Recommend Me Some Asian Horror Movies, Please
 

So once a month a few of my girlfriends and I hold a Ladies Horror Movie Night, involving solely Asian Horror movies.

Because I'm the only one with a Netflix account, I am responsible for bringing the movies, and need a little help.

Here are some of the movies that either I or the group have seen and what we think of them:

• Audition - My friend Amy introduced me to this film. Very slow starting, but then delightfully macabre and then horrific. I give it an A-/A.
• The Grudge - I know that some of you are going to criticize me for this, but I actually like the remake better than the original. I feel as though the original was long, drawn out, and had a lot of it that was superfluous. I feel as though the remake gave Takashi Shimizu the chance to cut the fat with the remake, to tell you the truth. I give the original a B, with extra points for being so influential in this genre of film.
• Reincarnation - SPEAKING of Takashi Shimizu, here's another one of his that I really enjoyed. I thought that the direction was fantastic and I honestly did not predict the twist at the end (and I really LIKED the twist at the end)... Not to mention, he had a knack for choosing incredibly talented foley artists. A-
• Cinderella - A bit slow-going with nothing really new. The reveal is pretty horrific, but it takes a LONG time to get there... I'd say B, depending on my mood (some of the images are REALLY horrific, and seriously, the reveal is fantastic).
• Arang - I thought that the direction was actually really good, and it was impressive to see a very strong female lead (usually in Asian horror, females are either Evil or Helpless, so it was great to see a strong one). I give the movie a B-/B.
• A Tale of Two Sisters - Honestly, I had REALLY high hopes for this movie. I thought that the direction was incredible, but one of the reveals was predictable while the second one... Didn't make sense (and felt as if it were just thrown in to add a twist). All in all, though, I would probably see this movie again, as I did enjoy the visuals, overall. B+/A-
• Tetsuo - Quintessential Asian Horror. Honestly, I was impressed that such a sexually explicit and imagistic film was not only produced but released in Japan in the late 80s. I give it an A-/A for pure balls (but I can't say that I necessarily LOVED it... it reminded me of Eraserhead).
• Three... Extremes - Oh, how I adore this triad of horror films... While Dumplings is a little slow and disappointing, I definitely enjoyed the latter two, both for different reasons. That reminds me - I really need to see it again. I give it an A/A+
• Battle Royale - I'm not sure if I'd necessarily classify this as purely horror, per say, though it definitely has some macabre elements. I loved it. A.
• The Host - SO refreshing to see a modern monster movie. Also a good combination of horror and comedy. A/A+. I need to own this film.

I hope that this is enough to go by to judge my horror movie taste. I would really LOVE if you guys could recommend some more (next horror movie night: January 19th!). If you don't mind providing a small movie synopsis and why you enjoyed the film, I might just keep you for my own unholy growing army of the night.

Thanks so much.

"The Eye" is a good one..catch it before the remake comes out.

You should get some good feedback on this thread....Angra will have some suggestions fer sure.

Damnit, I do really want to see that movie (the original - I haven't been sold on the remake yet). But through some bizarre and cruel twist of fate, it is NOT available on Netflix (which is confusing because The Eye seems fairly canonical from what I hear)... I might just have to break down and rent it from Blockbuster. :(

Watch it in surround sound if you can.....this is one movie where the audio really has an effect on the scare factor.......one scene in particular comes to mind....sends a shiver down my spine every time I see it.

Kwaidan
Wild Zero
Versus
Save the Green Planet (not horror, but AWESOMELY WEIRD!!!!)
Riki Oh - The Story of Ricky (not horror, but pure grindhouse!)
R-Point

I certainly echo some of the above recommendations by Newb and Rod here are some that have not been mentioned that I like ...

Korean-

The Vengeance Trilogy (All great films although personally I think Oldboy is the best)
Black House
H
Memories of Murder
Tell Me Something

Japanese-

Ju-On The Grudge 2 (Less slow moving than the first;) )
Death Note/Death Note 2
One Missed Call
Suicide Club
Lady Snowblood
Ichi the Killer

Chinese

The Eye 2(Seems to be a love it or hate it film,I love it:) )
Re-Cycle(Another Pang Bros movie and their best imo,a must see)

Thai

Shutter(If you like movies that make you jump then you will love this )

That's the best I can think of but I've probably missed a few great ones that I will think of later ...:)

Kwaidan - This. Looks. Awesome. I think that I might have to grab it for the next Movie Night.

For the remaining 5, I think that they're movies that I'll put on my personal Netflix queue, but I'm not sure if they're movies that the group would like (I think that they have certain expectations of what "horror" is and should be). I'm a movie snob. I know that I definitely am more open to different movies than most. Are your friends like that? Not necessarily people that you would show SOME movies to?

Save the Green Planet looks AMAZING. I'm excited about that one. And R-Point looks fairly intense.


.................

Movies that I came across while looking these up (Has anyone seen them?):

• Suicide Club
• Strange Circus
• Gozu
• Cello

They've caught my eye... Has anyone seen them? More importantly, would you show them to your friends?

..................

DP - That list looks GREAT. I'm going to look up each of them, but, alas, I must work (yes, on a SATURDAY MORNING)... I will return. :)

...................

Also, I forgot to mention, I LOVED The Host. I will add it to my list now.

The Eye is one of my favorite movies, loved the sequel too.
Infection is amazing
Red Eye is another one I enjoyed
Tomie: Rebirth
Kairo
Phone
One Missed Call
Premonition is worth a watch

and suicide club is worth watching, I didn't like it as much as some people but I still enjoyed it.

I agree with you about Suicide Club many people hate it mainly because it doesn't always make a whole lot of sense.What saved it for me was some quite unique scenes and some hilarious dialogue!Oh and how the hell did I forget Kairo?:o

HAH
Yeeeeaaaa boooooyyyyyy found my password

Suicide Club is good, not sure if you could show it with a bunch of people in the room without having a few confused heads though. Its really a personal interpretation movie. However it would probably be better to view in a group than....

GOZU! This is such a great and twisted movie. Be prepared with this one. You mentioned Audition above and Miike is always screwy but Gozu and Visitor Q really take the cake in his library. If you have intelligent friends you could watch this one with them.

Strange Circus was pretty good. I actually downloaded it online but when i was Circuit City last i saw it there and i did buy it. So.... yea its good. I say its worth putting on your waiting list. I dont think this one would be a major problem showing in a group setting.

Cello Ehh, personally i did not enjoy this one. Decent spooks though.


Additional few (Trailer link provided in name):
Wishing Stairs

The Vengeance Trilogy is a must for any movie fan, these movies are so unbelievably good.
OldBoy
Mr Vengeance
Lady Vengeance

Shutter, not original for the genera at all. But EXTREMELY spooky.

Hellevator Yes, bad name i know. Still a great movie.

I dunno, theres a lot of great asian movies out there.

Amen to that

Oldboy is easily the best of the bunch...and one of the best movies of the 21st century

I cannot say which one is the best.
Lady vengeance... man. every time i see that i like it more and more.
And Mr Vengeance ive always loved on the same level as oldboy.
Its tough to put any above the others


Oh also,
Re-Cycle is a must too. Thats the bastard child of asian horror + the labyrinth + the never ending story.

Recommendations:

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
APT (2006)
Face (2004)
The Red Shoes (2005)
Alone (2007)
Art of the Devil 2 (2005)

btw, Cello is a mediocre horror and Takashi Mike's Gozu is a very weird one...I hated it.

Marebito
The Red Shoes
Crazy Lips and Gore from Outer Space(both a bit cheesy, but good)
Visitor Q

These are all on Netflix.

LOL ...don't be so careless in future:p


@Chronogirl
One more I forget to mention is Uzumaki,this is a very very strange movie.It has a crazy storyline,crazy characters,subliminal messages and some completely insane visuals.Many people think it is horrible but I liked it for its .. er...uniqueness!

try
Visitor Q
The Eye
Ichy the killer
Dark water
Spiral (forgot the japanese titel)
Tomi

sorry if some have already been posted

Try Ichi The Killer, The Eye, Old Boy - All Are Very Good!!!! Battle Royale 2 Is Well Worth A Look.

Ooooo, these are REALLY good suggestions.

...

I think that I'm going to go with Kwaidan for this Saturday... I also happen to have Three ... Extremes II, so I'll probably bring that over as well.

WANT to see:
The Eye (but Netflix doesn't have it).

My friends have seen The Eye 2, but thought it was mediocre and not as good as the first one.

DP McCoy - You mention both One Missed Call and The Grudge 2... I wasn't a huge fan of the American remake of The Grudge 2 and the American remake of One Missed Call looks terrible... The originals much better? Just curious...

Gozu and Visitor Q sound great... Maybe I'll have to pre-watch them before showing them to the group.

...

I really hated the American remake of The Ring... And hated it... I've often been curious about how the original Ringu was... Any good?


I'm a little wary of Battle Royale 2... While I really liked the first one, I'm just wary of a sequel... Thoughts?

We do =)

To answer this myself (sorry DP).. The Grudge 2 is not a remake of Ju-on 2: the grudge. Grudge 2 (American) was a stand alone. Not a remake. Ju-On 2 is nothing great, but leaps better than the American counterpart. Also so you know.... The Grudge 3 coming out soon is a remake of Ju-On 2.

I personally believe that its the most overrated Asian horror movie and not a whole lot better than the remake. But yea... id give the remake a 5 of 10 and the original a 6 of 10.

BR2 does not live up to the first that is for sure. But thats kind of hard to do.
Id say watch it when you can but dont make a big deal out of not seeing it.

OK! OK! I think you've SOLD me. :p



Oooo. I think you might've just sold me on this, too... To tell you the truth, while I didn't enjoy The Grudge 2, I really enjoyed The Grudge (moreso than Ju-On)... But I'll definitely check out Ju-On 2.


Won't waste my time, then. :)

If you really want frightening check out Shutter

That is one of the very very very few movies that can actually scare me.

As i said before, its really nothing new to the genera but holy hell it does its job well.

So. I just watched Shutter (thank you Bloody Asia for the delightfully free movies).

And you're right; it definitely does fright extremely well. Builds tension. Builds atmosphere. And, oddly enough, I liked the very end of it as well. Nothing new, but the haunting definitely made me jump and cower a few times.

So I've been watching a TON of ghost stories... I know that you've all recommended some great films, but what is the sub-genre under Asian Horror that they fall under? Slasher? Torture? I'm looking for something that's a little more (maybe not more... different) than just the iconic Onryo.

The Ichi the Killer movies interest me, though those seem to fit under the sub-category of revenge... Am I wrong?

What other sub-genres do Asian directors do well aside from ghosts and giant monster movies? I am asking straight out because there is an incredibly cultural rift and I want to find out more. I figure we have some resident experts here.




P.S. I forgot to mention that I FINALLY saw The Eye (the original). And it was... Ok. I think that I was a little disappointed just because I had REALLY high expectations (it being a fairly iconic film). I thought that the concept was great, there were some truly creepy moments, but the end was a little wishy washy for me.

Ichi is pretty much a revenge flick. But its a Miike movie and they are always so much more then you expect. None of his movies are normal.

The Ghost movies would probably just go under horror. I mean if you really really really wanted to find a sub for them i'd call them supernatural horror.

As far as the rest of the sub genera thing goes.. i really dont know. They seem to have the same as us but different ones are more popular and others are done better. The Slasher sub genera is almost non existent but you will find much better thrillers and torture (movies that dont rely on just torture to sell them, ala saw, hostel, ect).


Japan is home to the really screwy movies. Miike is a perfect example of this. Hellevator, Dead or Alive ect.
They do good horror but in my opinion they are not the best.

For me Korea is the best though.
Their horror is always very graphic with great twists and story. The execution puts most Hollywood movies to shame and if you like Thriller movies this is definitely the way to go.
Koreans do the best serial killer movies, hands down.
Memories of murder, voice of murder, H, Black House.

cheers Smacky I will be checking out those Korean movies

three pages in and I can't belive nobody's mentioned The Ring (original of course) this movie got me into Asian horror
classic

Check out 2LDK if I haven't mentioned it before. It's part of the Duel Project which pit 2LDK directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi against Aragami: The Raging God of Battle by Ryuhei Kitamura (the director of "Versus"). Both movies are good but 2LDK is the superior film in my opinion (I think it won by one vote in the "duel"). It's a short, bloody, funny little flick that really satisfies.

Japanese Horror
 

I think Takashi Miike can satisfied you
Try:
Ichi The Killer
Imprint

Chan-Wook Park is awsome too
Vengeance trilogy
Oldboy
Sympathy for mister vengeance
Lady Vengeance

Try The 3 Extremes the fisrt with takashi

Its probably because it seems like she may have seen it already.
Plus, IMO its not that good. With all the Asian horror movies ive seen it would be one of the last i would recommend.

definitely check out jigoku (aka "hell") (1960).

there's no way i could call this one "j-horror," as that would lump it in with totally different types of films. this one is a pretty horrifying look into, well, hell. it might start off a little slow, but by the end that will be immaterial, as the finale packs quite a punch. you can really see the influence on modern japanese horror films too.

and it just so happens to be on netflix.

http://criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=352 for more info.

Ooo. Yes I will check him out. I definitely found The Box to be the creepiest of all three of those films. I also thought that the direction was absolutely stunning. I was unaware that he did Ichi: The Killer.

Question (and this is showing my complete and utter Asian Horror ignorance): Is Ichi The Killer part one of a Trilogy? Or is it autonomous? Maybe I'm thinking of Oldboy? Oldbly is part I of a Trilogy, right? Is that part of the "Vengeance" Trilogy?

And, wow, doing a preliminary Miike search I see that he also did Audition and Visitor Q. While I have yet to see Visitor Q I believe that his direction of Audition and The Box has definitely piqued my interest. Q and Ichi are definitetly moving up on the Netflix queue (after Fulci and a bunch of random indie horror films that the boyfriend found and added).

Imprint, however, was not Netflix-able. I'll have to watch it... by other means.

And thanks for pulling out Chan-Wook Park's movies. I thought that his direction and eye for gore were absolutely stunning in Three Extremes. That just really shows that I need to see Oldboy.

Des - You definitely have good taste in movies. I will check those out as well.

F - Jigoku sounds fantastic. The idea of a portrayal of Hell is both interesting, fascinating, and terrifying to me. It is being bumped up into position #5 (behind Don't Torture a Duckling, A Lizard in Woman's Skin, Ichi the Killer, and Visitor Q).

...

So. Back to Shutter. I'm sure that by now you've all seen the previews for Shutter (the American remake). It's rated PG-13 and stars Joshua Jackson.

Oh, Chrono is not pleased. Thoughts?

At least if America is going to emulate cinema, I think that they're definitely going after the right genre - I think that Asian horror is some of the most cleanly directed and innovative horror that I've ever seen... And I'm just scratching the surface.

yeah, you're thinking of oldboy, which is the second film in chan-wook park's "vengeance trilogy." it goes:

1. sympathy for mr. vengeance (2002)
2. oldboy (2003)
3. lady vengeance (2005)

ichi the killer is great, though. one of my favorite gore-fests (and a really neat yakuza film to boot).


excellent! you'll love it. it's very different from the rest of the asian horror catalogue. it's more like onibaba, a real work of art that happens to be a horror film. be sure to let me know what you think of it.

p.s. have you seen onibaba? if not, make it a priority!

Ooo! No Onibaba as of yet! - In your opinion, should its viewing come before or after Jigoku?

And thanks for a clarification on the Vengeance Trilogy. A lot of people have been suggesting the movies, and I wanted to make sure that I had the titles separated correctly in my mind (and that I stop confusing Ichi with Oldboy :o - I'm sure it'll clear up as soon as I actually watch the films).

I am more worried about "A Tale of Two Sisters", while it is not one of my favorite movies, i can only imagine how badly Hollywood will butcher it.

But as for Shutter, ehh. It has a Japanese director who has done some fairly good J-Horror movies and i like the idea that it takes place in Japan rather then Thailand (Americans seem to know Japanese culture a bit more).
As for the pg-13 thing you mentioned... i dunno. Do you think the original really deserved an R rating?
I dont.
It did its job quite well with a lack of gore, foul language or sex.

yeah, i'd definitely watch onibaba before jigoku.

not a problem. haha, you're right, though. you definitely won't have a problem once you check them out. i'm interested to see what you think of them, for sure.

Onibaba is brilliant and while I would say it's less of a "true horror" film the sense of dread is nigh unparalleled.

They're... remaking... Tale of Two Sisters? That... is going to be terrible.

And you're right about Shutter. For whatever reason I associate the rating "R" with "good" that I forget that it actually means "has more gore." ha. The original is probably PG-13 (now that I actually think about it).

But, still I do not think that the remake will be good. At all.

Netflix queue has been adjusted accordingly. :)

I think so....:( Not happy about that one at all. And it IS a favorite of mine.

I haven't seen Shutter yet. Its on my Netflix queue....somewhere.

A Tale of two sisters - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815245/

Its weird that there is not trailer for this yet.
From what i understand it is being released toward the end of the month.

That is odd....but I thought I read somewhere (I can't remember where at the moment) that it would be April or May before it was released? Maybe I am thinking of another movie.
Anyway, still strange there isn't a trailer yet.

Probably because everybody involved already know its gonna suck..