Saturday, March 26, 2011

Japanese Horror

I find Japanese horror to be very entertaining because it adds the element of humor to most of its films, while most American horror movies are strictly suspenseful or filled with terror. Although Uzumaki is considered horror, the way it was filmed and the effects and dialogue were pure comedy. Unlike actual Japanese horror films, American versions of them tend to actually be scary - I attribute this to the advancements in the film industry and the budgets of American films compared to Japanese; Uzumaki had a budget of 1,000,000 while movies such as The Ring have 50 million dollar budget. Overall, I really enjoy the Japanese horror films when I'm in the mood for a laugh, but enjoy the true American 'horror' films much more.

2 comments:

  1. I agree that Japanese horror tend to be more entertaining because of the comical element as well as the way in which they are filmed overall. I do however believe some Japanese films to be much better in term's of pure "horror" than American films (with Uzumaki being the exception). I have found with the very few Japanese horror films that I have seen, that they tend to take a more simplistic way of 'scaring' the viewer. Whereas American film and alternative versions tend to over-dramatize many aspects of the film making them funnier (not on purpose) rather than scary. I.E. I laughed a lot during the American version of "The Ring"

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  2. I agree that American films tend to be more focused on exclusively providing a horrific experience for the viewers relative to Japanese horror films, at least in the limited Japanese horror films I've seen (primarily films from this course). In my opinion, while American films aim primarily to terrify, often in an over-dramaticized fashion, I find Japanese films to provide a more holistic experience for the viewer. Such an experience is provided through the simple comic reliefs and other "non-horrific" aspects of their films. Simply put, I find that Japanese films don't take themselves too seriously and, in doing so, provide a deeper and more rounded experience for the viewer by eliciting other emotions besides fear.

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