3 of 6

Write now Article Tools

Japanese Horror, ah, where would we be without you. For the imagination-bereft Hollywood movie industry, it would certainly be short of ideas, because goodness knows they've been ripping the Japanese movie industry off for a while now.

To be fair, there are plenty of reasons that they should. Trying to pitch a foreign movie to a western audience is difficult to do - many people have this thing against reading subtitles - and one that doesn't star recognizable faces is even worse for many.

But despite this, the market for Japanese horror remains open. With titles like the Ring and a The Grudge being direct remakes, its easy to overlook the originals, but do so at your peril, because not only are they better scripted and acted, they're also a hell of a lot scarier.

Take the Ring Trilogy, for example. Many people have seen the 2002 US remake, which shot to number one in the box office and made a profit of over $200 million. However, the original films had long since been available, starting with the original Ringu.

In the original based on Koji Suzuki's horror novel of the same name, reporter Reiko (originally the Male Kazuyuki Asakawa) encounters a cryptic, cursed video tape after the death of her niece that tells her, after watching it, that she will die after seven days. Ironically this image has now become one that is synonymous with popular horror - having being spoofed everywhere from Family Guy to Rugrats.

The Original trilogy also continues for two more films - the second a sequel that lays Sadako Yamamura - the ghost of the piece to bed, and the third a prequel, possibly the scariest of the three that tells the origin of what has become one of the most iconic characters in film. there is no denying that these days the little girl with the long black hair is one of the new icons of horror.

from which we mover onto another little girl - the character of Mitsuko in the 2002 film Dark Water. Unlike Sadako, the ghost of Mitsuko, who haunts Yoshimi Matsubara and her daughter Ikuko is a far less sinister figure - longing more for companionship than revenge, and through this theme is a rather sympathetic character, although far more haunting than Sadako, whose seven-day limit on her appearance leads to merely the end of the movie. Mitsuko's constant presence, from the beginning allows the audience to emphasis with here far more than Yoshimi, whose disbelief in the ghostly occurrences builds towards the films haunting climax.

On a completely different tack are two of

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Best Japanese horror movies?
We want to hear your view. Write now!