Japanese Horror vs American

The Grudge (2005)

American horror culture dominated the market but we began to gain interest in Japanese horror films. A lot of American fans of horror are probably unaware that a great amount of our movies are remakes of Japanese and Korean films. While both great in my opinion, American and Japanese films have different cliches. American films have become extremely “action orientated” (“Japanese Horror”).  for the past 20 years, Japanese films, however, What’s really the story behind the girl of Asian descent with dark black hair in the long white dress. Japanese creatures usually fall between two creatures Youkai and Yuurei. Yuurei is what us on the West side are literally obsessed with. Yurrei “are ghosts or spirits that have been stranded or died because of ‘intense emotion” (“Japanese Horror”).  So there you have it. Japanese directors don’t just love having  little girls in dresses. They usually have a purpose of getting revenge on the person that contributed to their death.The infamous movie The Grudge was a remake of Japanese director Takashi Shimizu’s 2002 film Ju-on. It follows an American woman that moves to Tokyo as a nurse. She moves into this house that destroys the lives of any and everyone that enters. Once the victim is overcome by the curse known as “the Grudge”, they die and it lives on until the next victim comes. Basically a cycle. Don’t worry this is as morbid as it gets for this blog. Kayako is the the cursed soul and basically the  poster child for this movie. I challenge you to find one person that doesn’t find this character creepy. You will fail time and time again. The way Kayako crawls on the floor is just… ok nevermind, makes me sick even thinking about it.

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