Junji Ito: Master of Japanese Horror

It turns out I can't resist the urge to write something about one of my all time favorite contributors to the world of ultra bizarre Japanese horror. He comes up with the most freakish and nastiest stories I've ever seen, and yet I got nothing but love for this guy. Junji Ito is a manga artist and some of his most notable works include Gyo, Tomie and my personal favorite: Uzumaki. Those have all been adapted to the big screen, but Ito has been writing stories for many, many years so there's literally a ton of amazing stories left to read. How about Glyceride, where a whole house has been swallowed by grease and turns its inhabitants faces into disgusting pimple nightmares? Or about when people steps into human-shaped holes in the side of a mountain, only to emerge on the other side as something else in The Enigma of Amigara Fault.

Ito's stories are very easy to get into because for one, they're often pretty short, and secondly, almost all of them are so uncomfortably interesting and scary that you just have to see what happens next. Nearly all of his stories can easily be found online, so if you just read through some of them I won't blame you if you get completely hooked and MUST READ EVERYTHING (trust me, I've been there). I recommend the short story Fashion Model, where a group of film making students hires the wrong kind of lead for their movie. So many of Ito's stories are perfect nightmare fuel and if you, just like I have, been wondering what's happened to the once almighty Japanese horror scene, Ito is the answer to that. One influence I can see in his work is H.P. Lovecraft, in that his stories often involve a very grounded reality with ordinary people being exposed to horrors beyond their imagination and goes through personal breakdowns. 

As I've said, some of the stories have been adapted into movies (this is Awesome Asian Movies, after all). Gyo, a story where the fish starts to walk and invades Tokyo, became an animated project in 2012. Uzumaki and Long Dream both got the movie treatment in 2000, and Tomie was released in 1999 as the start of a long-running film series. Uzumaki, which has appeared on this blog before, tells the story of a small town where spirals are becoming the obsession of more and more people, and in Long Dream we meet a young man who's begun to have longer and longer dreams without being able to wake up. Ito always manages to win the readers with utterly gross imagery and really captivating, original stories. You'll wish more of the stories had been adapted into movies because some of this stuff is just beautifully horrific and deserves to be shown to more people than just manga readers.

Junji Ito is still drawing manga today, so be sure to check his new stuff out when you're done with his previous work. Hopefully we'll see another movie adaptation in the future (fingers extremely frikkin' crossed) but until that day comes, let's just enjoy all the slugs and ghosts, all the tall scary women with dark eyes and other stories that makes the majority of all new horror films look like kindergarten stuff.

   Red Turtleneck

    The Bully

Uzumaki (2000)

Genre: Horror

Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack (Japan, 2012)

The friends Kaori, Erika and Aki are on a vacation to celebrate their upcoming graduation, when suddenly an infestation of mysterious walking fish forces them to reevaluate everything they care about in order to stay alive.

Yes. You read that correct. It's fish, that walks on land, and not just small fishes, giant sharks and squids all rampage through the streets of Tokyo. Some scenes are so nasty that you can almost smell the rotting fish as armies of sea creatures crawl up on land. It goes from nasty to just bloody disgusting, actually. Based on a manga by Junji Ito (Uzumaki), Gyo is another one of his twisted creations that will gross you out and make you wonder how he sleeps at night. Some will probably watch it and deem it too weird, but that's just because it is.

Genre: Action/Animation/Horror

Uzumaki (Japan, 2000)

The plot concerns a small town infected with malevolent spirals. More and more people becomes obsessed with the pattern until things really gets crazy.

Watching this movie a late night, alone, is one hell of a weird experience. There are some gory scenes, and yes you'll probably get frightened by something that suddenly jumps out, but this movie is more like being under the influence of some crazy drug than watching a horror movie. The director is very playful in his way of framing his shots, and it's clear he didn't want to make a quick cash in, but a serious and faithful adaption of the manga from which the film is based upon. The special effects has a B-movie quality to them, and there's some obvious overacting, but it fits with the surreal atmosphere. 

One of my favorite things about the movie is the fact that it's not a psychopath that does the killing, it's not a serial killer nor is it ghosts. The culprit is simply a pattern. A spiral (see if you can find all the hidden ones!), and I just love that concept of a pattern that influences people and gradually takes over an entire town. For the last half-hour or so, you'll feel like your head is spinning down a green spiral. 

I also highly recommend that you read the manga by Junji Ito, of which the film is based on, it's really good. Disturbing, but really good.

Genre: Horror