What is Japanese horror also known as?
Japanese horror is also known as J-horror. The term J-horror was coined in the West following the international success of Ring (1998), which helped revive interest in Japanese cinema globally.
Questions about Japanese horror
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What are the origins of Japanese horror?
Japanese horror traces its origins to kaidan, ghost stories from the Edo and Meiji periods. Early kaidan collections include Otogi Boko by Asai Ryoi, Inga Monogatari by Suzuki Shojo, and Otogi Monogatari by Ogita Ansei. The scholar Inoue Enryo brought the term yōkai into common use during the Meiji period.
How did Godzilla influence Japanese horror cinema?
Godzilla debuted in 1954 and became the first major kaiju monster film, shaping post-World War II Japanese horror around themes of radiation and destruction. In a 1973 poll by The Monster Times magazine, Godzilla was voted the most popular movie monster, beating Count Dracula, King Kong, and others. Steven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration, calling it "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies."
How did Ring (1998) influence Western horror films?
Ring (1998) helped revive Western horror by demonstrating that psychological restraint could be more frightening than on-screen violence, at a time when Hollywood horror was dominated by slasher films. Its success led to J-Horror remakes including The Ring (2002), The Grudge (2004), Dark Water (2005), and One Missed Call (2008). One Missed Call received a 0% critical approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, the worst reception of all the English-language remakes.
What role did video games play in the Japanese zombie horror genre?
Two Japanese video games released in 1996, Capcom's Resident Evil and Sega's The House of the Dead, sparked the global zombie revival. In 2013, George Romero said those games were "more than anything else" responsible for popularizing his zombie concept in the 21st century. The House of the Dead also introduced the fast-running zombie, which later appeared in films like 28 Days Later (2002) and Dawn of the Dead (2004).
How did Katsushika Hokusai contribute to Japanese horror imagery?
Katsushika Hokusai, an 18th-century Edo period artist, produced a horror print series titled A Hundred Horror Stories depicting ghosts and monsters from Japanese folklore. Only five prints from that series are known to have survived. The ghost of Okiku from that series, a servant girl murdered and thrown into a well whose spirit rises limbless, is thought to have influenced the novel Ring.