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JAPANESE HORROR FILMS AND THEIR AMERICAN REMAKES: TRANSLATING FEAR, ADAPTING CULTURE Valerie Wee. New York: Routledge, 2014, 258 pp.
In Japanese Horror Films and Their American Remakes, Valerie Wee evaluates five contemporary Japanese horror films and their American remakes: Ringu (1998) and The Ring (2002); Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002) and Dark Water (2005); Ju-On (2002) and The Grudge (2004); Kairo (2001) and Pulse (2006); and Chakushin ari (2003) and One Missed Call (2008). Wee spends a chapter on each pair of films but begins the book with a background comparison of the cultural and societal influences on Japanese and Western horror films. She specifically addresses the impact on the genre of Buddhism, Shintoism, and Confucianism in Japan versus Judeo-Christian beliefs in the United States. Wee differentiates the duality and coexistence of good and evil in Japanese versus American horror film. American horror films use the Judeo-Christian belief of good versus evil. In Japan, good and evil can and should coexist, but in balance (yin/yang). Therefore, in a Japanese horror film, there is an effort to restore balance between good and evil. American films, based on the ideology of good versus evil, depict good trying to defeat evil. This difference can cause a Japanese horror film to leave American audiences confused and wishing for a less abstract ending. American remakes often address this issue by supplying the more concrete ending their audiences crave.
Wee also examines the history of Japanese horror films in the context of Kabuki theater and its "tradition of exploring and expressing notions of terror and the horrific" (31). More specifically, she discusses kaidan, which is a supernatural story usually involving a female ghost that seeks revenge. Wee states that in Japanese culture (premodern), the ie...