Download or read book Introduction to Japanese Horror Film written by Colette Balmain and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-14 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a major historical and cultural overview of an increasingly popular genre. Starting with the cultural phenomenon of Godzilla, it explores the evolution of Japanese horror from the 1950s through to contemporary classics of Japanese horror cinema such as Ringu and Ju-On: The Grudge. Divided thematically, the book explores key motifs such as the vengeful virgin, the demonic child, the doomed lovers and the supernatural serial killer, situating them within traditional Japanese mythology and folk-tales. The book also considers the aesthetics of the Japanese horror film, and the mechanisms through which horror is expressed at a visceral level through the use of setting, lighting, music and mise-en-scene. It concludes by considering the impact of Japanese horror on contemporary American cinema by examining the remakes of Ringu, Dark Water and Ju-On: The Grudge.The emphasis is on accessibility, and whilst the book is primarily marketed towards film and media students, it will also be of interest to anyone interested in Japanese horror film, cultural mythology and folk-tales, cinematic aesthetics and film theory.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films written by Salvador Jiménez Murguía and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-07-29 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the horror genre has been embraced by filmmakers around the world, Japan has been one of the most prolific and successful purveyors of such films. From science fiction terrors of the 1950s like Godzilla toviolentfilms like Suicide Circle and Ichi the Killer, Japanese horror film has a diverse history. While the quality of some of these films has varied, others have been major hits in Japan and beyond, frightening moviegoers around the globe. Many of these films—such as the Ringu movies—have influenced other horror productions in both Asia and the United States. The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films covers virtually every horror film made in Japan from the past century to date. In addition to major and modest productions, this encyclopedia also features entries on notable directors, producers, and actors. Each film entry includes comprehensive details, situates the film in the context and history of Japanese horror cinema, and provides brief suggestions for further reading. Although emphasizing horror as a general theme, this encyclopedia also encompasses other genres that are associated with this theme, including Comedy Horror, Science Fiction Horror, Cyber-punk Horror, Ero Guru (Erotic Grotesque), and Anime Horror. The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films is a comprehensive reference volume that will appeal to both cinema scholars as well as to the many fans of this popular genre.

Download or read book Japanese Horror Cinema written by Jay McRoy and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A much-needed critical introduction to some of the most important Japanese horror films produced over the last fifty years, Japanese Horror Cinema provides an insightful examination of the tradition's most significant trends and themes. The book examines the genre's dominant aesthetic,cultural, political and technological underpinnings, and individual chapters address key topics such as: the debt Japanese horror films owe to various Japanese theatrical and literary traditions; the popular "avenging spirit" motif; the impact of atomic warfare, rapid industrialisation andapocalyptic rhetoric on Japanese visual culture; the extents to which changes in the economic and social climate inform representations of monstrosity and gender; the influence of recent shifts in audience demographics; and the developing relations (and contestations) between Japanese and "Western"(Anglo-American and European) horror film tropes and traditions.Extensive coverage of the central thematic concerns and stylistic traits of Japanese horror cinema makes this volume an indispensable text for a myriad of film and cultural studies courses.

Download or read book Japanese Horror Films and their American Remakes written by Valerie Wee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ring (2002)—Hollywood’s remake of the Japanese cult success Ringu (1998)—marked the beginning of a significant trend in the late 1990s and early 2000s of American adaptations of Asian horror films. This book explores this complex process of adaptation, paying particular attention to the various transformations that occur when texts cross cultural boundaries. Through close readings of a range of Japanese horror films and their Hollywood remakes, this study addresses the social, cultural, aesthetic and generic features of each national cinema’s approach to and representation of horror, within the subgenre of the ghost story, tracing convergences and divergences in the films’ narrative trajectories, aesthetic style, thematic focus and ideological content. In comparing contemporary Japanese horror films with their American adaptations, this book advances existing studies of both the Japanese and American cinematic traditions, by: illustrating the ways in which each tradition responds to developments in its social, cultural and ideological milieu; and, examining Japanese horror films and their American remakes through a lens that highlights cross-cultural exchange and bilateral influence. The book will be of interest to scholars of film, media, and cultural studies.

Download or read book Nightmare Japan written by Jay McRoy and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last two decades, Japanese filmmakers have produced some of the most important and innovative works of cinematic horror. At once visually arresting, philosophically complex, and politically charged, films by directors like Tsukamoto Shinya (Tetsuo: The Iron Man [1988] and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer [1992]), Sato Hisayasu (Muscle [1988] and Naked Blood [1995]) Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Cure [1997], Séance [2000], and Kaïro [2001]), Nakata Hideo (Ringu [1998], Ringu II [1999], and Dark Water [2002]), and Miike Takashi (Audition [1999] and Ichi the Killer [2001]) continually revisit and redefine the horror genre in both its Japanese and global contexts. In the process, these and other directors of contemporary Japanese horror film consistently contribute exciting and important new visions, from postmodern reworkings of traditional avenging spirit narratives to groundbreaking works of cinematic terror that position depictions of radical or ‘monstrous’ alterity/hybridity as metaphors for larger socio-political concerns, including shifting gender roles, reconsiderations of the importance of the extended family as a social institution, and reconceptualisations of the very notion of cultural and national boundaries.

Download or read book Japanese Horror and the Transnational Cinema of Sensations written by Steven T. Brown and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese Horror and the Transnational Cinema of Sensations undertakes a critical reassessment of Japanese horror cinema by attending to its intermediality and transnational hybridity in relation to world horror cinema. Neither a conventional film history nor a thematic survey of Japanese horror cinema, this study offers a transnational analysis of selected films from new angles that shed light on previously ignored aspects of the genre, including sound design, framing techniques, and lighting, as well as the slow attack and long release times of J-horror’s slow-burn style, which have contributed significantly to the development of its dread-filled cinema of sensations.

Download or read book Japanese Horror Culture written by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-11-17 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary Japanese horror is deeply rooted in the folklore of its culture, with fairy tales-like ghost stories embedded deeply into the social, cultural, and religious fabric. Ever since the emergence of the J-horror phenomenon in the late 1990s with the opening and critical success of films such as Hideo Nakata’s The Ring (Ringu, 1998) or Takashi Miike’s Audition (Ôdishon, 1999), Japanese horror has been a staple of both film studies and Western culture. Scholars and fans alike throughout the world have been keen to observe and analyze the popularity and roots of the phenomenon that took the horror scene by storm, producing a corpus of cultural artefacts that still resonate today. Further, Japanese horror is symptomatic of its social and cultural context, celebrating the fantastic through female ghosts, mutated lizards, posthuman bodies, and other figures. Encompassing a range of genres and media including cinema, manga, video games, and anime, this book investigates and analyzes Japanese horror in relation with trauma studies (including the figure of Godzilla), the non-human (via grotesque bodies), and hybridity with Western narratives (including the linkages with Hollywood), thus illuminating overlooked aspects of this cultural phenomenon.

Download or read book Ghost in the Well written by Michael Crandol and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghost in the Well is the first study to provide a full history of the horror genre in Japanese cinema, from the silent era to Classical period movies such as Nakagawa Nobuo's Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1959) to the contemporary global popularity of J-horror pictures like the Ring and Ju-on franchises. Michael Crandol draws on a wide range of Japanese language sources, including magazines, posters and interviews with directors such as Kurosawa Kiyoshi, to consider the development of kaiki eiga, the Japanese phrase meaning "weird" or "bizarre" films that most closely corresponds to Western understandings of "horror". He traces the origins of kaika eiga in Japanese kabuki theatre and traditions of the monstrous feminine, showing how these traditional forms were combined with the style and conventions of Hollywood horror to produce an aesthetic that was both transnational and peculiarly Japanese. Ghost in the Well sheds new light on one of Japanese cinema's best-known genres, while also serving as a fascinating case study of how popular film genres are re-imagined across cultural divides.

Download or read book Korean Horror Cinema written by Alison Peirse and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the first detailed English-language book on the subject, Korean Horror Cinema introduces the cultural specificity of the genre to an international audience, from the iconic monsters of gothic horror, such as the wonhon (vengeful female ghost) and the gumiho (shapeshifting fox), to the avenging killers of Oldboy and Death Bell. Beginning in the 1960s with The Housemaid, it traces a path through the history of Korean horror, offering new interpretations of classic films, demarcating the shifting patterns of production and consumption across the decades, and introducing readers to films rarely seen and discussed outside of Korea. It explores the importance of folklore and myth on horror film narratives, the impact of political and social change upon the genre, and accounts for the transnational triumph of some of Korea's contemporary horror films. While covering some of the most successful recent films such as Thirst, A Tale of Two Sisters, and Phone, the collection also explores the obscure, the arcane and the little-known outside Korea, including detailed analyses of The Devil's Stairway, Woman's Wail and The Fox With Nine Tails. Its exploration and definition of the canon makes it an engaging and essential read for students and scholars in horror film studies and Korean Studies alike.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema written by Jasper Sharp and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cinema of Japan predates that of Russia, China, and India, and it has been able to sustain itself without outside assistance for over a century. Japanese cinema's long history of production and considerable output has seen films made in a variety of genres, including melodramas, romances, gangster movies, samurai movies, musicals, horror films, and monster films. It has also produced some of the most famous names in the history of cinema: Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Beat Takeshi, Toshirô Mifune, Godzilla, The Ring, Akira, Rashomon, and Seven Samurai. The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema is an introduction to and overview of the long history of Japanese cinema. It aims to provide an entry point for those with little or no familiarity with the subject, while it is organized so that scholars in the field will also be able to use it to find specific information. This is done through a detailed chronology, an introductory essay, and appendixes of films, film studios, directors, and performers. The cross-referenced dictionary entries cover key films, genres, studios, directors, performers, and other individuals. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Japanese cinema.

Download or read book Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia written by Thomas Weisser and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Those familiar with the author's previous forays into the world of Hong Kong Cinema and Spaghetti Westerns will know pretty much what to expect here, and it falls far short of any dictionary definition of "essential". Short, cursory capsule reviews, short on insight, style and cultural context and high on typographical and factual errors, accompanied by an arbitrary star rating from one to four. The main virtue of Weisser's self-published book is its rigorously completist approach. Even though it states that it is not the aim to include every single film from Japan ever released, with separate editions available for a more complete look at Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Sex Films, and one planned for animation ("pleae check our subsiquent books" [sic], Weisser writes in the intro for the fourth edition), this initial volume certainly covers a lot of films and does give quite a good indication as to how much is actually out there.

Download or read book Horror to the Extreme written by Jinhee Choi and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares production and consumption of Asian horror cinemas in different national contexts and their multidirectional dialogues with Hollywood and neighboring Asian cultures. Individual essays highlight common themes including technology, digital media, adolescent audience sensibilities, transnational co-productions, pan-Asian marketing techniques, and variations on good vs. evil evident in many Asian horror films. Contributors include Kevin Heffernan, Adam Knee, Chi-Yun Shin, Chika Kinoshita, Robert Cagle, Emilie Yeh Yueh-yu, Neda Ng Hei-tung, Hyun-suk Seo, Kyung Hyun Kim, and Robert Hyland.

Download or read book Asian Horror written by Andy Richards and published by Oldacastle Books. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Japanese horror sensations The Ring and Audition first terrified Western audiences at the turn of the millennium, there's been a growing appreciation of Asia as the hotbed of the world's best horror movies. Over the last decade, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong have all produced a steady stream of stylish supernatural thrillers and psychological chillers that have set new benchmarks for cinematic scares. Hollywood soon followed suit, producing high-profile remakes of films such as The Ring, Dark Water, The Grudge, and The Eye. With scores of Asian horror films now available to Western audiences, this guide helps viewers navigate the eclectic mix of vengeful spooks, yakuza zombies, feuding warlocks, and devilish dumplings, discussing the grand themes of Asian horror cinema and the distinctive national histories that give the films their special resonance. Tracing the long and noble tradition of horror stories in eastern cultures, it also delves into some of the folktales that have influenced this latest wave of shockers, paying tribute to classic Asian ghost films throughout the ages.

Download or read book What Is Japanese Cinema written by Yomota Inuhiko and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What might Godzilla and Kurosawa have in common? What, if anything, links Ozu’s sparse portraits of domestic life and the colorful worlds of anime? In What Is Japanese Cinema? Yomota Inuhiko provides a concise and lively history of Japanese film that shows how cinema tells the story of Japan’s modern age. Discussing popular works alongside auteurist masterpieces, Yomota considers films in light of both Japanese cultural particularities and cinema as a worldwide art form. He covers the history of Japanese film from the silent era to the rise of J-Horror in its historical, technological, and global contexts. Yomota shows how Japanese film has been shaped by traditonal art forms such as kabuki theater as well as foreign influences spanning Hollywood and Italian neorealism. Along the way, he considers the first golden age of Japanese film; colonial filmmaking in Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan; the impact of World War II and the U.S. occupation; the Japanese film industry’s rise to international prominence during the 1950s and 1960s; and the challenges and technological shifts of recent decades. Alongside a larger thematic discussion of what defines and characterizes Japanese film, Yomota provides insightful readings of canonical directors including Kurosawa, Ozu, Suzuki, and Miyazaki as well as genre movies, documentaries, indie film, and pornography. An incisive and opinionated history, What Is Japanese Cinema? is essential reading for admirers and students of Japan’s contributions to the world of film.

Download or read book Fear Without Frontiers written by Steven Jay Schneider and published by FAB Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Horror movies have always found receptive audiences in their home countries. Finally, the genre's most colourful and least familiar directors and stars are given their due in this wide-ranging collection of articles and interviews from a fine assembly of renowned world horror experts. sDiscover such hidden treasures of world cinematic horror as Singapore's pontianak cycle, 1930s Mexican vampire movies, Austrian serial killer flicks, Germany's Edgar Wallace krimis, Bollywood ghost stories, Indonesia's penanggalan tales, the Chinese take on Phantom of the Opera, and the Turkish versions of Dracula and The Exorcist. s24 pulse-pounding chapters with selected filmographies and scores of images from the movies under discussion, including a stunning 16-page full-colour section! Book jacket.

Download or read book The Atomic Bomb in Japanese Cinema written by Matthew Edwards and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-07-24 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventy years after the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is still dealing with the effects of the bombings on the national psyche. From the Occupation Period to the present, Japanese cinema had offered a means of coming to terms with one of the most controversial events of the 20th century. From the monster movies Gojira (1954) and Mothra (1961) to experimental works like Go Shibata's NN-891102 (1999), atomic bomb imagery features in all genres of Japanese film. This collection of new essays explores the cultural aftermath of the bombings and its expression in Japanese cinema. The contributors take on a number of complex issues, including the suffering of the survivors (hibakusha), the fear of future holocausts and the danger of nuclear warfare. Exclusive interviews with Go Shibata and critically acclaimed directors Roger Spottiswoode (Hiroshima) and Steven Okazaki (White Light/Black Rain) are included.

Download or read book Carnal Curses Disfigured Dreams written by Kagami Jigoku Kobayashi and published by Japanese Film Perspectives. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carnal Curses, Disfigured Dreams presents an illustrated, annotated and indexed filmography of all pre-war and immediately post-war Japanese films in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and weird mystery, and is the first English-language book to do so. Due to Japan's rich tradition of ghost stories, heroic legends and folkloric hierarchy of demonic yokai, an unusually large percentage of films made in the country's early years of film production were based on phantastic myths and supernaturally-driven narratives. By 1915, a new genre of ninjutsu ("secret combat techniques") films emerged, with many narratives involving shape-shifting and magic, giving rise to Japanese cinema's first wave of special-effects technicians. In the 1930s, low-budget exploitation companies such as Kyokuto and Zensho produced dozens of pulp horror movies, including a startling hybrid genre from Kyokuto which mixed samurai and robots. Zombies, vampires, mechanical men, mad scientists, monsters, killer apes, living statues, ghosts, demons - all the iconic figures of bizarre cinema can be found in Japan's early film output, filtered through that country's unique lens of culture and myth. Carnal Curses, Disfigured Dreams lists over 500 films in a detailed, chronological filmography, includes over 30 woodblock print illustrations, reproduces 65 extremely rare film production photographs and posters - most of which have never been published before, even in Japan - and concludes with an index of all films referenced in the text. Japanese Film Perspectives is a new series of historical studies based on new and original research, and anchored around never-before-seen photographic images.