Welcome back to in our introduction to J-horror
Last time, we covered the rise of the genre
From a humble beginning that changes the tradition
To talented directories elevating the genre
Inserting social commentaries into it
If you haven't watched part one
You can find the link down in the description
And for those of you who are caught up
Let's dive back in
The year is 2002
The director for Ringu strikes again
With another masterpiece...
Dark Water
It's the story of a single mother
In the middle of a custody battle
She moves into an apartment along with her six-year-old daughter
And strange things happen as expected
The film focuses on the human aspect
And the horror is just a background element
While the raging spirit aspect remains
It's ultimately a simple drama story
Showing the power of motherly love
There's little to no overt scares
Even less than Ringu
Just a lot of slow-burn tension
The curse in this film isn't pushed hard like it was in Ringu and Ju-On
It's as if the director is fighting against the audience's unhealthy obsession with ghosts
In my head
I feel like the director is trying to end the genre
By going back to the basics
If this was the swan-song of the genre
It would be a perfect ending
But just like Wes Craven trying to kill a slasher genre with Scream
The corpse of the genre was then carried forward by others
2003 saw the release of One missed Call
This is where I considered the genre died
Oh boy...
The film follows a group of people
Who receives voice messages from their future selves
Message from the moment they die
Investigations...
Spooky hospitals
Standard fare
Instead of continuing the lineage of J-horror
It rolls all the way back to the Ringu formula
Phones
Videos
TV
Everything
And it looks like a poor imitation
The curse in the film lacks any form of supernatural subtlety
It frequently resorts to physical violence
Egregiously sending people flying across a studio on national television
Even back when it was first released
It received mixed reviews
To many
It is just too similar to Ringu and Ju-On
Still, the genre continues
2004 saw the release of The Locker
A lesser-known Japanese horror film
Mainly because at this point
Nobody really watched them outside of Japan anymore
A group of young people uses a coin locker in Shibuya
Contacting a deadly curse from an urban legend in the process
it is yet another poor imitation of Ringu and Ju-On
Following a factory-style formula
Set up a group of people
Kill them off one by one
The curse is just as violent and flashy as the one from One Missed Call
Neck snapping and all
I'd say it's better than One Missed Call in establishing atmosphere
Even if at times, it's pretty campy
By 2005, I stopped following J-horror altogether
And so did my friends
The lineage of J-horror continues
With various sequels
And American remakes
And some urban legend based horror films
Which is more of a throw back to way before Ringu was a thing
There's also exploitation horror
A weird offshoot of a genre
with films like Undead Pool
And Big Tits Zombie
Can't bring myself watch those
The J-horror genre did try to make a genuine come back in 2012
With the release of Sadako 3D
and Oh God... it blows
Sadako 3D is intended to be the sequel of Rasen
Which is one of the two sequel timelines of the original RingU
In the film, the curse from Ringu has been resurrected
With modern prevalence of screen
The curse is more than unstoppable
if you are imagining Dark Mirror with a supernatural twist
I'm sorry to disappoint you
Calling the film horror feels insulting
There is this weird cheaply produced fan fiction sensibility
Overacting
Overemphasizing on the 3d effect
Over-the-top theatrics and presentations
Using suicide as a cheap plot device
It lacks any of the subtlety that defines the genre
It feels like it was written by a high schooler
the title alone goes against what Ringu director wanted
More than ever, the genre wants people to obsess over the curse
And it received a sequel one year later
Which I'll not go into
following the footsteps of Sadako 3D
Ju-On got its own reboot in 2014
Ju-On: The Beginning of the End
In traditional Ju-On fashion
The story is nonlinear
Following an ensemble of characters
Although at this time, the plot structure is much easier to understand
it's definitely more watchable than Sadako 3D
But that's largely due to how many elements this film recycles from the originals
For reboot, it doesn't bring enough new materials
And as a remake, the original holds up so well
That this retelling is largely unnecessary
I suppose this sums up the state of the genre quite well
It feels dated
It's like I'm watching a different version of the same film
Again and again
No one is pushing the genre forward
And then the unthinkable happened
In 2015 Sadako Vs. Kayako was announced...
... as an April Fool's joke
With Sadako being the cursed ghost from Ringu
And Kayako from Ju-On
It's a funny joke
I remember it got a few chuckle from the Internet
That same winter though
It was confirmed to be a real production
A production no one asked for
Oh... here we go... Sadako Vs. Kayako
It follows two separate groups of people who contacted two curses
One from Sadako
One from Kayako
The curses are so strong, no one can lift it
So this anime bullshit psychic dude
Decides to let two curses fight
And destroy each other
The premise alone seems lazy
It's probably the first thing that pops into the writer's mind
Barring from the fact that you have to wait almost 70 minutes to see the two ghosts fight
The one-dimensional characters with unrealistic motivations
Makes the wait feel much longer than it should
At one point
One of the characters tries to hang herself off a doorknob...
Someone please tell me how this works...
I suppose this is spoiler but...
When the final climax involves characters staring and screaming
While the audience are looking at a black screen
Scratching their heads wondering what is going on
You know this movie is wasting your time
In recent years, the only Japanese films that caught my attentions
Are anime adaptations
Maybe one day, I'll talk about those
It's sad to see the Japanese horror genre in its current state
I can't really tell you why this happened...
Although my guess would be the new Japanese directors and audience
Are trained to have an anime sensibility
The over-the-top anime aesthetic simply doesn't fly with J-horror
That demands subtly
But that's just my guess
It's also ironic that a genre sprung from the success of Ringu
Ultimately finds itself unable to break away from its formula
From the beat by beat imitations of One Missed Call
To cashing off the name of Ringu with badly made sequels
Still, J-horror has since influence the other Asian countries
With Korean horror pushing it to new height
With their own cinematic culture
But that's a story of one other time