Japanese Horror FilmsOchuko Ideh

What is Japanese horror

Since its conception J horror has become a major part of pop culture. Its popularity exceeds past Japan and its neighbouring countries to Western countries such as America. There have been many re-imaging's of successful J horror films such as The Ring which was based on the J horror Ringu directed by Hideo Nakata.

J horrors have been praised for their unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre. J horrors tends to feature a lot of psychological horror and the building of suspense and tension, in addiction to this many of the narrative contains themes of folk religion such as possession, exorcism and shamanism.

Origin of Japanese horror

The origins of the Japanese horror films can be dated to the horror and ghost stories of the Edo and Meiji period of Japan which were know as Kaidan. Like I have stated before elements of these ancient stories have been worked into the stories that are featured in modern films. Ghost stories even date back further in Japanese literature as they date back to the Heian period ( from 794-1185).

The Konjaku Monogatarishu which was written during a time period that featured a large majorities of ghost stories from Japan, India and China.