How have international audiences responded to Japanese cinema in recent years? In our series, "Japanese Film Beyond Japan", we look at the global impact of Japanese film through conversations between Japanese and international filmmakers.

This first installment looks at the Japanese horror genre, commonly referred to as “J-horror.” The genre comprises horror films released around the year 2000 and includes titles such as "Ringu" (1998) and "Ju-On: The Grudge" (2003), which were met with acclaim from both Japanese and international audiences alike.

What is it about J-horror that continues to influence the way horror movies are made today? To find out, we spoke with writer/director Hiroshi Takahashi and Thai film director Prachya Pinkaew. Takahashi, who wrote the screenplay for "Ringu" and worked as a creative consultant on "Ju-On", recently worked on the script for the new Netflix series, "Ju-On: Origins". Pinkaew has directed action films such as "Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior" (2003) and "Tom-Yum-Goong" (2005) and has made his foray into horror with works like his 2019 film Sisters.

Interviewer/Author: Masaki Mugikura, Editor: Satomi Hara (CINRA, Inc.), Main Photo: (c) "Ringu", "Rasen" Production Committee

“I never intended to make a genre of horror specific to Japan.”—Hiroshi Takahashi

── As one of the driving forces behind J-horror, why do you think "Ringu" and "Ju-On" found so much success outside of Japan?

Takahashi: First of all, J-horror is a term that was created by the Japanese media after they’d seen those films. As filmmakers, we had no intention of making a Japanese horror genre. On the contrary, these films were a way for us to pay homage to the British and American horror films of the 1960s we had seen as kids, movies like "The Innocents" (1961) and "The Haunting" (1963).

── You mean that your movies have their roots in Western, even Anglo-Saxon, horror as opposed to traditional Japanese horror.

Takahashi: Yes, and that’s why I wasn’t really surprised when "Ringu" and "Ju-On" were so well received by international audiences in the West. Although, I didn’t expect that Hollywood would remake them. [laughs]

── Mr. Pinkaew, you’ve mentioned that you consider "Ju-On" to be one of the top five horror films of all time. What is it about the movie that you like so much?

Pinkaew: Before we get into "Ju-On", let me first talk about "Ringu". Personally, I’m always watching for scenes where a ghost or spirit appears, which to me, are the most crucial parts of a horror movie. With Ringu, it’s extremely shocking when the girl crawls out of the TV. You could argue that at the time, it was so shocking that it turned the existing paradigm of horror on its head.

── So that scene left quite an impression on you?

Pinkaew: It did. And when I first saw "Ju-On", I was impressed with its use of sound in scenes where ghosts would appear. I found myself taken aback by how much sound design could amplify feelings of fear.

Takahashi: Well, let me thank you for paying such close attention. You’re right that "Ju-On" contains some scenes where the ghosts make rather frightening entrances. And the sound design, which was relatively understated in Ringu, plays a much more significant role in "Ju-On".

I think that was largely the choice of the director, Takashi Shimizu. He really wanted to create something that would stand apart from the subtle and reserved expressions of fear seen in previous J-horror films, including "Ringu".

“People fear the unknown.”—Prachya Pinkaew

── It’s now 2020, and more than 20 years have passed since the world was introduced to J-horror. Mr. Takahashi, you are now the screenwriter of the Netflix series "Ju-On: Origins". Mr. Pinkaew, have you seen the show?

Pinkaew: Yes, and I found it extremely interesting. I actually wanted to ask about the series. Unlike previous "Ju-On" films, Origins has hardly any sound design. Was that a conscious decision?

Takahashi: It was. "Ju-On: Origins" is set in the late 1980s/early 1990s and is based on violent crimes that actually took place in Japan. That’s one of the overarching motifs of the series. We wanted to convey how much these incidents inspired the imaginations of those of us who would go on to create what later became known as J-horror.

── In "Origins", we see the TV news reporting on strange incidents that anyone living in Japan at the time would remember.

Takahashi: For this series, I wanted to present fictional events in a documentary format. I didn’t want to rely on sound design, and I was conscious about keeping the production as realistic as possible.

Pinkaew: That’s very interesting. Being from Thailand, I hadn’t heard about any of those crimes, but the acting and production really conveyed the gravity of the situation.

With horror, I think you need to keep the audience somewhat in the dark. They have this feeling that something disturbing is happening, but they don’t quite know what it is. That’s where fear is born.

“In horror, the human element is more important than ever.” —Hiroshi Takahashi

Pinkaew: I’d like to ask you something else. It seems like the ghosts just refuse to appear in Origins. In horror films, if there’s a dark scene, then there’s almost always going to be something lurking there. Maybe I’m missing something [laughs]—but in Origins, nothing ever seems to appear. Was this an attempt at creating a different kind of tension, one that intentionally betrays the audience’s expectations?

Takahashi: Oh, that’s a fascinating observation. It might be hard to tell since we’ve shot the series in such a low-key way, but there are actually ghosts in some of those scenes. [laughs] With this series, we tried to exercise expressive restraint. Well, at the very end, something strange does make a big appearance, much like in the original Ju-On, but we’ll leave that for the audience to find out for themselves. I will say that we wanted to try working with both kinds of expression: the scary jump cuts as well as something more subtle.

Takahashi: I want to elaborate on exercising expressive restraint. This series was directed by Sho Miyake, a young director still in his thirties. He’s known for his ability to depict real-life and human drama—not horror. In fact, he had never made a horror film until now.

But with horror films, a thorough portrayal of the human element is becoming increasingly important in satisfying audiences. That’s the impression that I get watching recent American horror films like Jordan Peele’s "Get Out" (2017) and "Us" (2019). I feel like the acting and performance elements are becoming a bigger part of the horror genre.

Challenging Yet Fascinating: Horror in the Age of Social Media

── Mr. Pinkaew, in 2019, you directed the fantasy-horror film "Sisters". You’re often associated with the action genre. What made you decide to make a horror film?

Pinkaew: I’d always wanted to work across different genres, not just action. And horror was, of course, one of those genres. But personally, I don’t consider Sisters a “horror” film per se.

Pinkaew: The film features the "phee krasue", a bodiless monster with its internal organs hanging down from the neck. But it’s less a ghost than it is a "yokai" (an ancient Japanese mythical creature or monster). In Thailand, we don’t distinguish between ghosts, spirits, and monsters, which are all referred to as "phee" (ผี).

I never intended for "Sisters" to be a horror film about ghosts. I shot it more as a fantasy film portraying the human struggle against something alien.

── Mr. Takahashi, what did you think of "Sisters"?

Takahashi: I thought it was incredibly refreshing and entertaining. It’d be hard to make a "yokai" film in Japan nowadays, even if you wanted to. There used to be a massive market for them here, but highly fictionalized films seem to be too far-fetched for Japanese audiences nowadays. I’m a bit jealous as I suspect that Thailand might be more receptive to these kinds of movies now.

── We have to ask you both — what is it about horror that fascinates you so much?

Takahashi:Here’s my go-to response whenever I get asked this question. I feel like most people think that the way to convey the message that something is wrong—take war, for example—is to portray the sadness that it causes.

But I feel like you can make a more profound impact if you depict the terror of a person driven mad by the horrors of war. I’ve been like that since I was a child. Some things just won’t get across unless you take the opposite approach.

Pinkaew: I think fear is an emotion that human beings will never be able to shake. That’s why I believe that we’ll never stop making horror films. But the things that we fear change depending on the context, so we have to understand the zeitgeist in order to capture what scares us most in the current moment. This is both an extremely challenging and creative aspect of making horror movies.

Today, with the internet and smartphones, we can instantly record and upload whatever we want to social media. It lets us immediately shine a light on anything, and there is less room for mystery than there was in the past before all this technology existed. In that sense, it’s harder to come up with new ideas, but that could be what makes horror that much more rewarding.