<3 your blog! trying to watch more international films and i know there's some classics from Asia. do you have any recs for Asian horror
thank you!!
here are my favorite Asian horror films (note: a lot of these contain triggering content, so please do research beforehand if that's an issue):
Japan
ゴジラ/Godzilla (1954; creature feature, science fiction): US nuclear testing off the coast of Japan creates a giant lizard creature that rampages through Tokyo
藪の中の黒猫/Kuroneko (1968; ghosts): a woman and her daughter-in-law come back as vengeful spirits after they're murdered by samurai
ハウス/House (1977; horror comedy, ghosts): a group of schoolgirls visit a haunted mansion
天使のたまご/Angel's Egg (1985; dark fantasy, surrealist, animated): in a ruined world, a young girl cares for a giant egg
吸血鬼(バンパイア)ハンターD/Vampire Hunter D (1985; vampires, animated): when a woman is betrothed to a vampire, she hires a vampire hunter in an attempt to escape
アキラ/Akira (1988; science fiction, animated): 31 years after a nuke was dropped on Tokyo, a young man tries to save his friend from government experiments
鉄男/Testuo: The Iron Man (1989; techno horror, body horror): a man finds his flesh is cursed to turn to iron
パーフェクトブルー/Perfect Blue (1997; psychological horror, animated): a pop star is driven mad by a stalker
リング/Ring (1998; techno horror, ghosts): a videotape curses anyone who watches it to die in seven days
オーディション/Audition (1999; psychological thriller): a widower auditioning women to be his new wife makes a deadly choice
バトル・ロワイアル/Battle Royale (2000; science fiction, psychological thriller): a group of students are put on an island and told to slaughter each other
回路/Pulse (2001; techno horror, ghosts): a group of young people in Tokyo discover a website that claims to show you ghosts
殺し屋1/Ichi the Killer (2001; psychological thriller, slasher): a sadomasochistic Yakuza enforcer goes on a rampage
仄暗い水の底から/Dark Water (2002; ghosts): a divorced mother and her young daughter move into a haunted apartment building
ノロイ/Noroi: The Curse (2005; occult, found footage): a paranormal investigator tries to tie together a series of supernatural events
シン・ゴジラ/Shin Godzilla (2016; creature feature, science fiction): a giant lizard kaiju attacks Tokyo
カメラを止めるな!/One Cut of the Dead (2017; horror comedy, zombies): people making a cheap zombie flick find themselves in the middle of a real zombie outbreak
South Korea
올드보이/Oldboy (2003; psychological thriller): after being imprisoned in a room for fifteen years, a man hunts down the ones responsible
괴물/The Host (2006; creature feature, science fiction): a monster made when American chemicals were spilled into the Han River emerges to attack a community
박쥐/Thirst (2009; vampires): a Catholic priest is turned into a vampire by a blood transfusion
악마를 보았다/I Saw the Devil (2010; psychological thriller): a man goes on a brutal revenge mission after the murder of his wife
늑대소년/A Werewolf Boy (2012; werewolves, dark fantasy): a girl moves to a country home, where she befriends a strange, feral boy
부산행/Train to Busan (2016; zombies): a zombie plague breaks out on a train
서울역/Seoul Station (2016; zombies, animated): a zombie plague breaks out at a train station; companion film to Train to Busan
아가씨/The Handmaiden (2016; psychological thriller): a woman hired to be a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress plans to defraud her
곤지암/Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018; ghosts, found footage): a group of influencers livestream themselves exploring a supposedly haunted institution
#살아있다/#Alive (2020; zombies): a young man is trapped in his apartment during a zombie outbreak
Hong Kong
殭屍先生/Mr. Vampire (1985; horror comedy, vampires): a Taoist priest must fight jiangshi that descend upon a village
餃子/Dumplings (2004; psychological thriller): a woman obsessed with staying young eats dumplings stuffed with strange meat
維多利亞壹號/Dream Home (2010; slasher): a woman goes on a killing spree to get her dream apartment
India
Bhoot/Ghost (2003; ghosts): a Mumbai businessman and his wife move into a haunted flat
Ek Thi Daayan/Once There was a Witch (2013; supernatural horror): a magician seeks protection from a witch who has haunted him since childhood
Tumbbad (2018; dark fantasy, occult): a father and son seek treasure in a castle inhabited by an evil god
Bulbbul (2020; dark fantasy): the village of a child bride, now grown, is attacked by a chudail
Indonesia
Pengabdi Setan/Satan's Slaves (2017; occult): a woman returns from the dead to haunt her children (this is a remake of a film from the 80s, which i have not yet seen)
Sebelum Iblis Menjemput/May the Devil Take You (2018; occult): a woman and her step-family visit her sick father's old home in search of what ails him
Iran
دختری در شب تنها به خانه میرود/A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014; vampires): a vampire targets a small Iranian town, attacking men who mistreat women (technically an American production)
زیر سایه/Under the Shadow (2016; occult): during the War of the Cities, a woman and her young daughter are haunted by djinns
Thailand
ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ/Shutter (2004; ghosts): a man begins capturing strange figures in his camera
Turkey
Baskin (2015; occult, dark fantasy, surrealist): a group of police officers discover a gateway to hell
Taiwan
哭悲/The Sadness (2021; bio horror): a virus spreads through Taipei, compelling all who are infected to commit the worst crimes they can imagine
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Top 10 horror movies?
caveat that these are not in any particular order because not only does different horror feed the different brains but sometimes the mood begets the kind of horror needed at the time. also ofc, these are just my personal favorites, there are plenty more that i consider to be fantastic, good, amazing horror films, but y'know, personal bias
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - Classic Slasher but also just a really good horror movie, the movie itself is nightmarish and creative, charismatic, and the protagonist is amazing in that she is smart, competent, and capable--while still remaining to be a teenage girl who is immensely scared. good gateway horror i think
Jacob's Ladder (1990) - Inspo for Silent Hill sure but another chaotic, nightmarish experience that is essentially a character study of a Vietnam War vet.
Possum (2018) - i LOVE this movie. I love this movie. it's slow and chock full of turn of the century german expressionism (it's a UK film) that really, really, really plays you as much as the main character is played. You know how people with real traumas get labeled as strange and weird and "They totally did it" just because of how they behave in society? This movie pulled me in to think that and then punched me in the face for thinking it.
From Beyond (1986) - I love all of Stuart Gordon's movies, you may know him best from Honey I Shrunk The Kids (yeah disney approached him idfk why). They're outrageous and chock full of practical effects with a dash of sex horror, but it feels like everyone is having a good time on set, they know each other, etc, and Barbara Crampton is spectacular in this and I call it my favorite.
Pulse (回路) (2001) - I won't say much about this but the magnifying glass it takes into the sicknesses of society that isolate us from each other is so heartfelt and sad. Kurosawa Kiyoshi is a powerhouse in Japanese Horror and is worth checking out. If you've seen and liked Se7en, for example, I recommend Cure (1997) for a similar detective crime horror experience.
Noroi: The Curse (ノロイ) (2005) - Found footage horror that made me scared to open my door in the middle of the fucking night. Jesus Christ! I think it has a cameo from Kurosawa Kiyoshi playing as himself, but it might've been another Shiraishi Kouji film that I'm thinking about.
Possession (1981) - This one really hits me in a way I can't describe in sophistication or words, it's viscerally emotional in that sense and really, really, really a soothing salve after experiencing fucked up sudden heartbreak, which is poignant because Żuławski made this film after his divorce.
Evil Dead (2013) - Ok I'm apparently a weirdo in that my favorite evil dead is the first one, the less-comedy/noncomedy one, but I'm putting 2013 on here because this -- for as violent as it is -- is a comfort film. I really love how they took the original Evil Dead formula and had its own story with it, I love Mia, I love the set-up that she's trying to kick heroin, and the gore is so nasty and mean but like. hey. it's Evil Dead.
Us (2019) - Yeah I have a feeling this will always be my favorite Peele movie, from the fantastical nature, the amazing soundtrack, the visuals, and from my first viewing experience - midnight viewing while working at my movie theater before it was officially out that i then had to drive myself and my coworker/roommate from and we saw a person walking down the street dressed in red at 2am. Incredible stuff. (also doppelganger horror gets me in a bad way)
The Blob (1988) - If the 50's Blob was nothing but a Red Scare movie, the '88 Blob is a reaction to that paranoia that skewers the notion that America is always on the good and right and small town teens are all treated equally and all that. Veneer of neighborhood smeared away in favor of wellmeaning teens bringing a homeless man to the hospital only to be met with the question "Does he have Blue Cross/Blue Shield?" Incredible effects, super fun, and i love that scathing turn of "This wasn't always right, actually"
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Noroi: The curse (ノロイ, 2005)
Plot
A paranormal researcher named Kobayashi is working on a documentary that gets him entangled in a mystery involving psychic children, mysterious disappearances, possessions and demons. This film presents his research and explores what happened after Kobayashi finished his work.
Opinion
This is a very well liked found footage ghost movie but it just wasn't for me. It's not bad at all, it's a slow burn and has a very convincing presentation with authentic looking Japanese "tv shows" that i enjoyed a lot. It's trying to set more of a subtle unnerving atmosphere than going for hard scares but it just didn't work on me personally. But people are scared by different things and this IS a popular movie so i can't bad mouth it too much, maybe i'm just too westernized in my idea of ghosts or i'm too spoiled because of other ghost movies i enjoyed more.
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22/30 Days of Productivity
October 22:
I wasn’t feeling too great today, so most of my time was spent reading Babel. And then at like nine o’clock I realized that I hadn’t done laundry so I had to do that... And dishes so that I can eat next week...
When I finally got my things together to study Mandarin, I got a notification that there was a movie streaming on the lovely minimmersion discord server, so of course my study snacks turned into movie snacks and we watched ノロイ. I’m glad I made it to the movie, because it was fantastic! I don’t typically like found footage horror, but I have to say that this was one of the most well done horror movies I’ve seen. We watched with English subtitles so that people studying other languages could join in, and I’m glad we did, because it moved pretty fast and there was some tough vocabulary in there that I absolutely wouldn’t have understood (endoplasmic worms).
But I did get some studying in today! I took some time while my clothes were in the laundry to start the next lesson in my textbook. I can already feel a slight shift in the language used, especially in that it’s moving away from one-to-one translations between Mandarin and English. I only did the first half of the lesson (which is a lot more copying than actual textbook problems) so I’m intrigued to see how the second half of the lesson continues this shift.
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