Tuesday, July 20, 2004

New DVDs (AKA The Japanese know how to do Horror)

Well for those who don't know I really enjoyed the Ring trilogy (and of course, own it). Some of you may have seen the American remake, but it has nothing on the original.
So I bought some new movies today (all Asian films), two Japanese horror flicks and a Korean kung-fu movie. So far I've watched one of the Jap horrors entitled "The Grudge".
Now Hollywood horror seems to be (in my opinion) a matter of trying to get a big body count with nice hellishly gory deaths. This is not the Japanese idea of horror. Now, every horror I've seen from Japan has used something else instead of violence and large body counts, and that's suspense.

Just in case someone from Hollywood reads this:
sus·pense Pronunciation Key (s-spns)
n.
  1. The condition of being physically suspended.
    1. The state or quality of being undecided, uncertain, or doubtful.
    2. Pleasurable excitement and anticipation regarding an outcome, such as the ending of a mystery novel.
  2. Anxiety or apprehension resulting from an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation.
(from www.dictionary.com )
(and for those Americans we're talking about definition 3)

Well The Grudge does this incredibly well. We see little to no violence, I think the body count makes it to 15, and well if a movie can get me feeling a little creepped out and checking dark corners.... well the director/writer had to have done something right.

Danm that movie was freaky.



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