Beginning in the 90's, a number of horror films were produced in Asia that would have a big impact on American cinema. The most important of these were Ringu (98), Ju-on (03), Kairo (01), Uzumaki (00), and Jian gui (02). Each one is a masterpiece. The first three have seen new American versions under the titles The Ring, The Grudge, and Pulse. Uzumaki, or Spiral, might be the most powerful of them all, but it is perhaps too far off the weirdness scale to get an Americanized remake. I think The Ring was slightly better than its Japanese original, which was certainly unusual. Most A-Horror fans do not agree. All but the last were made in Japan. Jian giu was made in Hong Kong, and it is by far the most beautiful of the films. An American version, The Eye, is about to open.
Chakushin Ari (03), or One Missed Call, now has its American version playing at our local theater. It has been awhile since I saw the Japanese version, so I can't rely too much no memory. It was at least second tier, and had a plot that was more coherent and well-developed than most A-horror tends to be. It is my impression that the American version is slightly better. It is very faithful to the original plot, which is good, and it limits the number of A-horror cliches, which is better. I don't think there is a single Asian woman with long, wet, hair crawling out of anything, and that might be a first since The Ring. It does have a lot of the ghost walking toward you in time-spaced jerks; but that is a very useful, if cheap, cinematic device. It lets you know that the ghost is not quite moving in ordinary space-time. Finally, the ghost in OMC follows the trend of her siblings in the creative use of new technologies. Ghosts have to talk to us somehow, if they talk at all. Cell phones and computers are great substitutes for the traditional Ouija board.
One Missed Call is a reasonably good example of the basic model that underlies almost all good horror. It begins with some real human problematic (in this case, child abuse), and translates it into the ghost world. Every culture, even the most secular, modern, one, has its ghost world. The above-mentioned movies are all interesting because they pull out aspects of the shadow realm that differ between Asian and American culture. In Judeo-Christian culture, the demons nearly always get in because of some moral transgression on the part of the protagonists. In A-horror this is not usually the case. It's just that the ghost world occasionally leaks into the waking world. Think of it as more of an ecological than a moral crisis. One Missed Call fits perfectly within the Western model. But it has a nicely surprising story, and is sharply observant of human psychology. Go see it at night. A fuller theater, with people shouting "Oh My God!" and "Wow!" adds to the experience.
I saw another Japanese movie this weekend (with subtitles: I don't know Japanese): Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Beast Stable. It's not what it sounds like. It is not a chicks-behind-bars movie, nor was it horror. It falls straight into the Yakuza (or gangster) genre, but it is really a female revenge movie. It includes dozens of ruthless gangsters and brutal cops, and one very resourceful young women who knows how to use a knife to pick a lock and then avenge the helpless. By the end, she has killed nearly every single one of the bad guys. Note to self: if you ever meet the Scorpion, don't do anything to make her mad! Finally, unlike an American action film, there are a lot of scenes that are so artful and impressionistic that they would be right at home in a French art movie.
Why do I watch such bizarre movies, let alone post on them? Answer one: I was dropped on my head as a boy. Answer two: so you don't have to. Answer three: because I can if I want to. Answer four: because nothing better delivers the dark heart of a foreign culture, with all its anxieties, than a low-budget gangster film. What is interesting is this story is the dysfunctional role that pregnancy plays in it. One character is a prostitute, working to support her brother, who suffered brain damage in a factory accident. She wants to keep the baby, but to the Scorpion's great dismay, she gets an abortion. Another prostitute is subject to a forced, and very late term abortion, performed by an inebriated doctor. That atrocity triggers the greatest part of the carnage by the avenging hero. In the part of the movie that does occur in prison, an inmate fashions an ersatz baby out of strips of cloth, cradles it, and clearly believes that she has her child back.
It is an old cliche that the rich get richer while the poor get children. This film presents us with a world in which the poorest and most down trodden women are denied even that. The hero can avenge these women, but she can do nothing to save their babies. This tells us something else about the ghost world of Japan. Japan is far away. It is not on another planet.
Recent Comments