J-Horror Rising

The original wave of J-Horror was a short-lived affair in its home country, growing out of the DTV market and capitalizing on the success of Ringu to launch a flurry of phantasmagorical spirits and supernaturally enhanced technology.  By the time Hollywood sent those same tropes boomeranging back to Japan the bottom had essentially dropped out of the genre.  But that time in between produced a number of interesting variations collected in Arrow’s limited edition Blu-ray box set J-Horror Rising, a four-disc affair that gives proper exposure to lesser-known titles produced at the turn of the millennium.

Shikoku (1999) stars Kill Bill’s Chiaki Kuriyama as one part of a ghostly love triangle (she’s the ghost) brought back to take physical form and wreak unholy vengeance.  Isola: Multiple Personality Girl (2000) mixes psychic powers, mental illness and spiritual possession as a woman tries to exorcise the meddling spirit of a dead scientist.  Inugami (2001) is a tragic bit of family history and witchcraft set in an incestuously isolated village. St. John’s Wort (2001) is built around the idea of a live-action survival horror RPG as a girl explores her past in a haunted mansion.  Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007) is a straightforward attempt to add a new child-hungry monster to the urban legend encyclopedia.  Persona (2000) takes an almost giallo approach to its story of teen trends and masked killers (with Kuriyama in another small role)  And finally, Noroi: The Curse (2005) adopts a found footage technique to follow a supernatural investigator on the trail of a demonic typhoid Mary.

 

While Noroi is probably the most talked-about title in the set, most fans will  find a new favorite by the time they sit through all seven films.  Like those cereal variety packs, Arrow has packaged up  something for everyone to appreciate, selecting films that fall under the broad heading of “horror” but each delivering something unique.  Inugami is far and away the most emotionally compelling and visually elegant while Carved delivers the sort of casual cruelty and illogical scares that make for a great guilty pleasure.  The relative obscurity of each title means those who’ve only experienced the Ringu and Ju-On franchises are in for a real treat.

 

But how about a little background?  That’s covered too with new commentaries for each film, new director and cast interviews, on-set footage, archival featurettes, over a half-hour of deleted scenes for Noroi, an on-point J-Horror primer by Tom Mes, fold-out poster and illustrated collector’s booklet.

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