Jay McRoy

Japanese Horror Cinema

Richard J. Hand

The fifteen groundbreaking essays contained in this book address the concept of adaptation in relation to horror cinema. Adaptation is not only a key cultural practice and strategy for filmmakers, but it is also a theme of major importance within horror cinema as a whole. Horror film's history is full of adaptations that have drawn from fiction or folklore, or that have assumed the shape of remakes of pre-existing films. The horror genre itself however, also abounds with its own myriad transformations and transmutations.

Generic and Thematic Mutations in Horror Film

Monstrous Adaptations

A much-needed critical introduction to some of the most important Japanese horror films produced over the last fifty years, Japanese Horror Cinema provides an insightful examination of the tradition's most significant trends and themes. The book examines the genre's dominant aesthetic, cultural, political and technological underpinnings, and individual chapters address key topics such as: the debt Japanese horror films owe to various Japanese theatrical and literary traditions; the popular 'avenging spirit' motif; the impact of atomic warfare, rapid industrialisation and apocalyptic rhetoric on Japanese visual culture; the extents to which changes in the economic and social climate inform representations of monstrosity and gender; the influence of recent shifts in audience demographics; and the developing relations (and contestations) between Japanese and 'Western' (Anglo-American and European) horror film tropes and traditions. Extensive coverage of the central thematic concerns and stylistic traits of Japanese horror cinema makes this volume an indispensable text for a myriad of film and cultural studies courses.Features:* Includes a preface by Christopher Sharrett* Each chapter covers a fundamental aspect of Japanese horror cinema and is written by an expert in the field* Case studies include internationally renowned films such as Nakata Hideo's Ringu, Ishii Takashi's Freeze Me and Fukasaku Kinji's Battle Royale* Appendices feature an interview with maverick filmmaker Miike Takashi and a filmography of Japanese horror films currently available in the UK and US.

A critical introduction to some of the most important Japanese horror films produced over the last 50 years, this study provides an insightful examination of the tradition's most significant trends and themes.

Over the last two decades, Japanese filmmakers have produced some of the most important and innovative works of cinematic horror. At once visually arresting, philosophically complex, and politically charged, films by directors like Tsukamoto Shinya (Tetsuo: The Iron Man [1988] and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer [1992]), Sato Hisayasu (Muscle [1988] and Naked Blood [1995]) Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Cure [1997], Seance [2000], and Kairo [2001]), Nakata Hideo (Ringu [1998], Ringu II [1999], and Dark Water [2002]), and Miike Takashi (Audition [1999] and Ichi the Killer [2001]) continually revisit and redefine the horror genre in both its Japanese and global contexts. In the process, these and other directors of contemporary Japanese horror film consistently contribute exciting and important new visions, from postmodern reworkings of traditional avenging spirit narratives to groundbreaking works of cinematic terror that position depictions of radical or `monstrous? alterity/hybridity as metaphors for larger socio-political concerns, including shifting gender roles, reconsiderations of the importance of the extended family as a social institution, and reconceptualisations of the very notion of cultural and national boundaries.ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: `New Waves?, Old Terrors, and Emerging Fears Guinea Pigs and Entrails: Cultural Transformations and Body Horror in Japanese Torture Film Cultural Transformation, Corporeal Prohibitions and Body Horror in Sato Hisayasu's Naked Blood and Muscle Ghosts of the Present, Spectres of the Past: The kaidan and the Haunted Family in the Cinema of Nakata Hideoand Shimizu Takashi A Murder of Doves: Youth Violence and the Rites of Passing in Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema Spiraling into Apocalypse: Sono Shion's Suicide Circle, Higuchinsky's Uzumaki and Kurosawa Kiyoshi's Pulse New Terrors, Emerging Trends, and the Future of Japanese Horror CinemaWorks Cited and Consulted Index

Jay McRoy

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