For instance, in ‘Pulse’ the shot of the ghost peering over the couch struck me as just as terrifying as anything in western movies, BUT the way they showed it was much different. Particularly in the music and cutting. In a western movie, that shot would have been a hard cut to the face already over the couch, accompanied by some very loud and dramatic noise meant to force the viewer to jump. In ‘Pulse’ it was instead a slow reveal of the face, and the music odd and creepy rising vocals. ‘The Woman of the Snow’ did similar things. Obviously, some films don’t follow these trends (for instance, the American home invasion film ‘The Strangers’ almost never uses musical cues when the baddies are on screen or in the background, and yet somehow makes the moments all the more terrifying) but it is interesting just how different the styles are.
In the written versions of 'Kwaidan', ‘The Story of Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi’ wasn’t really scary by western ideals. Asian stories often seems to have spirits being grey area, similarly to how older mythologies showed their gods. In this short story, the spirits just wanted Hoichi to play for them, but then once he stopped they wanted to tear him apart? Generally, not 'evil' like how we usually portray sprits in western stories. ‘Diplomacy’ it read more like a joke, with a punchline and everything. Only the fact that it involves death and the possibility of a ghost being enough to call it a horror, I suppose? ‘Of a Mirror and a Bell’ also felt more like an oral story, jumping around quite a bit.
Overall, the horror stories we read felt more like a piece of mythology than a story meant to scare. Or at least, not to scare in the Western sense. We usually consider scary stories as something that keeps us up at night and makes us look over our shoulders. Something more active. A serial murder breaking into your house, a vengeful ghost inhabiting the house you just moved into, a demon possessing your child to ruin your life. Written Asian horror stories (at least the ones we read for class) often seem more passive, just unfortunate people who cross the paths of random sprits and make it out alive by some odd series of events. Truly, they have more in common to me to Greek myths then to American horror films.
I should note, there is a possibility that the age of these horror stories are why they aren’t as scary, because conceptually the newer Asian films I’ve seen are deficiently scarier ('Pulse' had it's moments and everyone knows 'The Grudge' is just as intense as it's American counterpart). I know of at least one modern Asian horror writer whose work has left me terrified. Junji Ito, who creates horror mangaka. I wouldn’t say his work scares like a western story would, but they have the ability to unsettle like any horror should. They have the tone of some of the Asian stories, but the body horror that usually comes from some western stories (but also without the gorey-ness of western stories?) BUT the content is more like the Asian horror stories we've read. Grey-area spirits, unexplained natural phenomena, and reading a bit like a cautionary tale. Basically, I think that his work may be a better representation of modern Asian horror than something like ‘Kwaidan’.
In the written versions of 'Kwaidan', ‘The Story of Mimi-Hashi-Hoichi’ wasn’t really scary by western ideals. Asian stories often seems to have spirits being grey area, similarly to how older mythologies showed their gods. In this short story, the spirits just wanted Hoichi to play for them, but then once he stopped they wanted to tear him apart? Generally, not 'evil' like how we usually portray sprits in western stories. ‘Diplomacy’ it read more like a joke, with a punchline and everything. Only the fact that it involves death and the possibility of a ghost being enough to call it a horror, I suppose? ‘Of a Mirror and a Bell’ also felt more like an oral story, jumping around quite a bit.
Overall, the horror stories we read felt more like a piece of mythology than a story meant to scare. Or at least, not to scare in the Western sense. We usually consider scary stories as something that keeps us up at night and makes us look over our shoulders. Something more active. A serial murder breaking into your house, a vengeful ghost inhabiting the house you just moved into, a demon possessing your child to ruin your life. Written Asian horror stories (at least the ones we read for class) often seem more passive, just unfortunate people who cross the paths of random sprits and make it out alive by some odd series of events. Truly, they have more in common to me to Greek myths then to American horror films.
I should note, there is a possibility that the age of these horror stories are why they aren’t as scary, because conceptually the newer Asian films I’ve seen are deficiently scarier ('Pulse' had it's moments and everyone knows 'The Grudge' is just as intense as it's American counterpart). I know of at least one modern Asian horror writer whose work has left me terrified. Junji Ito, who creates horror mangaka. I wouldn’t say his work scares like a western story would, but they have the ability to unsettle like any horror should. They have the tone of some of the Asian stories, but the body horror that usually comes from some western stories (but also without the gorey-ness of western stories?) BUT the content is more like the Asian horror stories we've read. Grey-area spirits, unexplained natural phenomena, and reading a bit like a cautionary tale. Basically, I think that his work may be a better representation of modern Asian horror than something like ‘Kwaidan’.