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Japanese literature and theater have a few stock ghost stories that they have reinterpreted for ages. Ju-on and the Ring also have remarkably similar themes. Victimized families, cries for help, long black hair motifs, blue faces, the dead returning to correct wrongs..etc. If we're going to keep Americanizing these movies, we need to realize they're from an older more ritual-driven culture with very specific traditions. To make things meaningful or new to an American audience, you really have to reinterpret and find how to show these things to Americans in a way they find more significant. Something's not a cliche if it's pasted to the core of a country's folklore. If you see the movie Kwaidan you can see how far back these reach and how resonant the ghost stories are. Water is also traditionally in occult circles, literature, dream interpretation and films, the element of emotion, particularly sorrow. So, unshed tears as well as well water and such are outpouring. Black Water and the Ring, the work of the same author, are signs of someone really concerned about repression in their country.
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