Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema. (Contemporary Cinema)

232 Pages·2007·4.67 MB·English

by  Jay McRoy

Nightmare Japan
Contemporary Cinema 4
Series Editors
Ernest Mathijs &
Steven Jay Schneider
Editorial Advisory Board:
Martin Barker (University of Wales-Aberystwyth)
Wanda Bershen (Founder, Red Diaper Productions)
Mark Betz (University of London, King’s College)
David Bordwell (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Sean Cubitt (University of Waikato, New Zealand)
Roger Garcia (Former Director, Hong Kong International Film
Festival)
Joke Hermes (University of Amsterdam)
Jim Hillier (University of Reading)
Mark Jancovich (University of East Anglia)
Douglas Kellner (University of California-Los Angeles)
Soyoung Kim (Korean National University of Arts)
Amy Kronish (Consultant in Jewish & Israeli Film)
Barney Oldfield (General Manager, Angelika Entertainment)
Murray Pomerance (Ryerson University, Canada)
Michael Renov (University of Southern California)
David Schwartz (Chief Curator of Film, American Museum
of the Moving Image)
M.M. Serra (Executive Director, Film-Makers Cooperative)
J. David Slocum (New York University)
Christina Stojanova (University of Regina)
Kristin Thompson (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Contemporary Cinema is a series of edited volumes and
single-authored texts focusing on the latest in film culture, theory,
reception and interpretation. There is a concentration on films
released in the past fifteen years, and the aim is to reflect important
current issues while pointing to others that to date have not been
given sufficient attention.
Nightmare Japan
Contemporary
Japanese Horror Cinema
Jay McRoy
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008
Institutional support:
The Centre for Cinema Studies, Department of Theatre and Film,
University of British Columbia
Illustration cover:
Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale (© Tartan Video).
Cover design:
Pier Post
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements
of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for
documents - Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 978-90-420-2331-4
ISSN: 1572-3070
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008
Printed in the Netherlands
To Amy, as Always…

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi

Introduction:‘New Waves’, Old Terrors, and Emerging Fears 1

Guinea Pigs and Entrails: Cultural Transformations
and Body Horror in Japanese Torture Film 15

Cultural Transformation, Corporeal Prohibitions and
Body Horror in Sato Hisayasu’s Naked Blood and Muscle 49

Ghosts of the Present, Spectres of the Past: The kaidan and the
Haunted Family in the Cinema of Nakata Hideo
and Shimizu Takashi 75

A Murder of Doves: Youth Violence and the Rites of Passing
in Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema 103

Spiraling into Apocalypse: Sono Shion’s Suicide Circle,
Higuchinsky’s Uzumaki and Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Pulse 135

New Terrors, Emerging Trends, and the Future of Japanese
Horror Cinema 171

Works Cited and Consulted 199

Index 217

List of Illustrations

Image 1: Buñuel revisited – Satoru Ogura’s Devil’s 21
Experiment (©Ecclectic DVD Distributors)

Image 2: Pseudo-snuff or nostalgic nationalism? Hino 26
Hideshi’s Flower of Flesh and Blood (© Ecclectic
DVD Distributors)

Image 3: Cannibal Delicacies in Devil Woman Doctor 41
(© Ecclectic DVD Distributors).

Image 4: The body at war with itself in He Never Dies 47
(© Ecclectic DVD Distributors)

Image 5: Extreme piercing in Naked Blood 54
(Courtesy: beyondhollywood.com)

Image 6: Muscle – Video box art (Strand Releasing) 74

Image 7: Sadako’s furious gaze in Nakata Hideo’s Ringu 78
(© Tartan Video)

Image 8: Cycles of neglect: a young Yoshimi awaits her 91
mother’s arrival in Nakata Hideo’s Dark Water
(Courtesy: beyondhollywood.com)

Image 9: A doomed social worker tends to a neglected parent 98
in Shimizu Takashi’s Ju-on: The Grudge
(Courtesy: beyondhollywood.com)

Image 10: Hoshino Shusuke screams in abject despair in 110
Iwaii Shunji’s All about Lily Chou-Chou
(© Home Vision)