Week Three: Asian Horror: Curses, Technology, Vengeful Spirits
This week we are considering the sub-genres of J-Horror and K-horror as well as supernatural tales from South Asian cinema. This is a type of storytelling often with its roots in traditional stories, especially "ghost stories." The novels and films featured this week often embody a sense of the emptiness of contemporary life, representing a world in which the protagonists are having a great deal of trouble finding their place. A sense of existential crisis pervades these stories, a crisis not only shared among the central characters but a crisis in the fabric of the reality they inhabit.
The reading for this week is Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase. This novel is a ghost story in the manner of traditional Japanese ghost stories in which ghosts are material phenomena, real and tangible in this world, not spectral. It's this sort of ghost that inhabits J-horror and is in part developed out of traditional dramatic forms like the puppet theater, or the Noh theater tradition. The style of these traditional types of ghost stories is well represented in the movie, Kwaidan, which is recommended viewing. Alternatively, you may want to read Kwaidan, the collection of traditional ghost stories or read the novel on which the movie Battle Royale is based by Koshun Takami, or you can completely indulge yourself by reading two volumes of Manga, Uzamaki, by Junji Ito.
As background for discussion of this week's topic I recommend this short video on the History of Horror Film in Japan.
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| Double Page spread from the third volume of the Battle Royale Manga |
As background for discussion of this week's topic I recommend this short video on the History of Horror Film in Japan.
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