The only horror movie that has scared Takashi Miike as an adult
Horror is a beloved genre of cinema across the world, with American masters like William Friedkin rubbing shoulders with Edgar Wright of Britain, Guillermo del Toro of Mexico and Takashi Miike of Japan. Whilst much of European and American horror is similar, Japanese horror, otherwise known as J-horror, is very unique, telling visceral tales of torture as well as ghost tales that have their roots in cultural folklore.
Miike is certainly one of Japan’s finest horror names, too, being known for his frenetic cinematic pace and vibrant art style. Present in the industry since the dawn of the 1990s, Miike is a dogged creative, making multiple movies every year, yet he didn’t truly reach popularity until the release of Audition in 1999, a twisted horror tale whose infamous name magnetised foreign audiences.
A strange horror that initially opens as if it’s something of a romantic drama, Audition later descends into chaos, telling the story of a widower who opens auditions for women to become his new wife. The result is something gorgeously twisted that’s adored even by Quentin Tarantino, who went so far as to call the movie a “true masterpiece if ever there was one” in an interview from 2009.
Therefore, you’d think it would take something gruesome to terrify Miike, and you’d be right. Indeed, the director has only said that one horror movie has scared him as an adult, with this being the 2001 Kiyoshi Kurosawa film Pulse.
Released shortly after the turn of the new millennium, when the fear of new technologies was prevalent in the media, Kurosawa’s film questioned whether the internet could be a portal for spirits to enter the world of the living. Whilst it might all sound a little goofy, the flick is one of the very best of the 21st century, giving the genre one of the scariest scenes of all time.
Kurosawa is a curious filmmaker in and of himself, having helmed an eclectic range of movies over the course of five decades. Despite having many films to his name, the director is only really known for a trio of modern classics, including Pulse, the magnificently mystifying horror drama The Cure and the domestic drama Tokyo Sonata, which won the director the Un Certain Regard award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Take a look at the trailer for Pulse below and explore a horror movie that toys with contemporary concepts with a classical approach to the genre.
