female ghosts has gradually spread to the world from the rise of Asian, especially East Asian ghost films.
But the female ghost routine is still very difficult to stand in the West, and they don’t appreciate the East Asian female ghost culture very much. I have a Canadian friend. When talking about the cultural differences between Eastern and Western films, he was most impressed by the difference in the perception of ghosts between China and the West.
In his opinion, the film "The Ring of Midnight" is really classic, but it is only a horror film that can represent Japanese culture. For foreign audiences, it is not only necessary to face the problem of face blindness that East Asian characters tend to be similar. The cultural incomprehension makes it harder to get a sense of substitution.
For example, why did Sadako kill everyone who watched the video? Why must it be 7 days? These questions are not given clear answers in Shimizu Takashi's movies. But "Midnight Ring" has indeed achieved success on the visual level. It uses video tapes that have emerged in Japan in the 1990s. It not only fits the daily lives of people more closely, but also provides originality for the combination of the horror film field and the products of the times. power.
Westerners are always surprised when they see female ghosts in the East. Why do female ghosts hate men so much? Why does the female ghost's violence stem from destruction rather than dominance?
There have been legends of female ghosts in East Asian culture since ancient times, and these are inseparable from ancient Chinese Confucianism. In the framework of Confucian society, the status of women in the old society was low, and "men have a room, women have a return" is considered the standard of the form of couples. After a woman has a husband, she can go to the grave and receive worship. And the women who were abandoned by many men who had always abandoned them have no status in society. They are looked down upon, so that their self-esteem is frustrated, and finally ends up in their lives. This deformed way has given birth to women’s grievances The prototype of the female ghost story.
In the 1960s in Japan, there was an excellent film "Guardian Tan" that changed East Asian horror movies. The director is the famous Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi. This movie uses the text of ancient curious stories as a reference basis, and focuses on surreal ghost stories. In the age when special effects cannot be used, the details are not lost, and the scene switching is used to make people feel the fear from outside to inside. sense. In the "Black Hair" chapter, the description of female resentment and the portrayal of close-up sensations are very vivid, externalizing some of the psychological activities of female ghosts, and really let people experience the existence of "resentment".
As time progresses, there are fewer and fewer horror films describing ancient anecdotes. The fundamental reason is that the audience no longer appreciates this procrastinated rhythm and some confusing plots. The horror film that the audience desires is more exposed and direct, which is an instinctive sensory stimulation. This change in
originated from the influx of European and American cult films, which greatly liberated people's minds. People dare to face terror and eroticism, and even treat it as an extreme sense of experience. However, the perception of terror in East Asian culture is not exactly the same as in the West. The idea of male superiority and female inferiority has been shaken, but the weak external image of women still stays in people's imagination for a long time. Therefore, in contrast to the Western design of "tall" and "powerful" ghosts, the Orientals believe that ghosts do not use force to scare people, but rely on mystery and resentment. The greater the resentment a person receives, the more distorted his heart will be, which will give birth to a strong revenge. Under the premise of "ghosts do not die", it wants to kill you without using equipment, just use the resentful face.
After "Guaitan" and "Midnight Ring", Japan produced a super popular horror movie "The Grudge" through the concept of grievance.
"The Grudge" was once considered the most horrible movie in Japan. Regardless of the various ghosts that cannot escape in the film, Kayako’s grievance can be said to be the highest point of Japanese horror movies. The unfortunate life of Kayako was not only caused by her husband's cruel behavior, but also by the whole society's disregard for women's rights. Therefore, in this movie, everyone who sets foot in the murderous house becomes a living target of Gaya Coconut. She has no motives, only revenge, and anyone can become a target. This horrible psychological portrayal raises the image of the female ghost to a new height, and also proves that the female ghost can achieve the dual hegemony of vision and text in horror films.
saw the business opportunities in Hollywood, and later produced two American versions of "The Grudge" in the same way, but the level is really bad. They thought that painting a "big white face" would solve the problem, but in the final analysis, they couldn't understand where the female ghost's grievance came from. z1From this perspective, at least, the female ghost is a great movie image spawned by East Asian civilization. How to use it in the future is worth looking forward to.
