an interesting enough back story there to sustain it. However, you are ultimately drawn into this film by the visuals and insanity that ensues. Enjoy this crazy romp!


3. Kwaidan (1964):
This is not one story but an anthology of four ghostly tales sort of like Tales from the Crypt comics without having Joan Rivers as your host and Crypt Keeper. These stories come from the collected Japanese ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn. In 1964 this became the most expensive Japanese film ever made. The four stories (The Black Hair, The Woman of the Snow, Hoichi the Earless and In A Cup of Tea) would all make great Twilight Zone episodes. The Black Hair tells of a destitute samurai leaving his wife for the arms of a woman with money only to find misery and regret. When he returns to his first wife he finds something is not quite right with her. In The Woman in the Snow a lumberjack meets an ice ghost what has taken the form of a woman. Threatening him with death she decides to spare him on one condition. When that condition is broken it is meet with horrific retroactions. Hoichi, in Hoichi the Earless, is a man living without his sight. He is a musician that is forced to play for the ghosts of the Imperial court. Tortured by the spirits, his fellow monks make him invisible to the ghosts but there is one catch. Finally, a cup of tea introduces us to a writer who regales us with a strange tale of a face found in a tea cup. This film is beautiful, haunting and magical and was chosen by the Criterian collection for one of their coveted DVD releases. After some thought I decided to move this film up on the list. It originally stood at spot #6 but in retrospect this film is just a wonderful piece of cinema and needed to be higher. The soundtrack is haunting with its repetition of sound theme, the set design is as epic as anything in a DeMille film, colorful costumes contrasting dark images and perfect cinematography make this film much more then a collection of ghost stories. This is cinematic art and though not particularly scary Kwaidan is a gorgeous helping of cinema.


2. Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara (2002):
This flick was remade in the states as Dark Water staring the ample bosomed Jennifer Connely but like The Ring just skip the remake and dive on in to the vastly superior original. This is another ghost story and my pick for the best in the bunch not so much for the scary aspects of it (The Grudge and the Ring have more frightening scenes, in my opinion) but for the story and the mother and daughter characters excellently portrayed by Hitomi Kuroki and Rio Kanno. Laced into the supernatural aspects of this story is a bitter custody battle between parents with the mother fighting her ex-husband, a man who proves he will play dirty to get what he wants. Through him it is revealed that the woman once underwent psychiatric treatment and the seed in the audience is planted, at least it was in me. I started to question the sanity of the “victim” when the spooky stuff starts to happen. Is this all in her mind? Whereas at first I felt terrible that these things were transpiring to this mother only trying to protect her daughter by the middle of the film I started to believe the woman was only bringing her madness on herself. Each new moment of madness cuts her away from her custody case and ultimately she snaps publicly and we think that maybe she isn’t the right person to rear her child. As two stories (the back story of our “ghost” being one of them) showcase neglecting children, the mother in the present part of the film displaying her neglect in one instance in the same fashion as our back-story and as well as a few other times in the film, we as an audience turn on her, disbelieve her stories of a haunting little girl and a small red bag which keeps appearing despite it being tossed away. Then there is the water. Lots of it. There is a strong water motif in this film which reminded me a bit of the graduate. There is a lot of rain and we feel the characters are being submerged and drowned. This is, of course, intentional as the Japanese believe that water is the pathway to the land of the dead. The film culminates in an extremely heartbreaking scene. One wouldn’t think they would find themselves misting up in a horror film but this scene is emotionally wrenching after what we’ve been through with the female lead and the coda to the film is filled with even more sorrow. An emotional ride is this one and this takes it beyond your normal horror flick. The scary aspects are great and eerie but the story and character relationships earn this film the silver spot on this list.


1. Ôdishon (1999):
Another Takashi Miike film makes the list (the third) as this amazing director cinces the number one spot in the film that launched his career as a unflinching filmmaker when it pertains to violence and gore. Though not as violent as Koroshiya Ichi (there is really one or two graphic scenes in Ôdishon compared to Ichi’s near dozen), this film is like the Shinning in how the horror isn’t so psychological trip through a place you don’t want to go to but can’t seem to stop yourself form entering. The first time I saw the Shinning, the scariest film I’ve ever seen, I was scared for weeks by images found in the film. I remember that first viewing with my brother. He feel asleep. I was transfixed to the scream. When the big reveal came at the ending I violently shook my brother awake screaming “REDRUM!” and pointing to the screen. I think now I woke him not to show him the revelation that was revealed in the word but because I didn’t want to be alone at the climax as a frightening Nicholson wielded his ax and his grin! “Here’s Johnny”, indeed. Ôdishon left the same impression on me in almost the exact same way. The film starts off slow, normal enough as it tells of a man and his son going through the motions after the death of their wife/mother. The man, a film director, carries his despair with him until a friend decides he needs to move on with his life. He sets up an audition of actresses only it is not for a film but instead to decide who will win the chance at becoming the famous director’s wife.