Japanese Ghosts

Aneta Pierzchała

Abstract

Pierzchała analyses elements typical of Japanese horror movies on the example of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1964 film Kwaidan, based on a collection of folk tales by Lofcadio Hearn (known in Japan as Koisumi Yakumo) who was inspired by Japanese legends, Buddhist faith in reincarnation and karma, Shinto mythology and the Japanese “religion of nature”. Also analysed is The Ring, directed by Hideo Nakata (1998), the story of a “demonic” videotape, based on Ringu, the popular Japanese book by Kôji Suzuki in which you can find elements of the Buddhist concept of evil resulting from strong emotions, focused on the self (e.g. on own pain) of an individual (or a hell of illusions). Pierzchała points out that the aesthetic aspect of the film (especially the sequences in which a ghost appears) has been inspired by classic Nôh theatre. The film is compared with its U.S. remake, directed by Gore Verbinski. The third movie discussed by Pierzchała is Nakata’s 2002 Dark Water (based on Kôji Suzuki’s novel). Dark Water is the story of a woman haunted by the ghost of a drowned child; the film is juxtaposed with Dark Water, its American version, directed by Walter Salles in 2005.