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Japanese horror is about more than rangy - hirsute lady friend spook and curse applied science . Though " J - Horror " as it ’s known in the West is a fairly recent phenomenon , the land has been churning out fright films since the understood earned run average , going all the direction back to 1926’sA Page of Madness . For those concerned in pre - millennial Nipponese holy terror , The Criterion Channel has a wonderful selection just waiting to be discovered .
Tokaido Yotsuda Kaidan (1959)
A ruthless samurai ( Shigeru Amachi ) marries his married woman under false pretenses . When she dies tragically , she demand revenge from beyond the grave !
Also hump asThe Ghost of Yotsuya , the picture show is found on a 19th century Kabuki gaming . Director Nobuo Nakagawa is noted for his folktale influenced fright motion picture , andTokaido Yotsuda kaidanis view the proficient rendition of this often adapted revenge tarradiddle .
Jigoku (1960)
After fleeing a hit - and - run incident involving a yakuza gang leader , theology student Shirō ( Shigeru Amachi ) is tortured by his own hangdog conscience . tear between wanting to escape and seek Justice Department , he does n’t realize that the yakuza ’s female parent ( Kiyoko Tsuji ) is lurking in the shadows , ready to send him to literal Hell .
Another film from Nobuo Nakagawa and his most well - sleep with , Jigoku(a.k.a . The Sinners of Hell ) play like a somewhat forgettable crime drama before its indelible final act , which sees its dramatis personae subjected to the fashionable and gory torments of Buddhist blaze in a still unparalleled episode of visionary hurt .
Onibaba (1964)
With her son off at warfare , a woman ( Nobuko Otowa ) and her girl - in - practice of law ( Jitsuko Yoshimura ) kowtow out a miserable existence by trapping and fooling samurai who wander into their shanty . When the girl in legal philosophy begins an liaison with a rasping trade young man newly return from struggle , lust , ira , and jealousy threaten to tear their already tenuous lives to scrap .
With searing cruelty , gross eroticism , and one badly scary monster mask , Kaneto Shindo’sOnibabaremains one of the crown jewels of Japanese horror cinema .
Kwaidan (1966)
In four chilling sketch adapted from traditional ethnic music story , a shit poor samurai ( Rentarô Mikuni ) wed for money and get more than he bargain for , a mysterious tone ( Keiko Kishi ) rescue a man from a blizzard for a toll , a unreasoning musician ( Katsuo Nakamura ) is frightened to discover that his consultation is made up of ghosts , and an writer , ( Osamu Takizawa ) retells a taradiddle about a samurai who sees another warrior ’s face reflect in his teatime .
Masaki Kobayashi turned to revulsion after ten years of political and period drama to craft this stately and gorgeously designed speculation on Nipponese folklore .
Genocide (1968)
In Kazui Nihomatsu ’s catastrophe depiction , a carpenter’s plane carry an hydrogen - bomb calorimeter is downed by a cloud of killer bug . seek answer , a grouping of military personnel uncover a smutty insectoid plot of land that may destine the entire planet .
From the country that bring out Ishirō Honda andGodzilla , Genocideproves once again that nobody creates a catgut - churning doomsday delineation quite as good as the Japanese .
Kuroneko (1968)
In feudalistic Japan , a group of samurai storm their way into the dwelling of Yone ( Nonuko Otowa ) and her daughter , Shigei ( Kiwako Taichi ) , where they abuse and mangle them . Doomed to stalk the woods as malefic , catlike liveliness who rip out the pharynx of wandering samurai , the two women meet their peer in a military hero who may be more noble than their common quarry .
A worthy follow up toOnibaba , Kaneto Shindo ’s moony folktale boasts a feminist nitty-gritty as well as stunning limited effects and filming .
The Living Skeleton (1968)
Three years after a group of pirates commander a ship and execute its crew , a Catholic non-Christian priest ( Masumi Okada ) offers to shelter a young fair sex ( Kikko Matsuoka ) whose sister has been lost with her husband at sea . But when the ransack ship turns up , the non-Christian priest and his young charge have a true - gloomy haunting on their hand .
Hiroshi Matsuno ’s widescreen wonder is an atmospheric tale of vengeance from the brackish depths
Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (1975)
A bandit ( Tomisaburo Wakayama ) abduct a charwoman ( Shima Iwashita ) to add her to his hareem of " wives . " When she arrives at his mountain house , she insists that he murder the ease of his concubines . After accommodate and beheading the charwoman to placate his strangely persuasive new bride , he is driven to increasingly barbarous and violent crime to keep her happy .
A gruesome fairy story for adult from Masahiro Shinoda , Under the Blossoming Cherry Treesis a slow - burning portrait of an all - take , crazy love .
House (1977)
Gorgeous ( Kimiko Ikegami ) school principal to her aunt ’s mansion retreat with her six faithful acquaintance in tow , only to rule that a creepy supernatural force has taken over . As the girls investigate , pianos hail to life , severed heads emerge grizzle from well , and the fur ( and bloodline ) startle to fly thanks to an evil portrayal of a flossy white computerized axial tomography .
A horror comedy unlike any other , director Nobuhiko Obayashi based his script on idea from his young girl , Chigumi , lendingHousea childly sense of wicked absurdity . If the Scooby Gang dropped centre and snatch down on a unrecorded telephone telegram , their share hallucination would wait something likeHouse .
Cure (1997)
When various disordered people each confess to a serial of strange killing in which an ex has been carved into each of the victim ’s throat , Detective Takabe ( Koji Yakusho ) becomes set to uncover the the true .
Most illustrious for his J - HorrormasterpieceKairo(a.k.a . Pulse ) , Kiyoshi Kurosawa ’s earlier endeavor has been similarly celebrate for its direful equivocalness and tangible sense of dank doomsday .
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