Where to start?

[Nathan22]

Hey, I'm new to Japanese horror and I was wondering where would be an ideal place to start. I like the storylines that go with 'The Eye', 'Audition', and 'One Missed Call.' Would they be good films to start off with. I'm also keen to see Ju-On:The Grudge, Ringu and Dark Water because Ive seen the remakes.

Also one last question, are Japanese Horror films more gory and disturbing then American Horror?

[Despare]

Hey, I'm new to Japanese horror and I was wondering where would be an ideal place to start. I like the storylines that go with 'The Eye', 'Audition', and 'One Missed Call.' Would they be good films to start off with. I'm also keen to see Ju-On:The Grudge, Ringu and Dark Water because Ive seen the remakes.

Also one last question, are Japanese Horror films more gory and disturbing then American Horror?


Japanese films, like American films, vary from the gory and disgusting to the subtle and creepy. What are your five favorite horror films? I can't recommend a starting point without knowing what you like.

[Nathan22]

I can't really say my top 5 horrors yet, I don't think I've seen enough. But I liked; The Descent, Halloween, Halloween 2, Scream 1&2, Black Christmas. Don't know if that's any help.

[Angra]

I can't really say my top 5 horrors yet, I don't think I've seen enough. But I liked; The Descent, Halloween, Halloween 2, Scream 1&2, Black Christmas. Don't know if that's any help.



Not a lot of Asian slasher movies out there...


But..... "Evil dead trap" 1 & 2.


And give "Ichi the killer" a try. ;) Not slasher, but it's gory as hell.

[XtRaVa]

Hey, I'm new to Japanese horror and I was wondering where would be an ideal place to start. I like the storylines that go with 'The Eye', 'Audition', and 'One Missed Call.' Would they be good films to start off with. I'm also keen to see Ju-On:The Grudge, Ringu and Dark Water because Ive seen the remakes.

Also one last question, are Japanese Horror films more gory and disturbing then American Horror?

The Eye is Chinese, not Japanese. A good start would be to realise theres a difference between China, Japan, Korea etc.

If you are looking for ASIAN horror to start off with then take a look at the list provided. I've also included some movies that arent horror but are worth a watch. It's a shame you've seen the remakes of the films you list, as they suck cock. (Sorry if I sound a little harsh towards you, but asian cinema is special to me ;))

Ringu - Must See
Ringu II
Audition - Must See
The Eye
Oldboy - Must See
Imprint
Abnormal Beauty
Battle Royale - Must See
A Bittersweet Life
Cure
Kairo
Infection

Take a look at some/all of those for starters, however looking at your list of top horror movies (except for Halloween of course) I'm not sure if asian horror is for you, as those movies are terrible american slasher movies...

As for asian horror being more disturbing than American movies, it obviously depends on what movies you watch. However in general I'd say you'd find more distubing asian movies than american (at least from the last 10 years or so). Saw and Hostel are popcorn flicks to me compared to some of the asian stuff I've seen. ;)

[Smackytherabbit]

If you are looking for good horror i would probably skip the whole japanese section and go right to Korean. Not saying that the Japanese have are lower quality in their movies but the Koreans make some twisted shit. Probably my favorite director is Chan-wook Park. While his movies are more along the lines of a thriller, The vengeance series is a must see (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) for any type of movie fan.

Good Korean Movies: (* = more of a thriller)
-Vengeance Series*
-ARANG
-Blood Rain*
-Cello
-Cinderella
-H*
-The Host
-Doll Master
-Memories of Murder*
-R-Point
-Wig
-Tale of two sisters
-Whispering Corridors Series (Voice, Wishing Stairs, Momento mori, WS)


If you are into weird movies then go with the Japanese and try Takashi Miike. He leaves you wondering what the hell happened to him early on in his childhood. Very dark humor in his movies and most are very very very graphic in gore, sexuality, and violence.

Best of Miike:
-Audition
-Ichi the killer
-Visitor Q
-Gozu
-One missed call

Good Japanese Horror: (* = more of a thriller)
-Evil Dead Trap
-Battle Royale
-2LDK*
-Death Note
-Yogen
-Versus
-Suicide Club
-Ringu
-Ju-on
-Infection
-Guinea Pig Series (if you like extreme gore)
-Dark Water (not a huge fan of this movie)

There are a lot of big differences in Asian cultures that come through in their movies. For example Chinese and Thai seem to be more bound to tradition than Japanese and Korean (although korean does have a lot of traditional aspects). The Peng brothers are the big names in Chinese cinema, They just recently in the past year or so made a Hollywood movie. Thus losing some respect from me but whatever. Their stuff is still good.

Good Chinese Horror : (* = more of a thriller)
-Dog Bite Dog* (very very very brutal movie)
-The Eye
-Re-Cycle
-Koma*
-Forest of Death

Good Thai Horror : (* = more of a thriller)
-Art of the Devil
-The Victim
-Shutter
-Dorm
-Colic

Lost of good stuff out there as far as Asian Horror goes. But if you are looking for like an Asian Horror Movie starter kit........ hummm.....

-Shutter
-A Tale of two sisters
-The Eye 1+2
-Yogen
-Oldboy

Of course that list is assuming you have seen Juon and ringu (personally i think there is so much better out there than those two)and would just like to dive a bit deeper.

Also if you are looking for slasher flicks, asian horror probably is not for you but i can give you a list of some......


-Bloody Beach
-Evil Dead Trap
-I guess we could consider Ichi one.
-H
-Versus i guess.



It's hard to label these movies as slashers though cause theres really not too many. I guess your best bet would probably be to go with thrillers i listed above.

[Nathan22]

Okay thanks for the lists everybody. I recorded Ju-On:The Grudge off TV last night, So I'll watch that and tell you all what I think. And 'The Eye' is on tonight which I'm really looking forward to.

XtRaVa, I know Dark Water was pretty crappy! I found the setting quite creepy but the ending was rubbish. I've heard the original is pretty good so thought I'd give it a try. The Grudge remake was pretty good I thought which means the original is probably better. And I thought 'The Ring' remake was pretty crap too, I remember going on an IMDB forum and reading how scared people were by the film. Then I watched it and pitied them.

[IndustrialKitty]

I can't really say my top 5 horrors yet, I don't think I've seen enough. But I liked; The Descent, Halloween, Halloween 2, Scream 1&2, Black Christmas. Don't know if that's any help.

Picking a top 5 is always difficult as you see new movies all the time the list will be ever changeing.

[creepyman]

I'm also new to Japanese horror - enjoyed looking at everyone's list. I did just see Evil Dead Trap at dvwn.com and loved it. Pretty gory stuff. Here's the clip for it for anyone who hasn't seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewi6FAaI1DM I did not like Evil Dead Trap 2, however. They were very different and I don't recommend seeing the 2nd. I'll be watching some off everyone's lists this weekend :D

[XtRaVa]

Okay thanks for the lists everybody. I recorded Ju-On:The Grudge off TV last night, So I'll watch that and tell you all what I think. And 'The Eye' is on tonight which I'm really looking forward to.


Oh dude you're from England/UK? I'll be watching The Eye on film four tonight as well, its a decent flick and pretty freaky.

[Nathan22]

Oh dude you're from England/UK? I'll be watching The Eye on film four tonight as well, its a decent flick and pretty freaky.

Aw it didn't tape :( It was about midnight when I set the tape and accidently set it for the day after, I'll have to see if it's on again.

I saw Ju-On:The Grudge by the way. Thoughts: I take it the american remakes The Grudge1&2 are combined into the first japenese version, as the second japanese film seems to have a different plot.
It left alot to the imagination which I liked, it wasn't linear like most horror films are. It was subtly creepy and uneasy. There was some nice moments of tension in there too. I quite enjoyed it. My only complaint is that if I hadn't seen the remake first, I wouldn't have known what was going on.

Also, I saw 'Audition' in a DVD store the other day. And it had a sticker reading 'This is a great chick flick' on it. I'm thinking that's a joke right!

[XtRaVa]

Haha. Yeah, totally a joke :D

America dont tend to stick to the story line when they make re-makes. The remake of Ring has huge plot differences.

The problem with Ju-on is that theres a lot of releases of it. Theres the first TV movie release called something weird like 'Katasumi and 44444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444 44444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444 444444444444444444444444444444444444444444' (okay perhaps not that many 4's :p) and then theres the feature length movies which are thought of as remakes of the low-budget tv movie.

They are Ju-on: The Curse and then Ju-on: The Curse 2. Then theres Ju-on: The Grudge and Ju-on: The Grudge 2. (So thats 5 Japanese movies including the TV movie)

Then we finally come to the American movies. The Grudge is a direct remake of Ju-on: The Grudge - with minor differences which you'd expect, but then the sequel The Grudge 2, is a new american sequel - not a remake of Ju-on: The Grudge 2.

Does that make any sense? lol.

Anyway...Watch Audition!

[horrorchic]

I liked the Tomie's it's a little weird, but I enjoyed it. You may want to save it till later on the list too.

[XtRaVa]

Don't mention it Nathan...It's not like I spent any time explaining the whole series of the Ju-On movies to you. Don't worry about thanking me. :rolleyes: