2022 January Premieres

January is going to be slow, and I am more than ok with that. I spent the final couple weeks of 2021 finishing up a slew of dramas and it will be nice to take a breather and maybe watch some older dramas and movies. I do suspect there will be more dramas and movies announced towards the middle of the month.

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-Korean drama The Ghost Doctor starring Rain, Uee, and Kim Bum premieres on the 3rd. The drama follows a surgeon whose spirit possesses another doctor’s body. Viki will be subbing it.

-Korean movie The Policeman’s Lineage will be released on the 5th. Starring Jo Jin Woong and Choi Woo Shik, it follows the two as cops that take on a case that uncovers police corruption.

-Chinese horror film Someone in the Room premiers in theaters on the 7th about a woman who is assaulted while home alone.

-Also on the 7th is the MBC kdrama Tracer. A mystery drama starring Im Si Wan, a chief of taxation who gets entangled with a coworker’s corruption. It’ll be airing on the streaming platform Wavve and MBC, so maybe it’ll show up on Kocowa?

-Rounding out the 7th is the Japanese live-action movie based on the manga of the same name, Bungo Stray Dogs: Beast. A man vows revenge in order to rescue his sister.

-WOWOW premieres the Japanese miniseries, Dakara Korosenakatta on the 9th. After a reporter (Tamaki Hiroshi) is given a note by a murderer he must try to stop more deaths through articles.

-On the 10th is TV Tokyo’s Kon Katsu Tantei. A mystery/comedy about a detective who is not good with women.

-Korean action movie Special Cargo, starring Park So Dam will be in theaters starting on the 12th and folloes So Dam’s character as a driver who is tasked to deliver a child.

-Netflix’s next airing jdrama, The Journalist will start on the 13th. The thriller is about a journalist who investigates government corruption. Yonekura Ryoko stars.

-Probably one of my most anticipated dramas of the month, the SBS kdrama Through the Darkness begins on the 14th. Set in the ’90’s it follows a serial killer and the police trying to stop him.

-DCU is a jdrama about a group of divers created by the Coast Guard who find evidence of crime and murders. It starts on the 16th on TBS.

-Starring an amazing cast that includes Song Kang Ho, Lee Byung Hun, and Jeon Do Yeon to name a few, the action thriller Emergency Declaration premieres on the 22nd about a detective who receives word of a terrorist attack on an airplane. It looks like Viki may have picked it up - under rental I’m sure.

-Finally dropping on Netflix is the zombie drama All of Us Are Dead following high school students stuck in their school during an outbreak. It’ll be released on the 28th (I’m assuming it’ll drop all at once).

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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: 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: 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: 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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31 Days of Asian Horror: Perfect Blue (1997)

Directed by Satoshi Kon and based on the manga Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis, Perfect Blue follows Mima Kirigoe, a member of an idol group who leaves to pursue a career in acting and in doing so changes her image. After leaving the group she becomes threatened and left fearing she is being stalked by an unknown fan who is potentially murdering people around her. As the film progresses Mima spirals out of control with the weight of her new image and the threat.

Perfect Blue is technically much more thriller than it is horror, but the rollercoaster the story takes you on has some pretty horrific moments which lead you on a mind-bending journey. The film is able to create incredible tension and paces it perfectly, keeping you guessing on what is actually happening and what might be fantasy. We stay in the perspective of a younger female who has been constantly in the spotlight since she was younger and manipulated by her fans needing to know her every move. Her acting career, which requires her to be more sexual to appeal to a different set of fans and break from her clean image, creates another layer to the film’s tension as we feel firsthand the pressures of a young female in the entertainment industry.

I hadn’t rewatched Perfect Blue in a long time, with my first viewing of it back in high school in the early 2000s and it’s still one of my favorite animated movies. The film still surprisingly stands in today’s society, especially with the prevalence of the idol industry starting to become more mainstream with Korea’s influence in Western media. Japan’s idol system has been around for a while, and the movie serves as a great commentary on the pressures and societal issues that young girls face being in that system. The movie takes you on a wild ride and it’s gripping the entire time. I highly recommend picking it up.

Perfect Blue is available for rental on most sites and on DVD/Blu-Ray.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Psycho Shark (2009)

I’ve been fairly lucky with the movies that I picked to review for this month that I hadn’t seen yet, but then Psycho Shark came. Nicknamed Jaws in Japan, I had so much hope for this movie. I didn’t think it would be the best, but I really wanted to find a fun and campy creature feature and I don’t think I can describe to you how far off this movie hit. It’s almost a waste of a day to devote a review to it, but if I can make sure someone doesn’t fall for it like I did, then my work is done. I can excuse a lot of things with creature features. I can be ok when the creatures defy physics or the acting is bad. The CGI can be terrible and the movie can have no plot. But somehow, Psycho Shark saw that as a challenge and test my patience. It had so much potential in the beginning, I thought that they would play with the found footage or that there was going to be some play on Psycho because of the name. And just like every other thing about this movie, it let me down. You don’t even see the shark until the last ten minutes of the movie.

Yes. You spend the entire movie waiting for the shark, and sans a dream sequence where we see a shark 3/4 of the way through the movie, you only see it once. I can’t even summarize what goes on during the rest of the movie because nothing goes on. A girl scared and shocked replays a video over and over, girls dance and shower in bikinis…there’s a beach?

Psycho Shark is on Tubi but even for free it’s not worth it. Thankfully lovely people on YouTube did God’s work and clipped the shark scene at the ending so you can watch it and not have to sit through the entire thing. I admit it’s a pretty enjoyable scene, but you literally have to wait for the entire film to get there and it’s just not the payoff you want or need.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: One Cut of the Dead (2017)

How do I talk about a movie like One Cut of the Dead? It’s an experience that you just have to…experience. The joy in this movie is watching it and following the crazy ride from start to finish. What starts off as a film about overworked actors shooting a zombie film with a cynical director evolves into chaos as zombies appear. The camera work, lack of decent lighting, sporadic focus, and not-so-great acting add so much to the film and captures the rawness blending the satire into the story flawlessly.

Because of how well it is able to take you on such an unexpected journey, it has become one of my favorite zombie films. It’s quirky and fun, yet extremely smart. This film depends upon your first viewing having not known any of the spoilers to truly get how beautifully this film was crafted and produced. It would be a disservice to take that away from your enjoyment of the film and if you haven’t watched it, now is the best time. Don’t let the first part stop you, I promise the payoff is more than worth it. Shinichiro Ueda was able to craft a witty and original horror-comedy while on a low budget with a cast of unknown actors that is satisfying and has a lot of heart. The film is beyond enjoyable.

I’m not going to lie to you, the movie’s draw is the twists and reveals, but it is still highly re-watchable even after knowing the secrets and just adds another layer of enjoyment. It gives you all the clues along the way and with each rewatch you see them in a new light. The film was inspired by Ryoichi Wada's stage play, Ghost in the Box, and in a way it follows that theatricality. Because of it, the movie allows you to transition from the viewpoint of the audience, the actors, and the backstage crew to get a lot out of your multiple viewings.

One Cut of the Dead is streaming on Shudder.

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31 Days of Asian Horror: Kuroneko (1968)

*Slight spoilers throughout

When I was first coming up with the list of movies to watch and review for this month, I knew I wanted to focus on some offerings that pushed me out of my watchlist and into areas that were a bit more foreign to me. It’s eventually how I chose do the “retro” day. I wanted to purposely pick some older films. I didn’t think when I was planning that I would develop such a deep love for it. It seems silly in hindsight, as a lot of the elements that these movies focus on and the way that they are produced are what I enjoy. I was happy that Kuroneko proved to be much more of a solid pick than I had ever hoped.

Kaneto Shindo’s Kuroneko is based on a folktale by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, In a Grove. Set during the civl war in Japan, the film follows a mother and daughter-in-law who are assaulted than murdered, returning as cat-like ghosts to avenge their deaths. I pause to say that this move is a horror. In a way, it is but the story flows as a mashup of multiple genres. Kuroneko is more than just a vengeful spirit tale. It’s a story of grief, love, anger, and a deep sadness of what could - and should - have been. Shindo is able to bridge the melding of these genres that goes beyond the normal vengeful female ghost stories and grounds the realness and confusion of the events.

The abrupt and brutal assault of the women in the very beginning of the movie sets up the tragedy they are forced to endure and there is an immediate understanding on why they do what they do. While their actions aren’t necessarily justified, the audience plays an understanding and sympathetic role and we immediately understand that the horror lies with these actions much more than what the pair will do. Their hatred for samurais are eventually challenged when Gintoki appears. Shige question everything and struggles with her want to feel his love and be happy again. The sadness that Yone feels for both her son and daughter-in-law and her pain and anger feeding her want for revenge create a story that is intriguing and heartbreaking. I was engaged throughout.

Another standout for the film is how it portrays the appearance of the pair. The practice of hikamiyu, shaving the brows and smudging on a higher line on the forehead, accented the feline features of the two. The lightness in the fight choreography also lent towards the feline feel as they were able to fly effortlessly through the air, landing quietly on their feet. There are only a few times we are reminded visually that they are cats, and at that point the viewer has almost forgotten that they are not the humans that they are presented with and just the smallest hint of them being inhuman reminds you of that and when the story of Gintoki starts to unfold it adds to a new grief.

The film is shot in black and white which adds another level to the creepiness of the setting when Yone takes the samurai back through the bamboo forests. The shadows and lines of the pair as they take the long walk through the woods heightens the tension of the situation - the density of the bamboo is engulfing. You are rarely ever scared for the women, though. In a way, the story is the act of the women taking back their lives, and becoming the upperhand in a time where they would normally not. They were violated in a such a horrific way that transcends their deaths, and there is something beautiful, while dark, about a story that allows them to see that out. While Yone finds her lost love and chooses to follow him, the mother can not. Even the love of her son doesn’t allow her to let go of vengence and mirrors how survivors can share the same assault, yet the way it affects them is drastically different.

Mizuki Sameuelson has a great essay that explores the topic more detailed, “Kuroneko: On Rape-Revenge and The Monstrous Feminine” that focuses more on the difference between Yone and Shige’s end choices that I highly suggest checking out.

Kuroneko can be streamed on the Criterion Collection.

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