J-Film Blog

Japanese Films from an American Perspective

Entries Tagged ‘suspense’

Onibaba | 鬼婆 (1964)

Um, well, I can definitely say that 1964’s Onibaba isn’t at all what I was expecting.  And that’s a good thing to be sure.  For 1964, this is a seriously twisted, frank, raw, provocative, and mesmerizing movie.
Set sometime in Japan’s war torn medieval period, we find an old woman (Nobuko Otawa) and her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko [...]

Ringu 0 | リング 0:バースデイ (2000)

[This post is part of the Halloween 2009 theme.  Don't worry, I'll cover more non-horror movies after the 31st!]
US Title: Ringu 0
Japanese Title: リング 0: バースデイ
I’m sure by now you’ve either seen, or heard of, the big hit J-horror movie, “The Ring.” Either the US Remake, or the original Japanese film “Ringu” by director Norio [...]

Dark Water | ほの暗い水のそこから | (2002)

US Title: Dark Water
Japanese Title: ほの暗い水のそこから (“From the Murky Water”)
One of the “canonical” J-horror stories, and still one of the creepiest, Dark Water pits the ghost of a young girl against a single mother and her young daughter, with unpleasant results.
Recently divorced mother Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) and her daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno) move into [...]