It seems to me another difference between Japanese and American horror is that our horror revolves around a scary enemy while Japanese horror film seems to focus more heavily on scary situations and circumstances.
*spoiler* - (not sure if that's necessary)
And maybe I've gotten use to that, because when she got out of the car and screamed, I was expecting there to be someone standing there in front of her with a chainsaw or machete.
You know how when you watch a movie, your brain is trying to figure out what's going to happen next? When I realized that there was no scary bad guy but a cliff, my brain started scrambling, trying to figure out what's going on. And before I could get a grasp of the situation, the GPS said what it did and it really did freak me out.
For me, the whole, "Someone committed suicide, blah blah blah" wasn't really important. This video was freaky because it hits you with something you're not expecting and then, with great timing, follows up with the possessed GPS bit.
Hey Shibatabread and Mrs. Shibatabread, good to see u guys posting and updating more stuff! Anyways, i have to agree with Shibatabread on it (ppl with Reikan) being common in asia, a huge part of the culture here like in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand etc hv ppl like this. I find it (the story) believable!
For me, only japanese horror films feels scary. American ones not so really (maybe because 99% times you can guess what happends next). Even this clip gave me little chills. And I live in north Europe.
There was fun experiement few years ago. There was group of people who tried this. Few person would stand in row (about 3 or 4). Then there are one person behind them and his job is stare somebody back on the row. And if somebody in row feels like it's him then that person would turn around. And what surprise me, about 80% of times those people were right. They said that younger persons are more sensitive for this kind things.
Not scary, kinda lame actually. The actors are just not relatable, but I liked the ghost's voice at the end. That's what I think freaked the studio audience out more. "Shine ba yokata..."
I enjoyed the story but I wasn't scared by it. Then again that is the effect most scary movies, whether American or Japanese, have on me. Usually it's scary stories that leave me creeped out. Perhaps I'd have had more of a reaction if there had just been a person telling the story instead of a clip to illustrate it.
There are two main aspects about this video that makes it remarkable and therefore scary for japanese audiences.
1.- The type of horror. Throughout the years people are afraid of different things. In the european medieval ages was the end of the world, during the fifties there were the mutants, aliens or nuclear power, as it can also be seen in the Japanese Godzilla, then for occidental audiences were monsters or serial killers that come back again and again from the grave. Nowadays we can found ordinary people with dangerous minds or virus or pandemic diseases. Japan is a society in straight relation with spirits, kamis, premonitions and such, and horror stories are basically about ghosts or pervaded places because of some violent death.
2.- The constant presence of high technology in daily life. That's why it's no strange for such spirits to appear in pictures, videos, the internet or the phone to comunicate their messages from beyond. Sometimes one cannot feel any sympathy for the characters, because there is no escape to their fate, since the ghost will eventually come and finish them. Normally there is no way to ease them or make peace. They just want to kill no matter what. Also to deal with something as usual as a GPS or a cell phone, it shocks us when it doesn't work the way we're used to and some uninvited guest talks in.
I think the main difference between an American and Japanese reaction to something like this comes down to ghost logic. I didn't have a problem with the girl having a sixth sense, but when the GPS started talking in the ghost's voice is when the horror value was lost for me. I think an American looks at a scene like that and wonders "where did that ghost acquire the technical knowledge to re-wire that guy's GPS system"? In Western culture, a machine is dead and inanimate and can only be activated for a specific purpose, but it can't be inhabited by an evil spirit. I think that here, ghosts are only expected to look scary, but by and large can't do anything with physical objects.
I'm not realy sure if I was scared... The sixth sense thing seemed a little bit over the top for me, so I couln't feel that 'tension' building up as we got closer to the ending. Still, I had a chill go down my spine when the GPS asked them to die, even though I wasnt even a tiny bit scared or tensed beforehand. Weird.. :D
Hi ShibataBread, this was again a great sub and good choice. I myself love this kind of stuff. There are many of these real/original stories in Japanese media (just like the on Matsumoto told during one of the Downtown sessions, the police officer that came to check if the witness saw anything), and I think many of your fans would like to see this stuff subbed. Especially when it is a real story, makes the world more interesting :)
sorry, no fear at all, i thought its a bit childish, but i am really interested of how Japanese people think of it and why. Thanks for the upload. and never stop uploading pls !!
I can defiantly see why this is scary, but then again you mentioned Ring, that movie did scare me. The whole "ghosts in technology" thing mite seem far fetched but thats the point of it being scary right? It makes you say "wow if that happened it would be hella scary" because everyone can relate as we use technology everyday.The Reikan thing (sorry if that isnt spellt correctly) might be called "intuition" by westerners. Thanx for the upload Shibatabread, more of these videos discussing cultural nuances would be great, very interesting stuff, gets us all thinking and enjoying the spice of life.
I'm from the Netherlands and in our culture we don't really believe in sith sense stuff. Ofcourse alot of ppl do believe such things, but it often seem that those "believers" are very gullible, if you know what I mean. I think this story would be very scary if a person you trust and respect tells you he/she experienced it. But with the bad acting and the visual explanation, it's hard the get the right message across.
Thank you for your great work on subbing and finding these fabulous video's to discuss. Bless you!
Hey, I disagree with most people here. With the person below (a fellow country member) I don't agree that those who believe in the supernatural are naive. I think maybe christianity has a bit to do with it, even for those westerners who call themself atheists or don't believe. I was surprised about a lot when I read not to long ago about the famous witch trials in old western europe. witches where accused by the common people of doing damage by supernatural powers, which really was a product of old pagan ideas (they also believed in good whitches). The authorities then always linked any supernatural with the christian God or devil. The trials stopped around 1700 when the educated and the authorities stopped believing in witches. Most people followed the lead of the upper layer of society, then when the secularisation happened they stopped believing in anything, except cold maths and science. My opinion... supernatural, true or not...atheism is boring as hell.
I used to teach at a university in Osaka and there was one student that I taught that said she had a very strong reikan. We got to talking about it because it was a small class but we stopped after a while because she started to freak out the other students after only a few stories. I think it's interesting because after living in Kyoto for so song I never get bored of hearing ghost stories.
Hi, I like this kind of stories, thx for translating this video, and hope u will find other urban legends to translate! I'm asking myself where i can find a good quality of this video with no subtitles, in order to to translate your work for french people that doesn 't understand english, u may give me this information!
It seems to me another difference between Japanese and American horror is that our horror revolves around a scary enemy while Japanese horror film seems to focus more heavily on scary situations and circumstances.
ReplyDelete*spoiler* - (not sure if that's necessary)
And maybe I've gotten use to that, because when she got out of the car and screamed, I was expecting there to be someone standing there in front of her with a chainsaw or machete.
You know how when you watch a movie, your brain is trying to figure out what's going to happen next? When I realized that there was no scary bad guy but a cliff, my brain started scrambling, trying to figure out what's going on. And before I could get a grasp of the situation, the GPS said what it did and it really did freak me out.
For me, the whole, "Someone committed suicide, blah blah blah" wasn't really important. This video was freaky because it hits you with something you're not expecting and then, with great timing, follows up with the possessed GPS bit.
Hey Shibatabread and Mrs. Shibatabread, good to see u guys posting and
ReplyDeleteupdating more stuff! Anyways, i have to agree with Shibatabread on it
(ppl with Reikan) being common in asia, a huge part of the culture here
like in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand etc hv ppl like this. I find it
(the story) believable!
For me, only japanese horror films feels scary. American ones not so really (maybe because 99% times you can guess what happends next). Even this clip gave me little chills. And I live in north Europe.
ReplyDeleteThere was fun experiement few years ago. There was group of people who tried this. Few person would stand in row (about 3 or 4). Then there are one person behind them and his job is stare somebody back on the row. And if somebody in row feels like it's him then that person would turn around. And what surprise me, about 80% of times those people were right. They said that younger persons are more sensitive for this kind things.
Not scary, kinda lame actually. The actors are just not relatable, but I liked the ghost's voice at the end. That's what I think freaked the studio audience out more. "Shine ba yokata..."
ReplyDeleteThank you all for the well constructed feedback! Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the story but I wasn't scared by it. Then again that is the effect most scary movies, whether American or Japanese, have on me. Usually it's scary stories that leave me creeped out. Perhaps I'd have had more of a reaction if there had just been a person telling the story instead of a clip to illustrate it.
ReplyDeleteThere are two main aspects about this video that makes it remarkable and therefore scary for japanese audiences.
ReplyDelete1.- The type of horror. Throughout the years people are afraid of different things. In the european medieval ages was the end of the world, during the fifties there were the mutants, aliens or nuclear power, as it can also be seen in the Japanese Godzilla, then for occidental audiences were monsters or serial killers that come back again and again from the grave. Nowadays we can found ordinary people with dangerous minds or virus or pandemic diseases.
Japan is a society in straight relation with spirits, kamis, premonitions and such, and horror stories are basically about ghosts or pervaded places because of some violent death.
2.- The constant presence of high technology in daily life. That's why it's no strange for such spirits to appear in pictures, videos, the internet or the phone to comunicate their messages from beyond. Sometimes one cannot feel any sympathy for the characters, because there is no escape to their fate, since the ghost will eventually come and finish them. Normally there is no way to ease them or make peace. They just want to kill no matter what. Also to deal with something as usual as a GPS or a cell phone, it shocks us when it doesn't work the way we're used to and some uninvited guest talks in.
Thnx 4 the video ;)
I think the main difference between an American and Japanese reaction to something like this comes down to ghost logic. I didn't have a problem with the girl having a sixth sense, but when the GPS started talking in the ghost's voice is when the horror value was lost for me. I think an American looks at a scene like that and wonders "where did that ghost acquire the technical knowledge to re-wire that guy's GPS system"? In Western culture, a machine is dead and inanimate and can only be activated for a specific purpose, but it can't be inhabited by an evil spirit. I think that here, ghosts are only expected to look scary, but by and large can't do anything with physical objects.
ReplyDeleteI'm not realy sure if I was scared... The sixth sense thing seemed a little bit over the top for me, so I couln't feel that 'tension' building up as we got closer to the ending. Still, I had a chill go down my spine when the GPS asked them to die, even though I wasnt even a tiny bit scared or tensed beforehand. Weird.. :D
ReplyDeleteHi ShibataBread, this was again a great sub and good choice. I myself love this kind of stuff. There are many of these real/original stories in Japanese media (just like the on Matsumoto told during one of the Downtown sessions, the police officer that came to check if the witness saw anything), and I think many of your fans would like to see this stuff subbed. Especially when it is a real story, makes the world more interesting :)
ReplyDeletesorry, no fear at all, i thought its a bit childish, but i am really interested of how Japanese people think of it and why. Thanks for the upload. and never stop uploading pls !!
ReplyDeleteI can defiantly see why this is scary, but then again you mentioned Ring, that movie did scare me. The whole "ghosts in technology" thing mite seem far fetched but thats the point of it being scary right? It makes you say "wow if that happened it would be hella scary" because everyone can relate as we use technology everyday.The Reikan thing (sorry if that isnt spellt correctly) might be called "intuition" by westerners. Thanx for the upload Shibatabread, more of these videos discussing cultural nuances would be great, very interesting stuff, gets us all thinking and enjoying the spice of life.
ReplyDeleteRicky
I'm from the Netherlands and in our culture we don't really believe in sith sense stuff. Ofcourse alot of ppl do believe such things, but it often seem that those "believers" are very gullible, if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI think this story would be very scary if a person you trust and respect tells you he/she experienced it. But with the bad acting and the visual explanation, it's hard the get the right message across.
Thank you for your great work on subbing and finding these fabulous video's to discuss. Bless you!
Hey, I disagree with most people here. With the person below (a fellow country member) I don't agree that those who believe in the supernatural are naive.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe christianity has a bit to do with it, even for those westerners who call themself atheists or don't believe. I was surprised about a lot when I read not to long ago about the famous witch trials in old western europe. witches where accused by the common people of doing damage by supernatural powers, which really was a product of old pagan ideas (they also believed in good whitches). The authorities then always linked any supernatural with the christian God or devil. The trials stopped around 1700 when the educated and the authorities stopped believing in witches. Most people followed the lead of the upper layer of society, then when the secularisation happened they stopped believing in anything, except cold maths and science. My opinion... supernatural, true or not...atheism is boring as hell.
SCARY, especially the navigation voice
ReplyDeletethis was scary
ReplyDeleteI used to teach at a university in Osaka and there was one student that I taught that said she had a very strong reikan. We got to talking about it because it was a small class but we stopped after a while because she started to freak out the other students after only a few stories. I think it's interesting because after living in Kyoto for so song I never get bored of hearing ghost stories.
ReplyDeleteHi, I like this kind of stories, thx for translating this video, and hope u will find other urban legends to translate!
ReplyDeleteI'm asking myself where i can find a good quality of this video with no subtitles, in order to to translate your work for french people that doesn 't understand english, u may give me this information!
Hope u'll answer me,
Thx!