J-HORROR
Supernatural evil in the Western world is often inexorably connected to religion. Supernatural abominations, especially demonic apparitions, are usually banished through religious artifacts; specifically through exorcisms. Japanese horror employs iconography which has become instantly recognizable to American audiences: sullen, ethereal women with long, dark hair, pallid skin, and bulging eyes. These antagonists are usually wrathful spirits of dead lovers; women who were scorned by men in life and return in death to haunt them.
Evil in J-Horror carries a sense of tragedy. Good things become evil once they've suffered a violent death. In Audition, even the gratuitous torture and violence inflicted by its antagonist, Asami, was preceded by a history of mistreatment at the hands of men. Evil, even in extravagant amounts, is usually not unprovoked.
Conversely, just as the antagonists of Japanese horror are not always portrayed as complete monsters, the protagonists are not always infalliably good. Audition's protagonist was a lecher who, while ultimately undeserving of the sheer magnitude of torture that he endured in the climax, had still devised a crooked and deceptive plot to attract potential wives. In the first story of Kwaidan, The Black Hair, the main character divorces his wife to obtain wealth and prestige. Misfortune falls upon the swordsman in karmic fashion - when he returns home, he's welcomed by a cruel specter that taunts him with the illusion of everything he gave up for his selfish gain.
American treatment of evil is less sympathetic, which is reflected in our judicial system. Murderers, criminals, and thieves, even of the supernatural sort, are typically seen as pure evil and beyond redemption. One of the most common adversaries in American horror is the Christian devil.
Evil in J-Horror carries a sense of tragedy. Good things become evil once they've suffered a violent death. In Audition, even the gratuitous torture and violence inflicted by its antagonist, Asami, was preceded by a history of mistreatment at the hands of men. Evil, even in extravagant amounts, is usually not unprovoked.
Conversely, just as the antagonists of Japanese horror are not always portrayed as complete monsters, the protagonists are not always infalliably good. Audition's protagonist was a lecher who, while ultimately undeserving of the sheer magnitude of torture that he endured in the climax, had still devised a crooked and deceptive plot to attract potential wives. In the first story of Kwaidan, The Black Hair, the main character divorces his wife to obtain wealth and prestige. Misfortune falls upon the swordsman in karmic fashion - when he returns home, he's welcomed by a cruel specter that taunts him with the illusion of everything he gave up for his selfish gain.
American treatment of evil is less sympathetic, which is reflected in our judicial system. Murderers, criminals, and thieves, even of the supernatural sort, are typically seen as pure evil and beyond redemption. One of the most common adversaries in American horror is the Christian devil.
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