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— by Carl Davis
It's no secret that Hollywood has been reaping the rewards of Asia's horror-film renaissance for some time, craftily buying up the remake rights to these unique, unsettling films and releasing American versions with little or no mention of the originals. Thanks to the determination of smaller film distributors and the versatility of the DVD format, these disturbing visions from Japan, Korea and elsewhere are finally getting the attention they deserve. With the remake of Hideo Nakata's "Dark Water," starring Jennifer Connelly, about to hit theaters and a number of other remakes in the works, it's time to take note of some of the best films of the genre the way they were meant to be seen, out now on DVD.
 "A Tale Of Two Sisters" (2003)
It's a strange comfort to know that the fairy tales — the real fairy tales — of Asia are just as dark and disturbing as those in the West. In this modern update of an old Korean tale about a pair of young girls and the house they share with their wicked stepmother (sound familiar?), Su-mi and Su-yeon have both returned from a period of hospitalization following the death of their mother. Eun Joo, their stepmother, has nothing but contempt for the girls, who suspect she had a hand in their mother's apparent suicide. The devil, as always, is in the details, and the air of menace that surrounds these girls in this house makes the shocks and frights all the more visceral.
"Ju-On: The Grudge" (2003)
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Takashi Shimizu is about to set some kind of record, as he is in the process of directing the sixth and seventh installments of his seminal "Ju-On" horror series. What began as a couple of V-cinema (read: straight-to-video) releases in his native Japan has become a worldwide franchise known as "The Grudge." This is the third in the series and centers on a haunted house and the curse it passes on to all who come in contact with it. Even worse, those who die from the curse pass it on to others around them, creating a seemingly endless cycle of death and despair. Kind of like visiting the DMV.
"Gozu" (2003)
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Eclectic Japanese auteur Takashi Miike treads firmly into David Lynch territory with his self-proclaimed "Yakuza Horror Theatre." Yakuza enforcer Ozaki's increasingly bizarre behavior is making his bosses nervous. After he viciously (and hilariously) kills a small dog that he claimed was spying on them, his superiors assign Ozaki's friend Minami the difficult task of driving him to the "junkyard" where they dispose of "things." After Ozaki is seemingly killed in a freak accident, Minami loses the body and must scour the strange town of Nagoya looking for it. After searching aimlessly among the locals, Minami receives a mysterious note from Ozaki who has somehow been ... well, transformed. Then things really get strange.
"The Eye" (2002)
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What if you looked in the mirror and someone else was looking back? That's the horrifying question raised by Hong Kong's Pang Brothers (Danny and Oxide) in this supernatural thriller. Mun has been blind since childhood, but a new type of corneal transplant will allow her to see again. Upon having her vision restored, she realizes that she sees things others cannot — ghosts of the recently departed, premonitions of death and, most disturbingly, the eyes' previous owner peering back at her from a mirror. Realizing she must choose between sight or sanity, she sets out to uncover the secret of her eye donor and the reason behind her newfound second sight.
"Dark Water" (2002)
Hideo Nakata once again teams up with author Koji Suzuki for the follow-up to his worldwide hit, "Ringu." Yoshimi is going through a difficult divorce and is fighting for custody of their 5-year-old daughter, Ikuko. The problem is that Yoshimi has a history of mental illness going back to her troubled childhood, and the stress of the divorce, her transition into the workforce and the ever-leaky roof of her squalid apartment are pushing her over the edge. She begins to have violent outbursts in family court, hurting her case for custody, as well as disturbing visions of a young girl in a yellow rain slicker. Is the little girl trying to tell her something, or is she just another sign of her growing madness?
"Phone" (2002)
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In somewhat the same vein as "Ringu," this Korean horror film combines the technological with the supernatural by offering up a haunted cell phone. Ji-won, a reporter receiving death threats because of her most recent story, changes her cell number and hides out in a friend's new home. While the threats stop, a new terror begins as her new phone number seems to be connected to a string of suspicious deaths. When her friend's daughter becomes possessed, Ji-won puts her reporter's skills to work in an attempt to solve the mystery. While this is not the most original film of the bunch, it's still a fun, loud and genuinely scary ride.
"Uzumaki" (2000)
This unusual film, based on Junji Ito's brilliant manga of the same name, blends the otherworldly horror of H.P. Lovecraft with the surrealist visual style of Tim Burton. Something dark and devious has crept into Kirie's small town, and a plague of spirals — yes, spirals — is slowly driving everyone insane. (Kirie's best friend's father kills himself while trying to become one with the unending spiral of the washing machine.) The most popular girl in school, meanwhile, has problems of her own, as her curly hair is beginning to grow at a terrifying rate. A lone reporter investigating these and other oddities tracks the source to the mysterious Dragonfly Pond located in the heart of town. Will the teens manage to stop the madness before it's too late, or will the ancient evil of the endless spirals engulf them, too?
"Ringu" (1998)
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This film's release in its native Japan was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. Spawning multiple sequels, remakes and even a TV show, Hideo Nakata's film, based on a novel by Koji Suzuki, also marked the beginning of the still-ongoing Asian horror renaissance. Most everyone knows the basic story by now: a reporter is looking into a new urban legend: rumors of a cursed videotape and the horrible fate awaiting anyone who dares view it. Updating and subverting such genre conventions as the audience watching the video along with the characters and brilliantly manipulating the story's inherent sense of urgency (the characters struggle to solve the mystery within a rigid, allotted timeframe) helped the film resonate deeply with filmgoers. This modern classic is, simply, required viewing for any serious horror fan.
"Cure" (1997)
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Kiyoshi Kurosawa's postmodern psychological horror film has certainly put the Japanese director on the genre's A-list. A string of seemingly normal people suddenly commit heinous murders with just one thing in common — an X carved into each of the victims. It's up to Detective Takabe, who's dealing with his own wife's descent into mental illness, to try and unravel these bizarre crimes and their tenuous connection to a mysterious drifter and his single probing question: "Who are you?"
"Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky" (1991)
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This ghastly, gory Hong Kong film is based on a Japanese manga of the same name. Set in 2001 (the always-scary "near future" when it was released), the film follows Riki, who has been sentenced to a privately owned and operated prison for taking revenge on the man responsible for his girlfriend's death. Once inside, Riki finds himself standing up for the other prisoners against the crooked warden, the corrupt guards and an assortment of increasingly bizarre convicts who seemingly run the prison from the inside. While not a horror film, per se, there are enough shocking moments that this over-the-top bit of camp nastiness has to be seen to be believed.
"Mr. Vampire" (1985)
By turns horrific and hilarious, this film broke box-office records in its native Hong Kong while spawning countless sequels and imitators. Taoist sifu (read: teacher) Gau — aided by his two bumbling assistants — has been asked by the Yam family to rebury their patriarch, for it was foretold that this would bring them good fortune. In actuality, they've been tricked, and the improper handling of their grandfather's corpse has turned the old fellow into a rampaging vampire. For those unfamiliar with Chinese vampires, keep in mind they get around by hopping (from rigor mortis!), hunt by smell (hold your breath!) — and you can forget the stakes, as they can only be considered truly dead after they've exploded.
"Matango" (1963)
A twisted gem from the team behind the "Godzilla" films, "Matango" bears more than a passing resemblance to "Gilligan's Island," as castaways — a sailor, his skipper, a millionaire, a pop star, a psychologist and his girlfriend — find themselves, after a freak storm and a shipwreck, on a desert island where a strangely addictive type of mushroom grows. As the tale is told in flashback by an inmate of an insane asylum, are we to believe his story — or is it all merely the ranting of a madman?
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Photos: Buena Vista Pictures
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