2005 Winter - Intro - Hideo Nakata - Roy Lee - Koji Suzuki - Horror on the Horizon
Interview with Hideo Nakata, specter director
portrait by Tadayuki Naito
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Hideo Nakata
Film director
Born in 1961, Nakata graduated from Tokyo University's department of education. In 1993 he made his directorial debut with a TV horror drama. The following year he traveled to Europe on a fellowship from the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 1996 he directed his first film, Joyu-rei (Ghost Actress). Ringu in 1998 and Ringu 2 the following year were big hits in Japan, and Dark Water won the 2003 grand prize at the Gerardmer Film Festival in France. |
If you have ever visited a traditional Japanese household in Japan, you may have seen a Buddhist altar dedicated to the family's ancestors and located in the innermost area of the house. If you have ever visited Japan in mid-August, you might have encountered the celebrations of Obon, when the entire family gathers to commemorate their ancestral spirits and welcome them on their annual return to this world.
Since ancient times people in Japan have believed that ancestral spirits protect their descendants, and daily life is carried out in the belief that spirits naturally dwell in close proximity. Japanese instinctively feel that there is an unseen world existing all around us. This and other beliefs derive from Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan. Unlike monotheism, it is based on the animistic belief that myriad gods inhabit all natural phenomena. So the Japanese awareness of a spiritual world and the perceptions of "horror" are vastly different from those in Western cultures.
Hideo Nakata told us, "The difference between Japanese horror and Western horror can be traced back to the difference in religious beliefs. When making horror films, the methods of describing the spiritual world and the expression of horror are totally different between Japan and the West. In a culture where the influence of monotheism such as Christianity is strong, the antinomy, or confrontation between the devil and God, becomes the fundamental conflict. As in The Exorcist (1973), most Western horror movies are based on stories of people who have been possessed by demons. On the other hand, a typical example of the Japanese horror thriller is the classic Ghost Story of Tokaido Yotsuya, a tale that has been performed as a kabuki play since the Edo period. In the story, a beautiful wife is violently poisoned to death by her husband. Harboring a deep-seated grudge against the man who caused her grisly demise, she becomes a ghost, reappearing before her husband with a terribly disfigured face to curse him. It is horrifying to consider the possibility of a person holding such strong, fixated hatred toward someone else, and frightening to see someone turned into such an inhumanly disfigured specter."
In Japan, the spirits of those who die violently are typically believed to be unable to make their final passage to the world of the dead and they reappear before the living until they fully avenge themselves.
Nakata's favorites among Japanese classical horror movies are Tales of Moonlight and Rain (originally Ugetsu Monogatari, released abroad as Ugetsu), which is based on a famous work of pre-modern fiction by Akinari Ueda, and Botan-doro (Peony Lantern), a ghost story by Sanyutei Encho. He points out, "It is very natural that many Japanese horror movies can trace their roots back to classical Japanese literature or performing arts."
If you pick up still-widely-read classics dating back to the Heian period (794-1185), such as the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, the Tale of Genji, or Tales of Ise, you'll notice that the spirits appearing in the stories are not all dreadful with a deep grudge. Indeed some spirits are described as existing naturally, much like living human beings. The stories involve both types of spirits. Most of the plots in noh drama, the classical performing art that originated in the Muromachi period (1336-1573), feature spirits as well. And the same spectral "characters" also occasionally appear in performing arts from the Edo period (1603-1867) such as kabuki and yose (an indigenous form of vaudeville).
In a nutshell, the roots of J-horror twine through the 2,000-year history of Japanese culture and traditions. Nakata himself did not have a Buddhist altar in his house, nor has he read Japanese classical literature since he was a college student. He is a typical contemporary Japanese. The first horror films he ever saw were Hollywood films such as The Exorcist, The Omen (1976), and Susperia (1977). When he was a young boy, he wanted to become a conductor; jazz and classical music give him pleasure to this day.
How does Nakata create horror in his films? He cites the ability to manipulate the degree of horror simply by changing the length of a sound, even by a mere tenth of a second. The soundtrack is the key. In his movies the intervals between notes are stretched to the maximum. It is a sense of horror driven by calmness that's shattered by a sudden change in tone that shocks the audience. Nakata's soundtracks are described as dynamic and exquisite.
"I tend to stress long intervals in my tracks," he says. "Other people tend to use different sounds altogether to express horror, but I can increase the perception of it to the maximum by utilizing a very quiet sound. In Japanese culture we have the concept of the 'aesthetics of subtraction.' Even an act of repression can be considered a form of beauty. Let me compare the sound work in film to a symphony. A symphony consists of various movements, some quiet, some lively, but they are connected, creating a flow of sound, creating the complete symphony. The soundtrack in cinema is created the same way."
Though Nakata has become synonymous with Japanese horror movies and people automatically consider him the guru of J-horror, his initial aspirations were to create dramas with a touch of humanity. This, too, explains the popularity of his films.
"The main theme of Ring 2 is motherly love," he explains, "and this has something in common with the Japanese versions of Ring 1 and Dark Water. Samantha, played by Naomi Watts, is trying hard to protect her son, even though she has an inescapable destiny to confront ghosts. I wanted to express the strong yet gentle motherly love with which Samantha tries to protect her child while braving her cruel destiny."
TM & © 2004 DREAMWORKS LLC |
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The Ring 2
The Ring was a remake of the Japanese film Ringu, but The Ring 2 is an original story for the American audience. Rachel (Naomi Watts) and her son move from Seattle to a mountain village in Oregon. But their newfound rustic tranquility is soon shattered when she learns of the unsolved murder of a local boy and is drawn into a bizarre chain of events.
Due to open in the U.S. on March 18, 2005, and at Toho cinemas in Japan in summer 2005. |
TM & © 2002 DREAMWORKS LLC |
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The Ring
"Anyone watching this video will be dead in seven days." Rachel (Naomi Watts) is a newspaper reporter in Seattle. Her niece, after watching the video, dies inexplicably. As the video ends the phone rings: "You will die in seven days," says the caller. Rachel's son has seen the video. To save her son's life, Rachel is dragged into a whirlpool of terror as she frantically tries to track down a little girl who appeared in the video. |
Articles from the 2005 WINTER issue:
Kateigaho International Edition Issues:
2005 SUMMER - 2005 SPRING - 2005 WINTER
2004 AUTUMN - 2004 SUMMER - 2004 SPRING - 2004 WINTER
2003 AUTUMN - INAUGURAL ISSUE
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