The Asian Horror Gawker

Retribution

2008-10-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

I avoided watching this movie for a loooong time. For some reason, I had seen so many Asian horror flicks, I drew back from renting anything revenge-related. I couldn't hold my curiosity for long. After a couple of months sans gore, I went to the video rental store, picked up the DVD case, and went home feeling like I had accomplished something. Alas, my Asian horror movie itch has been satiated and I'm once again begging for more.

Retribution follows a detective's confusing murder investigation. People are drowning in salt water and the authorities can't name a suspect, or a body of water. When the main character starts to doubt his innocence, he realizes something funny is going on. There must be a vengeful entity behind all the gore, but who is it? Or better yet, what is it?

Because I watched this without knowing what to expect, I've decided to give you the same privilege to make the whole experience a whole lot more exciting. I give this film 4 shrieks. It really tickled my horror bone.

Rebirth of a Dead Blog

2008-08-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

It's impressive...
and confusing...
I haven't posted anything on this blog since November 2007 and I still get visitors. I checked the site stats today and was flabbergasted by the numbers. I've been considering it for a while and maybe it's time for me to continue on my Asian Horror quest, whatever it may be.
Horror movies...
Horror culture...
Horror stories...
mixed with really bad special effects and bad actors make for some really fun times.

This entry is just a message to all readers that the blog shall soon be reborn.

Asian Horror Montage

2007-11-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to BlackCerenity, we have a pretty wicked music video featuring some of the best scenes in the Asian Horror genre. Like most of the clips posted in the blog, there's some pretty graphic stuff in here, so make sure your 5-year-old kid/sister/cousin/neighbor/grandkid/nephew/whatever isn't taking a peek from behind. For those wondering, the song is "Bodies like Sheep" by A Perfect Circle.

The awesome scenes come from the following movies:
Arang
Reincarnation
The Red Shoes
Shutter
Phone
Cello
The Curse
Mizuchi
Cinderella
Ju-on 2 (Grudge 2)
APT
The Eye 1
The Eye 2
One Missed Call 1
One Missed Call 2
Bunshinsaba
Doll Master
To sir with Love
The Wig
Wishing Stairs
Voice
Sky High

Uzumaki Madness

2007-11-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

Uzumaki means spiral in Japanese. The movie takes place in a little town somewhere in Japan where people's behavior is becoming extremely alarming. Little by little folks begin to obsess about the perfect, hypnotizing, circling line. As the delusions progress, their identities are completely erased and the victims fall prey to gruesome and bizarre deaths.

Understanding A Twisted Mind

2007-11-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

The following is an interview with Chan-wook Park taken from Fazed:

"Old Boy – New Talent"

MA: In Oldboy you return to the theme of revenge that you explored so memorably in Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. Why this fascination?

“When I’m insulted I cannot vent my anger in front of people, and the anger has been accumulating in me, so I wanted to express that through cinema. But if I wanted to express this to my complete satisfaction, to make violence within a good film then it gives me a feeling of guilt. At the same time I have to express the dark side of an act of violent vengeance, even if the revenge is for a good reason.”

MA: Do you, as the director of the film, identify with any of the characters more than any others?

“Woo-jin is almost like a film director and scriptwriter and an actor at the same time. So I made this film and gave the role to Woo-jin with this in mind. This was edited out of the final film, but there was a scene in which Woo-jin practices his duel with Oh Dae-su in the final countdown. We shot a scene where Woo-jin practices his speech, practices what to say in this version and that version. In reality when someone speaks to somebody else, sometimes they stutter and sometimes it pours forth, and sometimes they have to think what to say next. But when I directed that scene I asked Woo-jin to do it exactly as written. Woo-jin in this film is an actor, but also a film director who controls the life of Oh Dae-su to the finest detail. Through this film I’m expressing the God-like nature of a film director, which makes the revenge against Woo-jin an act of rebellion against God.”

MA: There is a very careful and considered design element to the film, isn’t there?

“Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance was rather minimalistic and dry, so I wanted to make something more stylish with this. So with the pattern on the wallpaper, for instance, I wanted to give the feeling of imprisonment, of claustrophobia, so that even when he’s released and when he walks about the streets it follows him all the time. The personal belongings of Woo-jin came about because I wanted to keep the image of fragments of a mirror, broken shards. Through music I wanted to express a vortex of emotion, in a waltz style. I wanted to express the idea of the characters going round and round.”

MA: Isn’t the story based on a Japanese manga?

“I’d heard that, but I only actually read it when a producer suggested I make this film. Actually nothing remains of the manga in the final film except for a particular characteristic in the storyline. In most other stories the perpetrator runs away and disappears, but in this story the perpetrator appears before the victim. He practically invites the victim to come to him. That element remains strongly in my film. I even tried to enhance it.”

MA: Do you ever worry about going too far in your depictions of violence, especially in scenes of tooth extraction, or a tongue being cut out?

“I didn’t show any of that on screen, I never showed the tongue being cut out either, the camera moves from the eye to the hand, to the closing of the hand – that’s as far as I would go. Most people imagine that they’ve seen it, because when the camera moves from the eye to the hand they’re watching it through their fingers, and they think they’ve seen something. So I’m accused for nothing.”

MA: Is that part of the fun of it, manipulating audience emotion in that way?

“It’s more interesting to me to pull away from the scene, showing other parts of the body, expressing it through a sound effect. That interests me more.”

MA: Do your films attract criticism back home for the violence they contain?

“There is some criticism from religious groups. We have leniency for expressing violence, because we’ve gone through a period in which violence was all too familiar under our military dictatorship.”

MA: Oldboy is already being prepared for its American remake – is there anything you would particularly like preserved from your own film?

“When I bought the rights to make this film there were no strings attached, I had complete freedom so there’s nothing the remake has to take from my film. I want to give them the same freedom.”

MA: You cast Gang Hye-jung in the crucial role of Mido, in only her second film. What was it about her that appealed?

“That was important, the reason being that if I had cast a well known actress for that role people would immediately be curious about the relationship between Choi Min-sik and this actress. But their true relationship has to be hidden. And also there is a lovemaking scene, which famous actresses in Korea don’t like to do. Even if I had wanted to cast someone more famous no-one would have done it.”

MA: Is humour an important element in these films for you?

“It’s very important to me, but it goes hand in hand with fear and sadness. I don’t mean as a flip flop of humour and sadness or humour and fear, but they do go together. What I hoped for was that the more frightening it was the funnier it would get.”

MA: The emotions of horror and humour are actually quite similar, aren’t they?

“It’s one thing being a particular genre with these two elements, as we live our everyday lives and we go through sadness and feel frightened it’s serious to us. But if somebody else looks at it he might spot a funny side to it. In the editing suite, when we’re we editing a scene where an actor or an actress cries or is in great distress, if you freeze the frame sometimes it looks as though they’re laughing.”

MA: So does that suggest the film really comes together for you in the initial design or in the editing suite?

“It is in the blueprint from the moment I write the first line, because that’s the purpose of the film.”

MA: And now you’re working on another film with vengeance as the theme, aren’t you?

“The third film in the trilogy will be about a character who longs for salvation and atonement rather than anger, vengeance and violence.”

Note: The third movie is Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Bloody Bear

2007-11-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

In "She Bear," a crazy, hairy, dirty woman living in a tunnel terrorizes passersby at night. Apparently, she enjoys collecting bloody fingers and cheap jewelry inside her crusty teddy bear.
The short movie (about 15 minutes) is part of the J-Horror Anthology: Legends, a compilation of stories based on Japanese folklore.

To watch

2007-11-21T08:55:00.001-08:00

Promising violent and grotesque Asian Horror movies, difficult to find in your local movie rental store:

The Matrimony: A man, his wife, and his dead fiancée are thrown together in a love triangle where possession leads the adulterous way to a threesome.

Kill Devil: A group of teenagers are left in an isolated island in the year 2025. They have no clue how they got there, but they're being watched and one by one, they're falling prey to sharp objects. Ouch!

.Face: A forensic facial reconstructionist feels compelled to put a face to his latest skull and in the process of doing so connects his daughter's heart transplant to the mad soul without a face.

Heirloom: A rich family commits mass suicide and haunts the couple who moves into their mansion.

Dream Cruise

2007-11-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

If you are hit in the head and drowned by your adulterous husband while spending quality time in his love boat, does that mean that'll automatically make you green, bloody, and slimy when you come back for revenge? Apparently, in Asian horror movies, the texture of your skin becomes slimy goo once you're murdered and thrown into a body of water.

Masters of Horror has recently caught up with the trend. In Norio Tsuruta's "Dream Cruise," a woman and her husband go on a fun boat ride along with the American lawyer (who's having an affair with the wife). Amidst the soap-opera drama, a green, very dead ex-wife climbs on board for revenge. The movie is cheap and cheesy, but there's something about the consistency of a slimy complexion that makes the uneventful 59 mins worth the watch.

For the Intelectual Asian Horror Gawker

2007-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Why crave for gore? Why do we like disturbing horror flicks? Not everybody has the stomach to see Asian Horror films, yet the success of the American remakes of The Ring and The Grudge suggest we actually share a lot with our Asian counterparts.

Even though most of the films featured in this blog are tagged with controversy, they all share a huge level of success in Asia and surprisingly numerous fans in the Western World. Apparently, society is strangely bipolar concerning horror films. The Eastern movies tend to push the envelope a bit further than the typical, pre-digested American competitors.

Pam Grady perfectly described the difference between the two incarnations of the genre in the title of her article: “Asian Horror has more guts than its Western counterparts. What a shocker!” She sits with writer Patrick Galloway to discuss his book “Asia Shock” and allow him to vent a little about his frustration with American remakes.

Here’s are some other sources that can help you sort out your morbid obsession with gore and violence; or alternatively tantalize your intellect by analyzing the macabre fixation with sadism and carnage. (No matter how you put it you’ll need to close your mouth and call your therapist to get over that train scene from “Suicide Club” or the bus stop scene from “The Eye 2”)

Good Sources:
Asia Shock
Evil Dread
Fangoria
Interview with Kendall Phillips

Takashi Strikes Again

2007-11-20T12:19:00.001-08:00

Gozu is an extremely confusing movie with excessive violence, twisted imagery, and a confusing plot. It's obviously a "must-see" for those who live for this type of gore. There's some awkward sexual content in it, but you've already seen a man cutting off his tongue. I tip my imaginary hat in Takashi Miike's general direction.
Warning: It's a fake dog. This blog does not sponsor animal cruelty.

River Monster

2007-11-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

If you ever wondered what happens to the animals living in a polluted river, "The Host" offers you a brilliant, worst-case scenario. The huge, olive-green, slimy monster makes its appearance in Seoul's Han River, where its swallows up its victims and spits them out in its "cozy" tunnel. Luckily for young Hyun-seo and an adamant candy thief, the mutant tadpole spits them out whole. The story follows Hyun-seo's family as they desperately search for the children, bumping into obstacles, and once in a while, succumbing to stupidity. The comedy/horror movie lacks some kinks in the special effects area, but the gruesome bones and hungry creature are enough to convey the icky idea.

Check List

2007-11-20T10:03:00.000-08:00

In order to get a good Asian Horror movie, one that'll have you gripping the sides of your seat while your eyes squint at the screen blurring out the nasty stuff, there are a couple of elements to watch out for. Here's a list to keep in mind during your visit to the video rental store:

1) The younger the ghost, the creepier. Little boys and girls will keep you looking over your shoulder. If the dead mommy is around, even better.
2) If there's a ghost, there's meant to be a rotting flesh scene. Turn off the lights in order to make it look more realistic.
3) Murdered lovers are vengeful. They usually have no mercy when looking for the next victim. Hit pause, rewind, and replay.
4) Hair is a must. Add water to it and the effect will make you look out for the dark strands while washing dishes (or brushing teeth, taking a shower, getting a glass of water, etc.).
5) There must be some choreography. Dead people walking around stiffly create an eerie effect. They should also manipulate the space/time continuum.
6) The ghost should physically show postmortem wounds.
7) If there's no ghost involved, there should be graphic scenes of self-mutilation or torture. Missing limbs add a bonus point.
8) There is always, ALWAYS a bathroom scene. The antagonist must make an appearance (or show a limb/hand). It's preferable if the ghost/psycho looks a bit ruffled around the edges.
9) The hand with dirty fingernails has to grab a shoulder, cover someone's eyes, play with hair, cover mouth, or grab neck/leg.
10) Maggots might be necessary. Or a cat.
11) If the assailant drowned, add lots of hair/water scenes. The dirtier, the better.

Is that a little girl?

2007-11-19T20:14:00.001-08:00

Little girls (or boys) need to stay away from scary movies, especially when they do really, really creepy things. In this scene, taken from the movie "Phone," Yeong-ju is possessed by the ghost of a murdered woman, her father's teenage mistress.
Dead children are a recurrent theme in Asian horror movies, but they usually appear sparingly, and the acting is minimal. We've seen them in Ju-On (chalk white kid), Ringu (freaky Sadako), and Dark Water (green elevator girl), and thinking about it, the exchange of words between them and the protagonists isn't substantial.
Seo-woo Eun shows the talent of a grown up artist. At such a young age, that makes her seem unnatural, almost inhuman. Hopefully, her skills will progress as she grows older. For now, she has managed to make audiences all over shudder and wonder about their own, innocent-looking kids.

Shimizu

2007-11-19T19:57:00.001-08:00

In an interview posted in About.com, Takashi Shimizu, director of Ju-on and The Grudge, speaks of a time when he had difficulty understanding why people paid money to watch scary movies. Back in his Jr. High days, he was easily scared and avoided anything horror-related. It's difficult to imagine that the mastermind behind the hair-splitting meowing kid and the croaking, hairy woman wasn't into spooky ghosts from an early age. Life does that to you.

For those interested in getting a closer look of Shimizu, here's an interview taken from Spike.

The Grudge - Director Takashi Shimizu Interview On Location In Japan

Posted Jun 23, 2004

Director Takashi Shimizu discusses why he chose Sarah Michelle Gellar to play the lead.

Hideous Hideo

2007-11-19T19:51:00.000-08:00

Hideo Nakata is as enigmatic as his films. We know him as the master of horror that brought us Ringu, The Ring 2, and the original Dark Water, but few know he really aspired to create dramas with a touch of humanity. In the Winter of 2005 international edition of Kateigaho Magazine he explains that: "The main theme in 'The Ring 2' is motherly love."

As I recall, there's a famous scene nearing the end of the movie where Naomi Watt's character shows her tender affection:
Evil Samara: Mommy!
Rachel Keller: I'm not your fucking mommy!
[Rachel pushes the lid of the well shut, trapping Samara]

Hideo, I think touchy-feely dramas are not your forté.

Waking up to her

2007-11-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

Thailand is currently gaining reputation in the Asian Horror spotlight. Although most of the movies imitate their Japanese and South Korean counterparts, they're getting there. One of the country's hits, "Shutter," gives enough chills and thrills to make it into the "OK" list.
For years, people have come up with inexplainable pictures sporting blurry images of deceased family members and bright spots floating around like halos. Most would shrug it off as a technical problem, but when the phenomena shows up in every single shot, there's clearly something wrong.
Tun is a young photographer trying to earn a couple of bucks by offering his services in weddings and graduations. One night, while driving with his girlfriend, Jane, their car hits a lurking pedestrian but they never find the body. When his pictures start showing glowing orbs, they know someone is trying to tell them something.
Like most Asian horror movies, the victim is a young woman who was brutally raped and murdered. She keeps haunting Tun and his girlfriend and nothing they do seems to keep her away. As the days go by and the apparitions get creepier, Jane starts getting suspicious about her guy. A ghost that's that ticked off must have a reason, especially when she shows up in bed drooling blood.

Watery Bowel Movement

2007-11-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

Ok. I wasn't able to find a more graphic picture, but this one suggests what I was aiming for. "The Ghost" is far from the greatest horror movie you'll ever see, but it has its good scenes here and there. I will ignore the film's plot (basically a girl with amnesia who did something terrible, or so we think) and jump to the very beginning, which is one of the only parts worth telling (ironically, I fail to see its connection with the rest of the movie).
A group of girls having fun in a loud slumber party decide to contact spirits to spice up the night. When the sister interrupts the game, the girls go to sleep without ending the contact properly. In the middle of the night, when everyone is asleep, the annoyed sister appears in the kitchen, buckets of water emanating from her small mouth. It's not until she's drenched and about to pass out that hair starts to flow from her lips. Not much is said about the character later on, but I'm pretty sure she didn't make it.

Green Kid, Stay Away

2007-11-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

Dark water is a cult classic in the Asian Horror genre. Although most audiences recognize the title from the remake (yeah, the one with Jennifer Connelly), the original is far more disturbing. The difference between American horror and Asian horror is that the latter tends to scare viewers in a more subtle manner. Special effects and makeup artists cost money, making it so that suspense, lighting, and sound play a major role in creating a tense atmosphere.
Hideo Nakata uses a little girl, barely visible under her yellow raincoat, to pull viewers into the plot up until the very end, where the character's true persona and motives finally unfold. In this clip, Mitsuko wraps her strong, little, green, putrified hands around her favorite mommy while young and healthy Ikuko stares frightened. Yoshimi gives herself to the ghost in order to save her little girl who stays put, petrified as a torrent a dirty, yellow water splashes against her petite body. The scene gives a new meaning to the term "Mommy Dearest."

Hairy Sink

2007-11-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

After hours of relentlessly searching for a clip with a hairy scene, a finally came across a haunted sink. The scene is from the Thai movie "Shutter" and takes place in a dingy darkroom. Hair keeps showing up in this blog, but it also keeps lurking around in almost every Asian horror movie out there.

Digging Deeper

2007-11-19T18:32:00.001-08:00

In the segment "Memories" of Three Extremes 2, a young wife finds herself lost in an empty city without recollection of how she got there. Back home, her husband has convinced her family and daughter that she abandoned them.
Little by little, the confused wife begins to remember the events that led to her final state. Things aren't clear and strange things keep occurring. The pieces are scattered everywhere and the puzzle is left unresolved.
Meanwhile, the husband keeps having scary hallucinations. Someone is haunting him and he knows who, but he won't say anything because he's in too deep.
In the scene shown in the pictures, the husband stares at his wife as she walks towards him with a dazed look on her face. When she start digging into her skull, gunks of clutted blood and brain staining her feminine cardigan, the truth finally hits audiences like a slap in the face. I guess you'll have to watch the movie to find out what happened.

Bus Stop Screamer

2007-11-19T18:07:00.000-08:00

"The Eye 2" is without a doubt one of the most disturbing movies in Asian Horror. It's not always full of scares and screams but it delivers a different kind of feeling that lingers even after you finished watching the film. This particular scene is so unsettling, I don't think YouTube will let me embed it in the post. So follow the link at your own risk.

Bus Stop Scene

Uvula Aficionado

2007-11-19T17:56:00.001-08:00

From one of the weirdest dark comedies/musicals, "The Happiness of the Katakuris," comes this brilliant, play-doh, semi-animated scene involving a miniature, winged creature and his love for uvulas:

Also by Takashi Miike (the guy's brilliantly twisted)

Takashi Miike Gawker!

2007-11-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

Few directors can transform the modern moviegoers into gawkers and jaw-droppers like Takashi Miike. In the old days the shadow of a knife was enough to get the audience anxious and scared. Nowadays we are not easily shocked, except for when we watch one of Takashi’s movies. The films have the kind of twisted horror that would have gotten the director imprisoned and banned back in Hitchcock's time. Lucky for us, we live in a different age where we can enjoy a good fright, brought to us by a genius mind.

Takashi is a very prolific director and not all of his films are considered horror (specially that Dead or Alive trilogy…) but nonetheless some of the most shocking and disturbing scenes in film history come from his cinematography vision. Here’s an interview from the BBC in which he talks about the motivation behind his most important film: Audition.

Live Sushi

2007-11-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

There's not much to say about "Oldboy" that hasn't already been described, praised, or critiqued by today's media. The movie, part of a vengeance trilogy, has created waves of controversy due to its graphic violence and taboo themes.
Because this blog basks on blood baths, it's time to focus on more subtle notes of nausea-producing imagery. In the following clip, Oh Dae-Su munches on a live squid while Mi-do stares at him aghast. Squid is considered by many countries to be a delicious meal, but eating a moving, squishy, gray, and stretchy creatures before it hits the skillet (or meets the knife) is bound to make some folks queasy.

Terminal Call

2007-11-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

Those are not ramen noodles. And that is not a normal phone. If you hear an eerie ringtone coming from your cel. that isn't yours, consider yourself dead (or search frantically for the origins of the ghost haunting you).

If you're curious about the premise described above, watch One Missed Call. It's so good, they're coming up with an American remake.