Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ikrik]

I started getting into J-horror films WAY after it was cool to watch them.  I completely ignored it as a means of entertainment because I'm not a huge fan of horror...well, I'm not a huge fan of being shocked and people calling it "horror."  But after watching some great Japanese and Korean Films (Oldboy, Yojimbo, Casshern, Lady Vengeance, Shiri)  I decided to download and watch some Asian horror.  I watched The Eye, Ringu, Ju-On, One Missed Call, Shutter, A Tale of Two Sisters, Tetsuo, Mermaid in a Manhole, Audition, Dumplings, and a couple others that I can't remember offhand, and I really, really enjoyed them.  One Missed Call, Ju-On, Ringu, and the Eye I knew were all remade and I've seen and was insanely apalled by the travesties of the remakes.  I wanted to see the original to see if it was any better, and in EVERY case it was.  I watched Shutter and I wasn't super-impressed, it was kind of typical for me, plus I find the Thai language to be particularly unpleasant to the ear.  And last week, or just a few weeks ago, Shutter was released in North America to almost unanimously negative reviews.  A Tale of Two Sisters is one of my favourite films, as strange and confusing as it is, and I nearly cried when I found out it was being remade as a big-budget Hollywood movie.  Do people actually enjoy these?  Is there someone out there who can tell me "no, you're being crazy, these remakes are justified for the following reasons:"  How many more good Asian horror films are they going to desecrate before they've had their fill and movied on to something else?

[Gridgm]

the grudge was ok if only because they used the original director and actually set it in japan which means some of the culture manged to seep through

sarah michelle gellar can hang herself for her role quite frankly ... (i can't belive i'm saying that having watched once more with feeling today)

though the original was still better and i have to agree with you in terms of the other remakes as well

[Jimmy the Squid]

I'm just getting tired of remakes in general. I can understand book to film adaptations and video game to film and comic book to film - that all makes a modicum of sense but what the shit is wrong with trying to think up an interesting idea on your own? Besides, if the film already exists...why make another?

[schimmy]

It's like... it's like they want to make lots of money without working hard, isn't it?

[KharBevNor]

I just feel like being a devils advocate for a second and mentioning that The Canterbury Tales and a good three quarters (at least) of the plays of Shakespeare are essentially adaptations of other works. Won't even go into paintings. Novelty didn't become an important idea till the 18th century.

[RallyMonkey]

The Merry Wives of Windsor was the only play Shakespeare wrote based on an original idea.

[Dimmukane]

Well, for the most part, they do shitty in the box office.  I know The Grudge and The Ring turned a profit, but most of the others barely do, if that's any consolation.  I'm tired of remakes in general.  Shakespeare's plays?  I liked Tempest, a little bit.  I liked his poems better.  I hate derivative music (here's looking at you, about half the music there is).  The point is, I just trudge on like nothing bad has happened.  If it looks bad, sounds bad, reads bad, plays bad, I just stop and do something else.

[Jimmy the Squid]

It's like... it's like they want to make lots of money without working hard, isn't it?

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

Of course the profit is a huge factor in it but I was more lamenting the death of creativity.

[tomselleck69]

I just feel like being a devils advocate for a second and mentioning that The Canterbury Tales and a good three quarters (at least) of the plays of Shakespeare are essentially adaptations of other works. Won't even go into paintings. Novelty didn't become an important idea till the 18th century.

Man, remakes certainly aren't what they used to be.

[Nodaisho]

I hate derivative music (here's looking at you, about half the music there is).

I don't mind it, as long as it is derivative of a style I like. I would not mind an Agalloch worship band, or a band completely imitating Down or CoC, but that is off-topic.

I don't really like horror at all, the closest to horror I can stand is the Supernatural TV show. I just don't like how so often (from my limited experience), in american horror, they rely on splatter and toplessness to hide how shitty they really are. Don't get me wrong, "Toplessness! Woo!" and whatnot, but seriously, that isn't the sole idea of a horror movie. The J-horror I have seen (never actually seen a full one, just parts) is more of the fear of what you can't see, what you can't fight. And I don't mean an indestructible enemy, that is just a cop-out. I get the fear of the unknown and unfightable much more than the fear of the guy that apparently, despite making incredibly ominous footstep noises when you first notice him, can apparently move silently, faster than the eye can see, so he ends up in front of you once you look back.

[Jackie Blue]

Considering how dire they do at the box office, no, I don't think you are.

I just know eventually someone is going to want to remake Cure and I will have to lost all faith in humanity if it is as bad as I know it would have to be.

The thing is, I honestly don't know who they're making these movies for.  As stated they do really bad at the box office, fans of the originals have no interest in them because they're generally so much worse (The Ring was actually watchable, to be fair), and most "horror fans" in America want to see Hostel 4 or Saw XVII or other torture porn - ironic since Audition was arguably the first "torture porn" film to really make an impact and yet it only featues roughly ten minutes of any kind of torture at all, and the film in general is so much deeper than that.  For Miike to have played a cameo in Hostel is just sickening and I hope they paid him a fuckton of scratch.

[JohnnyBeGalt]

It's like... it's like they want to make lots of money without working hard, isn't it?

Yes. The best part is, you can apply their model to anything!

Think about it!

Take anything originally Asian (like the Great Wall of China)...

Now take out the Asian influence (the original circumstances under which it was built, the China part, etc.)...

And add good ol'-fashioned American attitude into the mix (turning the damn thing on its side and making it a bridge to the Moon...to a gangsta rap soundtrack)...

The result :

EASY MONEY! (Renting spacesuits and selling elevator rides to the Moon)

[Border Reiver]

It's like... it's like they want to make lots of money without working hard, isn't it?

You say that like it is a bad thing.  People have been doing that since we discovered work - although back then we called it "Not having to leave the cave area to get enough food."

[Joseph]

Zerodrone, or anyone else for that matter, is there a Miike film which would be a good place to start with his work?  He's made a damn bajillion of them, and a good portion seem fairly gory.  Is there an obvious first one to watch?

[tomselleck69]

Just watch all three Dead or Alive movies and by the time you're done you'll have taken in all elements of all Miike films.

(real answer: Ichi the Killer and/or Audition)

[Dimmukane]

I just saw his latest, Big Bang Love Juvenile A, that was pretty good.

[Jackie Blue]

Just watch all three Dead or Alive movies and by the time you're done you'll have taken in all elements of all Miike films.

(real answer: Ichi the Killer and/or Audition)

Not true at all, Miike has done drama, comedy, horror, pretty much every genre that exists.  He's mostly known in America for his horror films, but those are not all he does by a long shot.

"It should be noted that, despite his somewhat notorious reputation, Miike has also proven himself to be capable of directing lighthearted children's films (Zebraman, The Great Yokai War), touching period pieces (Sabu), and subdued, moving pictures such as the road movie The Bird People in China. Even in his more violent work, he is given to moments of surprising sentimentality, as in Dead or Alive 2. His dabbling in every sort of genre and emotional range is a testament to his versatility as a director, though a lot of his output is genre-defying. For example, The Happiness of the Katakuris is an unconventional farcical musical-comedy-horror involving a bizarre claymation sequence, zombies and b-movie pastiches."

I'd start things easy with One Missed Call, then Audition (which, despite its notoriety, is not something that is actually gory or horrifying except psychologically).  If you're feeling really saucy, watch Visitor Q.

In a similar vein, Sion Sono is actually a somewhat better director in my opinion though he is definitely less visually shocking than Miike.  Suicide Club (sometimes referred to as Suicide Circle) is an absolute must-see, as is its superior "sequel", Noriko's Dinner Table, and his latest film EXTE - which is a horror film about hair extensions.  I'm not kidding, and it is fantastic.

[Dimmukane]

Big Bang Love Juvenile A is a homosexual love story that takes place in prison and has butterflies. 

It's a good movie.  Which I think I mentioned.

[StarmanJr]

stay away from izo.

It's a trap!

[tomselleck69]

I have a theory that Miike's filmmaking career has actually been a single expansive, infinitesimally complex piece of performance art (or possibly a joke at the expense of the viewer). I can't claim to understand his message, but I do know that if there is a cipher to unlocking what he's getting at, it has to be City of Lost Souls.

stay away from izo.

Actually, do the opposite of this (for Kazuki Tomokawa).

[Uber Ritter]

MAn, I need to see more Miike movies.  I liked Ichi the Killer, though it was very...odd.
I have only seen snippets of Visitor Q (I believe the infamous necrophilia, or was it just incest? scene).