In 2002, American audiences were captivated by the now-classic horror movie, The Ring, a remake of the Japanese movie of the same genre, Ringu. The movie’s acceptance by its North American viewers spawned a series of J-Horror remakes, including The Grudge, One Missed Call, and Pulse, which all carried the same theme of an angry, vengeful ghost terrorizing an unsuspecting family or group of friends.
Although the horror genre is nothing new to
Americans, J-Horror films brought something new to American cinema. J-Horror
movies spin riveting tales centering around revenge-driven ghosts or demons to exemplify
how curses destroy families and societies.
J-Horror also became popular due to its
clever use of sound design. The sound effects were powerful tools used to
heighten the fear factor. Croaky death noises, ear-splitting ax-grinding, and
the thunderous thump of limbs hitting the ground all accentuated the hollow
sounds of death.
The audience plays a key role in
differentiating the two countries' horror styles. American audiences prefer
surprising fear that makes them jump from their seats with fright, only to
laugh at themselves. Americans perceive fear as fun, which is demonstrated best
by how Halloween is celebrated. It’s a time when everyone dresses up, many as
supernatural creatures, in honor of the spooky season.
Japanese audiences prefer scary horror stories
that have an indirect and psychological effect. It’s the quiet fear where a
sense of doom looms over everyone. The mere image of a lone ghost standing
nearby is enough of a threat to evoke fear, which is why many scenes are shot
this way.
Takashi Shimizu, an acclaimed horror
filmmaker, best known for creating and directing The Grudge, has produced
a new series project called the Horror Village series. This retelling of
urban myths has already released two films, Howling Village and Suicide
Forest Village. Both of these highly-anticipated nightmare-inducing movies
have been well received by mainstream audiences.
However, the third movie in the series, UshiKubi (Ox-head) Village, released on February 2022, could arguably be the most captivating of the three. The story of Ushikubi Village is one of Japan’s most popular urban legends, probably one of the most cavernous and savage too. It originates from a short story that was published in a book by Japanese science-fiction writer Jia Komatsu Sakyo in 1965. The book was later banned and burned by the government. Why? Because there were rampant reports that anyone who read the book lost their mind and went completely berserk. People allegedly began to drop dead due to anger and the sheer shock of the horrors carried out by the story’s antagonist.
The story originates from an urban legend
said to take place during Japan’s Meiji period. The Meiji era spanned from
September 1868 through July 1912 and was the beginning of the modernization and
westernization of Japan. During this time, Japan replaced its feudal system by
restoring the imperial system to unify the country under one centralized
government.
Needless to say, this was a period of great
transition for the Japanese people as its primarily agricultural economy began its
transformation, where new technological advances were introduced to the
country. While exciting changes were taking place, it was also a scary time for
Japanese citizens as a severe famine spread through the countryside's villages.
According to the legend, rainfall had not
quenched the land in over a year, causing a drought that adversely affected the
crops and grazing animals. Mothers and fathers scrambled to find ways to feed
their families by trapping birds and other forest creatures. Eventually,
everyone realized their food resources were depleted, and from these horrible
conditions emerged the story of the Ox-head Village.
While conducting a census during the Meiji
period, officials came across an abandoned village containing remnants of human
bones and cattle skulls. Their first impressions must be some kind of sacrificial
ceremony, explained by the remains they found buried.
They decided to launch an investigation
into the matter to uncover the truth, which was stranger than fiction. The
officials discovered that during a brutal famine, there was a man with a large,
deformed head who wandered into the village. The villagers were repulsed by the
man's appearance and avoided him until someone recognized him as the Ox-deity
who would save them from famine.
The villagers flocked to him in hopes that
he was truly a deity sent from heaven that had come to help. His deformity
caused horns to grow out of his head, so it was not hard for the villagers to
believe he had supernatural powers. Not one to back out on his fellow man, the
man with the Ox-head began to look for ways to supply the village with food and
water.
For days, he dug up the ground searching
for a water source, but to no avail. One day, after growing tired and fallen
asleep in a rice field, he found himself surrounded by desperately hungry
villagers. Those gathered were instigated by a wicked village habitant to kill
the man with the Ox-head, because he wasn't, in fact, human. He was cattle sent
for them to eat. After a bit of prodding and convincing, the deed was done, and
the villagers had "beef" that night for dinner.
The killing spree, however, had only just
begun. In the days that followed, cannibalism had become a way of life. The
villagers would elect their next victim, place the deformed man's skull on
them, and force them to run so they could hunt them as if they were cattle.
Fact or fiction, this urban myth is said to
carry an inauspicious spell. There have been reports of people behaved
strangely after hearing it, some passing out and dying days later, while others
remain incapacitated. In Japan, there is a well-known story of a school teacher
who once told the story to his class while bored on a trip. Although they
begged him not to, he told the story anyway and quickly regretted it once he
saw everyone, including the man driving the bus, was unconscious. No one knows
exactly what happened to everyone that day, but the teacher never told the
story again. Till this day, this dark, grisly urban myth still remains a taboo topic
for a nation known for its subdued and
restrained nature.
References
https://medium.com/ignition-int/defining-fear-e42a4f78fc73
https://www.britannica.com/event/Meiji-Restoration
https://www.vulture.com/2017/02/japanese-horror-american-remakes.html
https://forum.gamer.com.tw/Co.php?bsn=60201&sn=99233
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