Asian Film
There have been several films made about the Japanese urban legend known as Hitori Kakurenbo. There are also several ways that the title has been presented in English: hide and seek with a ghost, one man hide and seek or even hide and seek with yourself. It’s difficult to track it back to its origins,
I distinctly remember when it was announced that Takashi Shimizu, one of the most consistent contributors to Japanese horror over the last two decades, was going to direct a film based on the infamous Aokigahara forest. It came as a surprise to those of us who were still waiting on a similar project to come
While zombie flicks are a dime a dozen here in the West, the walking dead don’t really occupy the same space in Japanese horror. Not to say that there have not been phenomenal films and stand-out manga, yet, even when the titles do stand out it is often because of a very distinct, culturally different
The “Death Game” is an unofficial genre of thriller wherein a set of humans (or at least sentient beings) are pitted in a contest where the consequence of failure is the player’s last reward. The appeal isn’t hard to explain – the premise packs immediate tension as characters are faced not only with the threat
If you enjoy martial arts films, then you have probably heard of the incredible Shaw Brothers, one of Hong Kong’s biggest and most significant film production companies of all times. Having over 800 films made over nine decades and winning hundreds of awards, their name is synonymous with cinema all over the world. But, who
Being one of the most attributed inspirations in filmmaking, filmmakers around the world have cited The Evil Dead series as a motivation to create cinema for themselves. The mastery of the low-budget filmmaking process, which led to various highly esteemed horror films, still hold its own to this day in the horror genre – ingenuity
Extreme horror is an interesting subset within the wider genre of scary movies as a whole. For some, it is a wholly unapproachable category to be whispered of but avoided. To other gorehounds, rattling off the specific films you’ve seen can function something like a badge of courage for what you’ve endured and come out
Warning: Do Not Play is a South-Korean horror that can proudly stand among the great Asian movies from this decade with a focus on filmmaking, ‘One Cut Of The Dead‘ and ‘The Kirishima Thing‘ among them. It is essentially a ghost story spanning decades which doubles as a cursed-object movie featuring frequently disturbing imagery – mostly
It’s Halloween and I therefore decided to do a recap of a horror-related tropes or subgenre in Japanese entertainment! An obvious choice, taking up a fair amount of the genre landscape, are slashers – something much less associated to Japanese cinema. Now, clearly, Japan has no shortage of iconic slasher movies: …However, as my core
It is hard to know where to begin when discussing the epic that is Labyrinth of Cinema, the final directorial feature of Nobuhiko Obayashi. Perhaps it is best to start with the director himself. With a career spanning sixty years, Obayashi has garnered critical acclaim and an incredible cult following. From his first feature House