31 Days of Asian Horror: The Bloodthirsty Trilogy (1971-1974)

Happy Halloween!

Today’s Asian horror pick is a trio of movies produced by Toho Studios: The Vampire Doll, Lake of Dracula, and Evil of Dracula. While there is no plot connection between the three, they are all directed by Michio Yamamoto and written by Ei Ogawa. The movies aren’t like other Japanese horror films, and fall more closely into the style of British gothic horror of the 50’s. I really enjoyed all three films, and they are the perfect fall afternoon binge but can be watched out of order without any worry about ruining the experience. What makes the trio even more interesting is that while they are pretty close to their original source, there is still a sense of what we would see in some later Japanese horror movies and the inherent difference in culture makes the movies unique in their own right. Sometimes you just need a classic spooky tale that doesn’t rely on gore or jump scares, and who centered the spookiness in original scares, haunting organ melodies, and things that go bump in the night.

The Vampire Doll (1970)

After returning home from an overseas trip Kazuhiko (Atsuo Nakamura) goes to visit his girlfriend at her country home. After not hearing from him for a week, Kazuhiko's sister Keiko (Kayo Matsuo) goes to figure out where her brother went with the aid of her fiance, Hiroshi (Akira Nakao).

Lake of Dracula (1971)

After a nightmare about a vampire when she was young, Akiko’s (Midori Fujita) dream is revealed true when an empty coffin shows up. Akiko's boyfriend, a doctor on the island, realizes that something is amiss when a series of deaths occur and go to investigate what is happening, which sets off a series of horrific events with Akiko being targeted by a vampire.

Evil of Dracula (1974)

Shiraki ((Shin Kishida) accepts a position at an all-girls boarding school where he finds out the headmaster is not who he says he is and that the students, and him, are in trouble against the vampire.

All of the movies can be found on Tubi and AsianCrush as well as on Blu-Ray/DVD.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Audition (1999)

Today’s movie is not only one that I adore, but I think a must for any Japanese horror lover to watch at least once in their lives. Audition is based on a novel by Ryu Murakami and was given to Takashi Miike to adapt alongside screenwriter Daisuke Tengan on the heels of the success of Ringu. The film follows Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a widower who, with the help of a film producer friend, holds a mock casting audition to find his new wife.

The slowest of burns in all the best of ways, Audition sets up the story almost flawlessly. The death of his wife, his relationship with his son and dog play into the type of man he appears. The silent grief and loneliness that occurs after loss, and the need to move on but not knowing when is the right time sucks you into the story and quietly takes you on an unsuspecting journey. The movie spends most of its time in this space and sets up the turn beautifully in a way that is not only unexpected but sombering. Eihi Shiina’s performance as Asami is the breakthrough out of the movie, her acting is quiet and unassuming and packs much more of a punch at the climax of the movie in a way that makes you question everything that you’ve watched - forcing it into a new light and playing into the true terrors of gender roles, how they can affect people, and how a lot of it goes unnoticed because it is the norm in society. Audition is one of those films that inherently work better the less you know about it and allow Miike is able to take you on that journey without knowing what is going on. It’s a top-rated movie for a reason, and highly worth checking out.

Audition is currently streaming on Shudder, Tubi, and AsianCrush.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Kaal (2005)

Written and directed by Soham Shah, Kaal follows the story of a group of wildlife experts trying to collect information about a string of attacks and deaths that are attributed to a man-eating tiger.

Whether intentional or not, Kaal is a campy thriller that tries to be scary and doesn’t accomplish any of that with overacting and a generally terrible plot. The story takes a while to get going, and really only jumps into actual tension and intrigue towards the latter half. The problem with this is that the movie is over two hours long, forcing you to trudge through an hour of random bickering, not-so-great characters, and overdone jump scares that attribute nothing to the overall story. It takes a while to be somewhat interesting, and that’s only after the turn. The movie is just not good enough to dedicate that amount of time and falls flat even when it starts to get sort of interesting.

The tigers used in the film are real, opting to not use any sort of computer-generated ones, which is a slight bonus to the overall story. The movie spends a lot of its time in this area of trying to be a solid thriller, but unintentionally going over into the campy horror side and using the tigers worked a little bit more to ground a lot of it when dealing with those scenes, even if the rest of the movie didn’t follow suit. I wanted a fun creature feature but was left with a boring 2-hour movie, that didn’t go anywhere and takes itself well too seriously.

Kaal is currently streaming on Netflix.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Blood (2015)

Switching gears a bit from a full review of a movie (and technically not horror but let’s just let that one slide), today I’m focusing on my first impression of the first two episodes of the 2015 kdrama, Blood. Written by Park Jae Bum (God’s Quiz) and directed by Lee Jae Hoon (Run On, Ghost Detective) and Ki Min Soo (Good Doctor), the series follows top Ji Sang (Ahn Jae Hyun), a doctor that specializes in a specific surgery who is also a vampire, and his colleagues at a top cancer treatment center.

Blood has always been on my radar, but I never quite pulled the trigger to put it on my watch list, mostly because it was always sort of pitched like a romcom to me. With my aversion to most romcoms, I steered clear of the drama for a while. I wish I had looked into it sooner, not realizing who was behind the project. Director Ki Min Soo’s recent works include some of my favorites of recent date. Park Jae Bum wrote most recently for Vincenzo, and is the writer for one of my favorite kdrama series, God’s Quiz. While the drama is not fully a romcom, it does have some of those elements and is a closer follow to the structure of older kdramas, having heightened exaggerations of situations and heavily leaning on the clash between Min Soo and the female lead, played by Ku Hye Sun. I’m not a fan of those tropes and is a turn-off for a good bit of the scenes concerning the two. The drama does have enough of a rotating cast, and because it’s a medical drama more excitement or intrigue than if the drama had to follow just their relationship.

For me, the biggest draw of the series is the integration of his vampirism within the drama. It’s a unique take on the trope, and from early on we see the struggle he has with being a vampire. It plays into some interesting storylines, and also helps introduce him as a doctor. It’s doesn’t seem as corny or off the wall. Having the scenes when he’s younger feel compassion towards others while fighting his demons worked with the drama and with the death of the parents the drama set up some mystery for a larger issue that I’m interested to see. I also liked that we didn’t have to wait around for a tangible reason why he can be out in public or out in sunlight. The drama sets up a lot of the questions regarding him being able to do what he does fairly early on, allowing the viewer to not have to dwell on it. I respected how tight everything was in that regard, and it didn’t needlessly bog down the episode with these types of unanswered questions on the logistics of him operating as a vampire.

That being said, I know I will have trouble with the main pairing. This time period of kdramas have some pretty insufferable female leads, and it makes it hard to really get into the drama because of that. I also find that Hye Sun’s acting, in general, tends to be overexaggerated a bit too much despite the project she is working on, and it interrupts my care for her the characters she performs. It also presents a specific problem within a medical drama where her character has literal lives in her hands, and feel that she is jeopardizing those patients to show off and not being held accountable. I have a hard time believing in characters being truly good and empathetic when they show that they’d rather place a patient in harm’s way than to be upstaged by someone, a long-time hated trope that is very much present in this drama.

Will I continue the series? Honestly, it’s a possibility. I was intrigued by the first two episodes enough to want to continue the series but it is a longer drama, coming in at 20 episodes. Add elements that I know will be a struggle (that will take a longer time to settle and resolve in the story), and I’m not in any rush to continue watching. I do have some hope for the rest of the series, though, even if I end up completing it and it’s not a top drama for me. The team is pretty stacked in favor of this being a generally good series for me. Another factor that is preventing me from picking it up fully is that I do have a lineup of dramas that I’m currently watching, as well as a November packed with new dramas premiering that picking up the drama now just doesn’t seem as feasible. At the very least I intend to keep it on my list so that I can watch an episode or two here and there, but not commit to watching it in one sitting or in any time frame.

Blood can be found on Viki and Kocowa.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Pulse (2001) vs Pulse (2006)

It’s the last paring of the month, and today we are focusing on the 2001 Japanese techno-horror and its 2006 US remake of the same name. The original is directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a well-known director in the genre and known for a slew of horror films such as Cure (1997) and Creepy (2016). The remake was scripted by Wes Craven and directed by Jim Sonzero. The two movies sort of stay in the same storyline, but a bit of is changed, the major difference is that the original movie follows two storylines that eventually merge together. The original follows Michi (Kumiko Aso), a florist who finds her coworker dead, and Ryosuke (Haruhiko Kato), a student who finds his computer showing weird images and the two eventually unveil a slew of suicides that result from a ghost taking over the internet. The remake focuses mostly on Mattie (Kristen Bell) who finds her boyfriend dead and starts to investigate what happened.

Pulse has a relatively weird plot and premise, and it’ll inherently be a hard sell to translate to Western audiences, especially when you tie in the advancement of technology in Japan compared to the US at the time of both movies, but the remake does an okay job at recreating the atmosphere of the original all things considered and does try to lean into the techno-horror, whether they accomplish it or not. The original is a slow-burn mystery, heavy on the investigation, but has some creepy elements that help aid the mystery, more poetic and gothic than outright creepiness. The remake tries to focus more on concrete things, such as a more definitive definition of the ghosts and heightened thrills. A lot of the movie heavily plays into the use of internet technology specifically in the early 2000’s. Using suicide as the form of death isn’t just because it’s needed, it ties into what the internet was mostly used for when it first came out. There’s an overall feeling of “joining in the loneliness” which was present at that time in message boards and chatrooms. A lot of people were using the internet to connect with other people because they were feeling lonely in their daily lives and trying to create some sort of community with the people they were talking to online because they weren’t feeling that connection in real life. The original movie conveys this sentiment much more and focuses the plot to be driven by loneliness and the desperate need for some sort of community. Even the videos of those who passed convey that loneliness, the ghosts were alone in life and trying not to be alone in death as well by taking everyone with them.

I do think that the remake falls flat for most of the movie, however. Mostly because the slow build does not translate to what the remake is trying to do. It falls into the trap of trying to heighten and over exaggerate things more, focusing more on the horror that is presented, and not allowing the horror to be created from the tension and atmosphere. While the original focuses more on the mystique of what the ghost is, the US remake defines it a bit more and just loses the creativity of the original. I think a lot of that downfall is because the target audience was a lot younger, trying to pull in the audience from the teen horror craze, and ultimately dumbs down a lot of the story because of it, leaving behind a lot of the plot that is driven by loneliness which I found was the most unique and interesting part of the story and made the general plot make so much more sene. If you are trying to decide between the two, the original is worth finding and presents an overall creepier story that has great builds and a deeper storyline.

Pulse is currently available for rental on most services and on DVD, with the original available on Tubi.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Gonjiam Haunted Asylum (2018)

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital was one of the most haunted places in South Korea, so it’s no wonder that a movie would be made based on the hospital. Starring a cast including Wi Ha Joon who has currently gotten notoriety playing the role of Jun Ho in Squid Game, the 2018 found footage film is directed by Jung Bum Shik. The film became a commercial success after its release, becoming the third most watched horror film in South Korea after A Tale of Two Sisters and Phone, and was released in the US a month after it's local release. (source) The movie follows a group of paranormal researchers filming for a livestream series, Horror Times, as they tour the hospital and end up discovering that there was some reality to all the local lore surrounding it.

The biggest thing that the movie does well is the setup of the tone and ramps up to some pretty scary and unsettling parts at the end of the film, forcing a journey of not necessarily wondering if something is going to happen, but when. We get a good variety of characters, and it adds to the enjoyment of the film. I find that a lot of found footage films can have some problems with keeping me invested in the group, normally because they try to put the most insufferable humans together, leaving me not caring about anyone and didn’t find that problem with this. Ha Joon’s character is an added bonus, as he stays behind in the camp watching everything unfold through the cameras with additional cameras that are set up around the tent to allow the viewer to see his reactions. There’s not much to read from his character from the very beginning, and it sets up a slight mystery on his role in the greater story. I also enjoyed the way they set up the camera work, the crew inside the hospital were strapped into cameras a la MTV’s Fear, and it was fun seeing the reactions from the various cameras that have various qualities, adding to not only the atmosphere but the erraticness of not being able to see everything that is going on.

While the ending kind of feels rushed, I wasn’t bothered by it. The general excitement of the build up to it was interesting and made for a fun watch. The movie does a fairly good job at setting up a pretty standard and predictable plotline from the very beginning, allowing the movie to be viewed much more for the fun of it rather than constantly focusing on every little thing and solving the puzzle. And sometimes, you just need a fun movie that you don’t have to think about.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is currently streaming on Shudder and Tubi.

31 Days of Asian Horror: Betaal (2020)

Today’s drama is the short Netflix series, Betaal. Produced by American film studio Blumhouse with India’s Red Cillies Entertainment, the 2020 series was written and directed by Patrick Graham. A military unit is dispatched to settle a dispute between a remote village and a construction company regarding a closed tunnel. Despite warnings from locals, the tunnel is opened unleashing evil spirits.

What makes Betaal unique is how it uses spiritualism and folklore with the intrusion of modern day society. For years the locals have been able to live peacefully with their rituals helping contain the curse in the mountain and it isn’t until a commercial contractors greed unleashes the evil. This also plays into the spirits themselves as they are much closer in appearance and to that of modern zombies. The difference between the two sides makes for a really interesting first episode, and I was really excited to see how it was going to play out throughout the series. However, this doesn’t carry over for most of the series. All the locals are gone by the time the tunnel opens, and we don’t come back to them.

Even with the intrigue of the new take Betaal falls flat. The plot is kind of messy, it’s largely boring with storylines that go on and feel like needless filler and the reveal of the truth behind the zombies just doesn’t live up to what it could have been. I also felt that there was some weirdness in direction, as there are times when the group would be serious and the acting fine, with other times almost purposeful campiness and weird line delivery. The series is relatively short, which helps a bit, but on the whole feels like it would have been better as a movie, especially it focused more on the butting of heads of modern vs tradition and less exposition. That being said, I do think it’s worth giving a shot. With the episodes being about 45 minutes apiece, it’s a fine way to spend an afternoon and an interesting new look at the zombie genre.

Betaal is streaming on Netflix.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Hex (1980)

The Shaw Brothers’ take on the French film Les Diaboliques, Hex starts off as a fairly unsuspecting melodrama. A wealthy wife, Chan Sau Ying, has fallen ill and her abusive alcoholic husband Chun Yu is constantly making it worse, driving all their servants out until a new girl comes in, a daughter of a former servant who helped the wife’s family (Yi Wah). The husband brutally assaults Yi Wah which sets off a disastrous chain of events. The movie does a fairly good job at setting up the mystery and generally keeps it up through the reveals, but I felt that it hit a slump in the middle. That being said it was a decent watch and would recommend it to those who like supernatural plots that are more drama driven and depend less on gores and jump scares.

Hex is available for rent and on DVD.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: 20+ Asian Horror on Tubi

I’m back today with another list, this one exclusively focusing on the streaming platform Tubi. Tubi’s offerings are free with ads making it the best low cost option to find some good horror offerings, some can only be found there. Tubi has literal thousands of movies to choose from, and adds hundreds more every month. It can be intimidating to go through the list of movies to find Asian horror, hopefully this list will give you a good start to fill out your Halloween watchlists.

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Hansel & Gretel (2017 - South Korea)

Directed by Yim Pil Sung (Doomsday Book), Hansel and Gretel follows Eun Soo (Chun Jung Myung) after he crashes his car and is rescued by a child in the forest and taken back to her house where he meets the rest of her family. A great retelling of a classic story that keeps you guessing about what is really going on.

Battle Royale (2000 - Japan)

Battle Royale is an ultimate classic movie and if you haven’t already watched it now is your chance. A group of high school students are taken to a remote island where a mysterious person makes them kill each other in a gruesome battle. It is the single best death-survival horror classic, and inspired works such as Squid Games.

The Mimic (2017 - South Korea)

Based on the myth of the Jangsan Tiger who can mimic voices to lure unsuspecting people, the movie follows a family who is grieving after the loss of a child and finds a mysterious girl in the woods of their new house.

13: Game of Death (2006 - Thailand)

I have a full review on the movie, but I wanted to focus it again on this list because I really feel that people should be watching this one. A man, down on his luck, receives a mysterious phone call that enters him into a game where the antics raise as the money pool grows. The movie incorporates humor, suspense and the ultimate horror well.

The Wailing (2016 - South Korea)

After investigating a series of mysterious deaths associated with a strange illness, a police officer (played by Kwak Do Won) goes to investigate what is plaguing the village while trying to save his daughter. The Wailing is a must see Korean horror film.

Tag (2015 - Japan)

A classic Japanese horror, mostly for its famous bus scene, this action horror film follow Mitsuko (Reina Triendl) as she struggles with the death of her classmates, leaving her the sole survivor and to figure out what is going on.

Gonjiam: The Haunted Asylum (2018 - South Korea)

Were you part of the many that watched Squid Games and need to watch more of the cop Jun Ho, played by Wi Ha Jun? Look no further than this found footage film. A documentary crew goes to a famously haunted and abandoned asylum to live stream what they find.

Audition (1999 - Japan)

A quintessential Takashi Miike film that follows a widower who sets up a fake audition to find his new wife that leads to a disastrous outcome when he becomes interested in one.

Rigor Mortis (2013 - Hong Kong)

A tribute to the Mr Vampire franchise, Rigor Mortis follows down on his luck actor Chin Siu Ho who moves into an apartment building following a divorce and finds that the building is inhabited by much more than humans.

Dark Water (2002 - Japan)

A divorced mother moves into a rundown apartment and notices stange things happening, including the appearance of a mysterious water leak. Dark Water is a classic jhorror with slow builds and supernatural tones. One of my personal favorites.

The Uninvited (2003 - South Korea)

TW: While suicide is a reoccurring plot device in almost all Asian horror, this movie focuses on it heavily. Jeong Won (Park Shin Yang) is haunted by two young girls who he saw on the subway and later found to have been murdered and enlists the help of Jeong Yeon (Jun Ji Hyun), the only other person who can see them.

Ring Series (1998/1999/2000 - Japan)

While the series has several more adaptions and sequels, the main four movies are currently on Tubi and a great time to do a marathon. The story follows a cursed tape, and the effects it has on those who encounter and watch it.

Ringu, Ringu 2, Ringu 0 (Birthday), Ringu Spiral

Divine Fury (2019 - South Korea)

Yong Hoo (Park Seo Joon) is a martial arts champion who develops divine powers befriends a priest to fight against evil forces in Korea. MMA + exorcisms.

Bloodthirsty Trilogy (1970/1971/1974 - Japan)

The Bloodthirsty Trilogy is a trio of films directed by Michio Yamamoto and produced by Japanese film company, Toho Studios. None of the film series shares the same plot however, they do follow more classic and British gothic horror tones than the normal jhorror. If you are looking for an older offering, this is a great series that I’ll be focusing more on later this month.

Lake of Dracula, Evil of Dracula, The Vampire Doll

Bedeviled (2010 - South Korea)

More thriller than horror, the film follows Hye Won (Ji Sung Won) who visits her grandfather's house and is reunited with her childhood friend, Bok Nam (Seo Young Hee), and eventually finds out secrets of the island.

The Maid (2020 -Thailand)

Ending the list on a fairly recent movie, The Maid was just released for streaming here a couple of months ago and follows what happens to a maid after she enters the new house of a wealthy family with secrets.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: The Pool (2018)

It’s Creature Feature Friday and today’s pick had been sitting in my Shudder list for a bit too long. Written and directed by Ping Lumpraploeng, The Pool follows Day (Ken Theeradeth Wongpuapan), who was working on a film set using a pool. He stays after to clean up the set and becomes stranded in the empty pool with a crocodile and his injured girlfriend, Kay (Grace Ratnomnot Ratchiratham).

I really wanted to love this movie, I really did. It just was executed so poorly that it made it an exhausting watch. This movie is when every bad thing that you could ever think of comes perfectly together to target one singular person. And for a creature feature, that would normally work. The problem lies in that the film takes itself too seriously and tries too hard to be a solid thriller and wanting the audience to not think about how absurd everything that is going on is that it completely misses the mark. It wanted to capitalize on the realness of the event that the absurdity of this perfect storm was completely unrealistic. All that being said, I did like how the crocodile was portrayed. The goal of the movie was to ultimately focus on the pool being the big bad, and not the creature. It takes a while for you to realize that, and it is a good twist that the movie did well working that element well. The crocodile was as just a victim as Day and Kay were, and thus the actions of the crocodile were much less over the top and real.

Spoiler:

Another major misstep in the movie was the death of his dog. It was unnecessarily gruesome and placed at the end solely for a reaction to an audience. At this point it does fit with every absurd thing that could go wrong did, but it was an obvious ploy for reaction that was not warranted and did absolutely nothing for the plot, nor help with the horror. It was a ridiculous writing decision.

The Pool is streaming on Shudder and AsianCrush.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Ten Vampire Dramas/Movies

I needed a bit of a mental health day today and so I figured instead of a full review I’d list some fun vampire dramas and movies options since it’s a Thirsty Thursday. I focused this list more on dramas and movies that are currently available, and don’t actually reflect my personal favorites nor are they even all considered horror. Most of the offerings on this list I haven’t seen personally, but this list does have a good variety in horror levels and hopefully you can find something that will work for you.

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Tokyo Vampire Hotel (2017)

One of my favorite offerings on Amazon Prime, if you haven’t watched this Sion Sono directed drama about vampires trying to create their own utopia - and their own food supply - under the guise of a matchmaking party you are missing out. It’s a campy, blood-filled ride and I love it.

Where to find it: Amazon Prime

The Sweet Blood (2021)

This small web series aired early this year, the kdrama follows Yeon Soo, a vampire who wants to live a normal human life and tries to blend in by going to high school. When her classmate, Song Meo Roo attracts that unwanted attention from other vampires and werewolves because of his sweet blood Yeon Seo decides to protect him.

Where to find it: Viki

Vampire Princess Miyu OVA (1988)

The Vampire Princess Miyu series has been one of my all-time favorite animes for literally almost two decades, and while up until now I’ve had to do rewatches on my old DVDs, the OVA is now appearing on streaming sites. It is only currently the dubbed version, but this anime is worth a watch and follows a vampire, Miyu, and her protector Larva as she captures evil demons. The artwork is beautiful, and it has great character growth as well as an episodic monster of the week type vibe.

Where to find it: Tubi, RetroCrush, AsianCrush

Beautiful Vampire (2018)

A less horror more fantasy option is the 2018 movie, Beautiful Vampire about a vampire (Jung Yeon Joo) who runs a small makeup shop when the new building owner (Park Joon Myun) wants to kick her out. It’s a romcom with all the normal kdrama tropes that you can check off your list.

Where to find it: Viki, AsianCrush

I Cannot Hug You (2017)

Another light offering is the romantic/comedy cdrama, I Cannot Hug You starring Xing Zhao Lin and Rayil Zhang. A modern-day vampire story about an apathetic vampire who falls in love with her next door neighbor. I haven’t watched this personally, but it was pretty popular when it was airing and has two seasons.

Where to find it: Viki

You Are My Vampire (2014)

Struggling and down on her luck, Gyu Jung decides to write a novel about a vampire and encounters a strange man who rents a room at her dad's lodge.

Where to find it: AsianCrush

Orange Marmalade (2015)

Set in a world where humans and vampires coexist, vampires are discriminated against so most hide their true identity. Ma Ri (Kim Seol Hyun)hides her identity from her friends and neighbors, but things change when she falls in love with new student Jae Min (Yeo Jin Goo).

Where to find it: Viki, Kocowa

The Scholar Who Walks the Night (2015)

A Joseon scholar with a secret past recruits a cross-dressing bookseller to help him in his fight to protect the throne from a vampire. The kdrama stars Lee Joon Gi and Lee Yo Bi, with the screenwriter from Coffee Prince, Jang Hyun Joo, as well as a slew of other well-known actors. If you are looking for a more classic sageuk that incorporates vampires, this will be a great pick.

Where to find it: Viki, Kocowa

Blood (2015)

The kdrama Blood follows a renowned doctor who is best known for his cancer research, who is also a vampire. Blood is more of a medical based drama, with conflicts dealing in power struggles and humanity.

Where to find it: Viki, Kocowa

Vampire Knight (2008)

This 2008 anime is about Yuki Cross and vampire hunter Zero Kiryu, who attend a school as guardians to protect the humans from the vampires.

Where to find it: Netflix

Honorable Mentions

All of these are currently not streaming anywhere or easily accessible, but have in the past so they might pop up somewhere in the future.

• Vampire Prosecutor (2011) - kdrama

• Vampire Detective (2016) - kdrama

• RH Plus (2008) - jdrama

• Vampire Heaven (2013) - jdrama

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) vs The Grudge (2004)

It’s a Grudge kind of week, and after talking about the Netflix series back on Monday, it seemed only fitting to talk about the movie and its US remake for today’s pairing. It’s also the 19th birthday of Ju-On: The Grudge, as it premiered on October 18th at the Screamfest Film Festival, and the US remake’s 17th birthday is on the 22nd making it even more fitting that I celebrate with two posts about the franchise this week. It’s almost like a pre-planned this or something :)

Though the movies share some similarities, there were some differences and found that for some of the things I liked, the other movie didn’t quite live up to and vice versa. Since the series is fairly well known I figured for this review I would break it up into sections and comment on those specific points more than just an overall review. Note, there is a 2020 remake of the movie, but I haven’t watched it nor am I going to tie it or any of the other sequels and remakes into this post. The Grudge series is pretty extensive (it doesn’t even start with Ju-On: The Grudge), but I am only focusing on Ju-On: The Grudge vs the first US remake, The Grudge.

The two movies do share quite a bit in characteristics, but I do find that there are some noticeable differences in the two that really effected my general enjoyment. One being the setup of the curse. The US remake made the decision to set the film in Japan, but the curse happens almost exclusively on English-speakers which inherently forces the plot to not be able to take the turns that the original did. With the original we got to see the grudge as essentially the main character of the movie. It was what tied the stories and characters together. While the US remake sort of does this, it falls flat in the expansiveness of the curse. Because it’s limited to just picking English speakers, or that we’re really only hearing from them, the curse seems like it hasn’t been around for as long as it has and the permeation of the curse isn’t as effective. We also miss out on a lot of the way the original ties in the characters, purely on the fact that if you see a white person, you know it’s part of it and reveals end up falling flat.

The original is set up almost like anthology of sorts, and spans a bit more time. While I don’t think it does the best job working them in as cohesively as they should, it does have a better grasp at connecting people and showing what the curse is and how it operates. One of the main storylines that is cut out of the US remake that I really enjoy is the daughter of the detective, Izumi (Misa Uehara), who was the only one left alive after her father tried to set fire to the house while she and her friends were there. Her friends and her father died, leaving her to grieve and feel remorseful as the only living person, and the scenes we see of her add a new level to the curse that we don’t really get to see as well from the remake. There’s also a bit more emphasis on how it effects the survivors and how when the entity isn’t directly killing, it’s still doing harm. Taking this plot out of the movie effectively made Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) the main character of the movies when in the original Rika (Megumi Okina) is almost there for the purpose to bookend the movie and be the character that ties it all together, allowing the other characters a bit more emphasis and solidifying the grudge and house being the true main characters.

I do find that besides the breakdown of Izumi, most of the original isn’t quite as scary. The US remake works in the entity a bit more creepier, and the effects of the black blob work better as well as making some of the scares a little more quieter and mysterious. As I stated above, I had some issues with the cohesion of the acts in the original, and felt that the remake worked some of them in a bit better, establishing what was in the past more definitively than the original. I also felt the opening scene in the remake set the tone for the movie a bit more and generally liked how it worked into the story, as well as Gellar’s acting being a lot more convincing than Okinas. Whether it was a problem with sound effects being added in post production so she couldn’t sync up or her skill, a lot of the first time you see her on screen she never convinces you that things are scary. She doesn’t react to some noises and does others, and it took a bit more time for the tone of the movie to really settle in.

I feel like if you’ve been with me on this daily journey, you’ll already know what I’m going to comment on next, as I’ve said it in the prior two pairings I’ve done - the insistence of there being a happy ending plagues this one just like all the other remakes. I get it, it’s open purposefully to hopefully get more money with sequels but it’s exhausting and tiring. We’ve already seen multiple people die, I don’t expect this to end happily. And it shouldn’t. It’s a cop out that in turn sabotages all that you’ve set up with the grudge. The ending of the original just makes more sense, and I liked the way they accomplished it through a time jump where the character was caught off guard and had been removed from the events for a while was much more effective solidifying the permeation of the grudge and that you are never truly out of its grasp.

Ju-On: The Grudge can be found on a number of places to rent and streaming on Amazon Prime, and The Grudge is currently streaming on Pluto TV (it just was taken off of Prime last month).

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31 Days of Asian Horror: The Medium (2021)

The Medium was probably my most anticipated movie of the year, and luckily Shudder picked it up after it made its festival rounds. The movie was a joint Thai/Korean production, premiering at the Bucheon International Film Festival and released in Korean theaters on July 14th. Directed by Thai director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter), and produced by Korean director Na Hong Jin who is known for the 2016 possession film, The Wailing, it was primed to be a great film.

The Medium follows a documentary crew as they travel to Isan in northeastern Thailand to document the life of a local shaman, Nim (Sawanee Utoomma). While there the crew notices how strange her niece, Ming (Narilya Gulmongkolpech), has been acting and starts to focus their attention on her increasing outbursts and aggression, thinking that they might be witnessing her possession by the spirit of Bayan, an ancestral God that has been possessing women in the family for generations, and who currently inhabits Nim.

We see most of the movie through the lens of the documentary crew, as a pretty polished film. The focus of the film, even when we start to see Ming develop symptoms, is that of the family and their practice and it allowed for an interesting look into the culture of the religion which I think enhanced the viewing. A lot of movies like this get lost culturally when you don’t have any basis on the religion or the practices, and the movie allowed for there to be ‘learning’ points without stopping the momentum. While the movie takes a bit to get to some of the scarier parts, I felt that there was a lot of subtle horror that was slowly worked in well through Nim’s character and seeing her at a loss for what to do and her potential loss of faith. It’s a quiet and uncomfortable scare that is sad as you watched her struggle to figure out why this was happening, and the destruction of her family that has already seen so much.

Narilya’s portrayal of Ming is fantastic throughout the film. Her descent into madness caused by her possession was creepy and naturally intensified as the movie progressed. The moments she’s discussing her despair and the uncertainty about what is going on and the haunting images in her dreams was terrifying and only further was helped as she was able to accurately show the subtle differences when the evil spirit was possessing her and when it was Ming struggling to keep it out.

I really enjoyed the movie and had a combination of moments I look for in my horror. Along with my love of slow quiet burns, the cinematography was gorgeous and the landscape only helped further my immersement in what was going on.

The Medium is currently streaming on Shudder.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Ju-On Origins (2020)

If you’ve seen the original Ju-On, or even the US remake, you’ll know the basic story of Ju-On and the idea that when an incident happens in a place that is so tragic or horrible, it’ll stay with it forever haunting anyone who encounters it. While the original does focus a good bit of the story on the house itself, the Netflix original series Ju-On: Origins places it in a new light.

The series heavily focuses on the house, and the way it is presented is from a paranormal researcher’s quest to find out about all that happened there, interviewing other people’s accounts, and in turn, uncovers the horrific stories that happened. The drama series is much more darker than its original, really honing in on the idea of the grudge and what type of evil creates it. The series gives the distinction a little more weight, in that the grudge happens when the worst of the worst tragedy and events unfold and that it’s abnormal making the house so much more special.

I enjoyed the series the first time I watched it when it premiered back in July of last year, and still enjoyed it after a second watch. I always found that the original movie’s downfall was that it tried to separate the movie into each individual story and didn’t work to make it cohesive enough like it was trying to be more of an anthology, which I feel the series worked well within. Some of the stories are ongoing throughout the episodes, but because it’s broken into individual episodes, it allows for the jumps to previous incidents in time to flow better within the plot.

Placing the series in more of a documentary style or a faux-true story viewpoint was interesting and I think worked in that sense to keep up the scares when normal jump scares were not used as much, as it focused the horrors onto terrible humans doing terrible things and almost drawn to the house’s evil to carry out their acts. It still has the same flare that the movies do, though, and nods to the original with the use of the closet being a central place and a child's horrific death the catalyst for the grudge. The episodes are fairly short (under and half an hour) so it’s a quick easy binge.

If you are a fan of the series of movies, I do think you’d get something out of the series as it does kind of tie up loose ends regarding the grudge and its specificity of it being at that house thus showcasing how terrible the house is, but it does take the levels of the stories to a whole new extreme that is far enough removed from the original that I could see there being a divide in its reception. They are much more graphic and violent, the focus being on the worst of humanity which can be sometimes hard to stomach. I didn’t find that the series had many scares of a normal horror film, but more of a general sense of uneasiness the entire time that escalates as the series progresses and the stories get much more tragic.

Ju-On: Origins can be found streaming on Netflix.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: House (1977)

There’s no real good way to explain what House is. In the very simplest summary, it’s the story of a girl whose father has remarried. Saddened by that news she and a group of her friends go to visit her aunt - her late mother’s sister - when things go awry. But House is much more than that. It takes you on a weird acid-trip ride that really can not be expressed in words, it just needs to be experienced. Director Obayashi Nobuhiko was asked to do the movie as a response to the popularity of Jaws, which had also been a huge hit in Japanese cinemas. The film studio Toho wanted to find a relatively unknown creator and see if they could capitalize on the newfound talent creating not only a hit but a potential star out of the director. While Obayashi was developing the style of the movie, he talked to his daughter and was inspired by her ideas and own horror stories as a child and decided to incorporate them into the film.

House has a weird off-the-wall flair that is a combination of Obayashi being inspired by Alice in Wonderland, with his love of art-house and playing around with effects. The movie is filmed as if from the point of view of a child - fantastical and nonsensical, devoid of reality. The movie spends most of its time living in a dream-like state that looks straight out of a children’s book. Combine that with his daughter’s stories, such as futon monsters or creepy clocks at night, it’s wacky and unpredictable. Most of the time it doesn’t make sense, but that’s what makes it unique. It truly is a reflection of what scared you when you were younger paired with an underlying theme of dispair, sadness, and grief - all that has turned into anger from the constantly lingering side effect of unexpected loss and war which was something very close to the director. Obayashi was born in Hiroshima Prefecture and was seven when the atomic bomb was dropped.

“All of my close childhood friends died because of the bomb, so I wanted to write a fantasy with the atomic bomb as a theme.” - “Constructing a House” DVD commentary.

House, in a way, is about the parallels of the children who live in a very carefree way, and the aunt who saw firsthand the horrors of the war.

House can be found on the Criterion Channel, but also on DVD.

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