J-Horror is a relatively new genre of literature to me, previous to taking this class I was pretty ignorant to it's existence all together. Even in the movies I've been primarily in the dark, having not even seen the american remakes such as The Grudge, just because I didn't feel very interested at the time they were released.
I began reading A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami and it was pretty cool in the way the author describes things and really gives his characters a believability but, the plot was so abrupt and quick that I was getting overly confused at the time I tried to read it. So, I put the book down and decided to read Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things which was collected and translated by Lafcadio Hearn. I would like to eventually try reading A Wild Sheep Chase again when my mind isn't so attentive to other things because I do think it would be an interesting read.
On to the Kwaidan, the stories ranged from musicians singing to ghost, to corpse devouring former priests, to snow white feminine specters. Overall they were interesting to the point that I couldn't wait to hear the climax of each story and then hop right into the next one. Some of them felt a bit obvious in a way, but I presume that's because they're derived from century old mythology that always seems to have that feeling of simplicity to them. The first story in the Kwaidan, “The Story of Mimi-nashi Hoichi,” was probably my favorite of the bunch and was coincidentally the story we watched in film version at the beginning of class. I enjoyed the correlation between the original story and how it was adapted to the film, many of the phrases seemed to be directly ripped from the source material and put into the movie.
I also enjoyed the story of the “Jikininki” because I liked the idea of a selfish or greedy individual in life being morphed into a specter, cursed to seek out and eat the corpses of the recently deceased. The spirit does this not because they're evil, but because it's actually a punishment and the jikininki is disgusted by their condition and hate their abhorrent lust for decaying human flesh. Also interesting, is the fact that in this story and most other Japanese “ghost” stories the spirit is often given a human physical appearance and is perceived as such, leading to some interesting story devices. For instance in this story the main character priest actually comes across the jikininki first and is tricked into believing that he is a priest as well, but finds out later in conversation with the jikininki himself that he's actually a cursed specter.
These stories are interesting because they show how closely religion and ancestry is to the way the Japanese conduct their daily lives. As opposed to most other country's ghosts who are believed to hold an ill-will towards the living and literally haunt them. In Japan the “ghost stories” are intended to comfort and inspire their audience and to strengthen their social and religious ideas. Also, I feel that in manly it's supernatural and gothic tales the japanese seem to bring a sort of performance feeling to their writing and theatrical efforts much more so than most other countries that seem to go for more of a representational or believable quality. The stories are often perceived as strange when read by outside sources, but it isn't in reality because this quality is something that has been ingrained in Japanese society since the culture has existed and is more of a natural progression.
The Kwaidan has definitely opened up my mind to the differences in Japanese culture to our own and how it makes their writing and film much different, I look forward to exploring this genre more in the future because of it's unique approach.
Also, because I found it funny, Here's my Japanese Metal Pick!! I don't listen to anything japanese in terms of music, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Almost what I'd expect to hear from Japan... Pop+Metal, haha it's well done but definitely not my style.
Blood Stain Child - Freedom
No comments:
Post a Comment