Dixon Yoong's Work: May 2016

Final Assignment

Japanese horror and their American Remakes

What separates a good horror movie from a bad horror movie is that a good one knows how to build up suspense and makes the audience terrified of what's going to happen next. What separates a good horror movie from a very good horror movie, is that when you finish a very good one it will make you think and it will make you remember, the next time something goes "bump" in your house you will be scared. Sure just saying the names of Leatherface, Hannibal Lector and Jigsaw all bring shivers down our spines, but there is one thing more scary than a direct attack, and that is the eerie feeling of the unknown, an eerie feeling that tells you a dead person is right next to you. In my opinion, no one handles ghosts better than the Japanese even the Americans remade their movies for the American audience and they also spawned some parodies as well.

During the late 90's to early 2000's America produced a series mediocre horror movies with only 2 or 3 good ones, and most are just sequels to older horror movies, but meanwhile in Japan they released 2 of the most influential horror movies, Ju On and Ring. The whole "little girl with white dress and hair over her face" trope started with Ring, without Sadako the whole horror movie genre will be dominated by creepy men and creepy dolls.

Now let's dissect what makes Ju On a breath of fresh air when the westerners heard of it. The movie that everyone talks about is Ju On: The Grudge, but that is not the first installment of director Takashi Shimizu's work, 2 earlier movies were shot on video with an incredibly low budget called Ju On: The Curse and Ju On: The Curse 2, but it is lesser known to the audience, so I won't be mentioning those 2. The entire behavior of Eastern and Western ghosts are very different. Basically eastern ghosts are exactly the same person as they were when they died, so if you died in water you would be a water ghost, if you were murdered then you would be a vengeful spirit. The whole story of the movie is told in a non-linear timeline and it's cut up in little segments, each segment focuses on the victim of Kayako (vengeful spirit). This way, instead of building up the movie into a big scare, the movie spreads small scares throughout each segment to make the suspense linger and catch you unexpectedly. When a scare was about to happen, the mood changes dramatically, the camera angle is tilted, the pacing is very slow to build suspense, and some sort of gimmick is usually involved e.g. broken TV, creepy phone calls but there was never a scene where we see Kayako kill anyone. Takashi Shimizu says he doesn't like showing the horror directly, instead he suggests it indirectly, and it worked for this movie. What really floored the audience was the last and final segment, at the end, Kayako was unable to kill off the last victim instead she was waving at her to run away instead in fear of an even more evil existance, Kayako's murderer and also her husband. At this small moment Kayako's human side was shown and this got the audience thinking, since Kayako was murdered by husband, maybe she wasn't the bad guy, maybe it was the human that murdered her. This movie was so good that Sam Raimi decided to produce the American remake of it directed by Takashi Shimizu himself, The Grudge, and the American remake threw everything that made the original movie scary out the window.

In order to cater to the American audience, Takashi Shimizu had to think of different ways to scare the Americans. First of all, The Grudge did follow the storyline of Ju On although it added some scenes here and there, story wise it's 60% the same. The American version tried to do the non-linear timeline storytelling, but they made it even more confusing. Scene changes were immediate, there wasn't any title explaining which character we're following now (there were in the Japanese version), if they had just added that then the movie will be much easier to follow. The American version is littered with unnecessary jumpscares and loud sounds around every corner, this is a cheap and effective way to achieve immediate horror, but it is in no way long lasting, after the movie you would probably forget everything that had scared you because the scares ended so quickly. The Japanese version however, the horror scenes are long and dragged out, you feel claustrophobic, every second is more unnerving than the last, instead of force feeding you the scares, the Japanese version presented it slowly and made you remember the scares for weeks to come. I appreciate the fact that in the American version, there are scenes where we see the characters bonding with each other, it made the character felt a bit more alive, but it's not driving the story forward and also it isn't building up into a scare, there's even a scene where we follow a girl buying instant noodles in a supermarket, which wasn't necessary at all and felt like it was there to fill up screen time. Also the camera work is very different in both versions, the Japanese version used a lot of still shots, all the information is already there in the shot and it's up to the character themselves to interact with it, if the director wanted to plant a scare somewhere, he would cut to a closeup and put new information inside that closeup e.g Kayako's hand on the character's head, the little boy running past at the back of the character. Whereas the American version avoided all the still shots and used a lot of panning and tracking shots, the information is hidden outside the camera, and it slowly reveals them to the audience, it created more suspense this way but usually this is a tactic for them to plant yet another jumpscare around the corner.

Now, the ending for both films are different and they are both done well in their own ways. The Japanese one was able to show Kayako's human side but the ending was a bit ambiguous and a lot is left for interpretation. But the American one also did a splendid job, despite all the jumpscares in the beginning, the ending was completely jumpscare free and used the slow pacing of the original Ju On, everything happened in order to push the story forward and not to build into another loud jumpscare, also it explained a lot of plot in the storyline like what Kayako was like before she died, everything was building up into the last and final scare and it worked perfectly. Ending wise, the American version has outdone the Japanese one because it tied up more loose ends and the ending scene was very climactic.

Of course Takashi Shimizu had to draw inspiration from somewhere, and his main source of inspiration was Hideo Nakata's movie Ring. Ring is about another vengeful spirit (Sadako) who possessed a cursed video tape, and whoever plays the tape and sees it on television will be killed by Sadako within 7 days. It was one of the first horror movies that involved technology being the main subject (television). As Japan was moving rapidly into the technological age, the metaphor in this movie is that television is slowly "killing" the people of Japan, and that problem still persists until this day with the advancement of technology. It also wants to show that technology is not safe from spirits as well. The story of the movie is linear, and it was more of a thriller/mystery type of film than a horror. It also portrays that humans are the cause of all things bad, for Sadako was also murdered and the endless cycle of deaths continues on.

Hideo Nakata hugely refrains from using any CG in Ring, he reasons that people get scared because the subject is real, it felt like it can actually happen and he would never achieve the same effect if Sadako came out the television using CG. Hideo Nakata was completely a 100% right with what he said, because the American remake ruined the final scare with a CG version of Sadako (Samara). It didn't feel real, it felt like Samara was just a harmless projection posing no threat, just because the actor acts frightened doesn't mean the scenario itself is actually frightening because the realness isn't there anymore, the actor is getting scared by CG instead of an actual ghost played by an actor. One could argue that spirits have no true "form" and can be interpreted freely, so a more CG looking Samara would make more sense, but the entire behavior of Samara was also done poorly. Sadako was slow and she behaved abnormally it was disgusting, from her crawling to her getting up and walking it was all presented to the viewers slowly, the viewers had enough time to establish Sadako as a real and scary threat. But Samara kind of just "floats" there and everything happens too quickly, the cuts were quick, Samara's movements were quick, it didn't establish the realness of Samara therefore it isn't a scare that's worth remembering.

As you can see, Japanese horror functions completely differently from American horror. In my opinion, blood and gore are to scare kids, but stimulating your imagination is what can scare adults. Japanese horror movies leave a lot of questions unanswered eg. How did Kayako die? Why did Sadako choose a video tape to possess?. The Japanese ghosts are all left at large, while American horror movies explain a lot of the plot in fear that the audience can't get what is going on, so since the Japanese horror movies leave a lot of unanswered questions, it will keep you thinking it will make you remember. By being ambiguous, the Japanese definitely nailed it at creating long-lasting, nightmare inducing horror.