What's the best Asian horror movie you have seen
 

Well my vote would have gone to Battle Royale (but not sure if it is a horror) so I will vote for The eye watched it today and thought it was fantastic

Wild Zero!

Not a fan of this sub-genre at all, though I watch everything simply to keep up. I would say Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires because Peter Cushing and Roy Ward Baker were on hand to give it some class. Junk is my favorite Asian zombie movie; thought Versus was a mess--the editing and camerwork were just all over the place, like college students who wanted to do a Tarantino/Rodriguez movie. Chinese Ghost Story was probably my favorite visually. Battle Royale and Audition were kinda cool, however the hell you would categorize them. Hated The Eye, Ringu (movie sould be about tomato sauce), and the over-hyped, over-rated American remake. My main problem with Asian horror is that for the horror to work, the comedy also has to work. Even in horror movies with little comedy. Barker, Romero, and many other people smarter than I have pointed this out. The Asian sense of humor just doesn't translate well with American audiences. John Woo might be the exception (just about everything in his masterpiece The Killers worked). The only Asian filmmaker I truly love is Akira Kurosawa, but I like Leone and Sturgis much better.

On the whole, I like my horror American or Euro. Both share the same Gothic and cultural sensibilities that I have.

Junk was a fun Zombie movie

Dark Water was creepy and had some good shocks (saw it in the theater and don't know how it holds up on the small sreen)

I agree about the humor - Stacy for example

well that is cool everyone has their own tastes which is good. But for me I would much rather pick up a Asian film then watch anything out of america or europe.

As far as comedy in horror movies (and again this is only my personal opinion) I do not think it is necessary, it all depends what mood you want to set.

But if it wasnt for asia right now my dvd collection would never be added to I can honestly say that in the last 5 years there has only been 3 films I wanted to buy which came out of hollywood but I have bought about 25 asian films in the last 2 years lol.

But that is why I love this forum everyone has their own likes/dislikes and opinions and you can learnt a lot from that.

Not only is Kairo the best Asian horror movie I've seen (and yes, I watched it with subtitles), it's one of the best movies I've seen period.

WOW I am shocked lol

at what?

I've bought around 700 DVDs in the last three yrs. The Asian stuff is all of John Woo's movies, all Kurosawa's samurai movies, the Better Tomorrow sequels without Woo, Bride With White Hair 1 and 2, Stacy, Junk, Wild Zero, Audition, The Swordsman series and unfortunately I picked up Versus before I rented it. Most other suff I've either rented or have video bootlegs of. The biggest bulk of the rest is American and European horror. Here is my problem with Asian horror (and yes, I can see why people think they're cool--but I'm talking horror as a GENRE)---Horror archetypes evolved out of European legends and English Gothic novels. That IS monster culture as we know it. You can sit down and trace everything from TCM to Deep Red back to The Castle of Otranto, the first horror novel marketed as such. That is why Asian horror will never be anything except a footnote or at best a slim chapter in any English-language film book. With a very few exceptions, and most of them demonstrating foreign filmmakers' takes on American horror movie archetypes, Asian horror should be considered in context with the exploitation film or with Asian filmmaking in general and not with the history of the horror film.

damn, Doc, you just owned everybody