HDC Debates #5: Has Japanese horror run it's course?

[Giganticface]

I always interpret the term "J-Horror" to mean Asian vengeful ghost horror, whether it be from Japan or not: Ringu, Ju-On/the Grudge, Kairo/Pulse, The Eye, Shutter, Dark Water, etc. Even Takashi Miike joined the party with One Missed Call, which both contributed to the genre, and satirized its over-saturation by going beyond the normal gore standard for the subgenre. Yes, this subgenre was in decline a while ago, and is essentially dead at the moment.

However Asian horror in general is by no means in decline. The more popular trend now is gritty, gory revenge thrillers like, as Straker mentioned, the Park Chan Wook trilogy, of which Oldboy now has an American remake (expect more!), The Chaser, Bedevilled, No Mercy, I Saw the Devil. And "Asian Horror" is no longer pigeonholed as vengeful ghost films because there's all kind of variety. Kimo and Timo's death cult themed short is the best segment on either V/H/S movie, hands down, and their redneck slasher Macabre us a most-see for gorehounds. As has already been mentioned, The Thirst (vampire) and The Host (giant monster), and a film like Three...Extremes shows the variety coming from Asian directors, none of which being vengeful ghost.

So -- I haven't answered the poll yet because I'd have to ask V, what do you mean by J-Horror?

1. another name for the Asian vengeful ghost genre
2. any Japanese horror
3. any Asian horror

[MichaelMyers]

Yes---it's over.

[roshiq]

IMO: It's ain't over yet. They're just passing a bad time & will return with some new or interesting idea in coming days. Not only for the cliched long-dark-hair ghost in those vengeful ghost stories but always love them for their creepy atmosphere, well developed/interesting characters & shock value also. Besides popular revenge or serial killer thrillers, there's also lots of Asian horror movies releasing each year. I think there's also a reason lies with less coverage about them on the web and so we don't usually check out most of them frequently nowadays anymore.

[Fearonsarms]

Originally Posted by roshiq

IMO: It's ain't over yet. They're just passing a bad time & will return with some new or interesting idea in coming days. Not only for the cliched long-dark-hair ghost in those vengeful ghost stories but always love them for their creepy atmosphere, well developed/interesting characters & shock value also. Besides popular revenge or serial killer thrillers, there's also lots of Asian horror movies releasing each year. I think there's also a reason lies with less coverage about them on the web and so we don't usually check out most of them frequently nowadays anymore.

I completely agree with this. A lot of J-horror is still coming out but it is not getting the widespread publicity and/or suffering from mixed rerviews unlike previous years. I think it will continue to diversify and with an input of great ideas it could become strong again. Trends come and go but countries will continue to make horror for its widespread audience.

[ChronoGrl]

Interesting question. I voted "Can't Say" because, honestly, I just haven't pursued Japanese (or Asian) horror as much as I did a couple of years ago so I think I may be out of the loop.

That being said, here are a couple of thoughts as to why people may consider it on a decline...

Directorial shift of Focus: One of my absolute favorite Asian horror directors is Chan Wook Park (though some people may argue that his Vengeance Trilogy is NOT horror, I disagree) and his most recent contribution to cinema was Stoker, which while is definitely horror, it is an English language film as opposed to something that we may consider "Asian Horror." Kim Jee-woon (Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil) last put out the English language action movie The Last Stand. Same goes for Joon-ho Bong, director of The Host, Mother, and Memories of Murder - His most recent film venture is the English language film Snowpiercer - I wonder if we are going to see a trend in Asian directors putting out English language films to try to expand to the Western Market. If they're putting out English Language films then they won't be contributing to the Asian Horror Cannon. Granted, those are all Korean directors, so I'm more speaking of the decline of Asian Horror in general as opposed to Japanese Horror specifically.

Western shift of Focus: I think that the reason why Japanese horror had come to a head is that the Western Film Companies were churning out remakes - Pulse, The Ring, The Ring 2, The Grudge, The Grudge 2, Shutter, etc... Admittedly, I started getting into Japanese horror after watching the remake of The Grudge. And when the West started to make that trend popular, the East responded by producing more - More sequels. The Western shift of focus (I believe) has been around Demons (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister), Possession (The Conjuring, The Last Exorcism) and while I'm sure that J-Horror has movies that fall within those sub-genres, this shift of horror focus has turned away from the dark-haired vengeful Onryō.

Eastern shift of Focus: When I think about heavy hitters in J horror, I think of Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge, both Japanese and English versions), Hideo Nakata (The Ring, The Ring 2, Dark Water), and Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi The Killer, etc.) - For the two aforementioned directors, if you look at their pages on IMDB, they are not putting Onryō-themed movies right now (both seem to have focus on TV) and as for Miike, one might argue that his only contribution to the Onryō sub-genre was within Three... Extremes and One Missed Call (his movies seem to fall more into shock or body horror - Or countless other genres that he explores).

So if we're considering "J-Horror" to be Onryō movies, I think we can contribute the "decline" to a shift of focus all around and the fact that sub-genres ebb and flow like anything else. "J-Horror" was hot for a while and now Demons seem to be hot. Speaking of Asian movies in general, it looks like directors may be shifting to more Western films or shifting focus onto films or TV ventures that don't all fit into the same sub-genre or horror.