Balance in Japanese Culture

With Halloween around the corner, I have become more aware of the sheer terror of Japanese horror movies. Not sure if you've watched any yourself, but if you haven't yet, see this blog post for some recommendations.

I apologize if this in any way sounds like cultural appropriation, when I gush about how over-the-top frightening the movies are, from this particular culture! To be honest, I truly don't know why or how they sort of 'kick the stuffing' out of Western horror flicks, but they sure do!

My guess is, it could be the more 'spiritual' aspect of the films, where more is left to the imagination, as less stuff is as linear as we see in Western films (which over time, can become predictable).

Another guess I have, is that these kinds of movies focus less on the traditional jump-scares and blood baths, and have more eerie and 'odd' scenes, such as the crawling girl in The Ring, or the hair scene in Apartment 1303. I suppose it could be the intensity of the novelty of these scenes.


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Now this is where I believe that Japanese culture is a true enigma. The largest cultural enigma that I know of, in fact. For the deep, dark intensity of their scary stuff, they are on the extreme opposite end of the light, fun, colorful, cute and cartoonish stuff!

How can the same country, with the same humans and institutions, export such extremely opposite entertainment? 

Well, though I live in Canada, from what I've studied about Japan and the culture, the people are very hard-working and that leads to very high levels of stress. On the one hand, some people handle stress by giving into darker interests... and others handle stress by turning to the opposite and lighten themselves up with gentle stuff. Personally, I've done both.

This seems like a sort of Yin and Yang culture, and I really appreciate the balance!

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JUMP-SCARE ALERT!! 

This is a Japanese tire commercial, which drives home my point about their talent for inducing sheer terror. It features the dashcam of some men, driving presumably home from work during a snowstorm. Suddenly, they stop when they see a ghostly woman in the middle of the road. Before they have time to study her, she flies forth at supernatural speed, and lands on their windshield, showing she is a ghost or demon of some sort. To showcase the quality of the company's tires, these men reverse immediately and are able to escape at high speed on the snowy road!

Anyhow, as you may know, since our recent trip to Las Vegas (and having taken a really cool, interactive ghost tour) Rob & I started a paranormal blog, called Ghosts Live in Our World. 

Have a Happy Halloween!