Asian Horror in Cinema - Thesis Statement

Culture and identity have a symbiotic relationship and are interwoven in Asian horror cinema, providing a pathway for cultural intricacies, societal gender norms, and personal and ethnic identity to be discussed, challenged, and better understood with the help of storytelling and cinematography within the context of Asian culture and beyond.

print depicting a red mountain and blue sky with wispy clouds

Katsushika Hokusai, Fine Wind, Clear Weather (Gaifū kaisei), also known as Red Fuji (detail), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Ejudō), Japanese, Edo period, about 1830–31 (Tenpō 1–2). Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper.
    William S. and John T. Spaulding Collection
-MFA Boston

The Strange Tale of How China Lost Its Ghost Stories

Zhongshan Goes on an Excursion 
painted by Yuan dynasty artist Gong Kai for 
Pu Songling's 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio' 
the inpiration for A Chinese Ghost Story.
Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
-Freer Gallery of Art

Katsushika Hokusai, Fine Wind, Clear Weather (Gaifū kaisei), also known as Red Fuji (detail), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Ejudō), Japanese, Edo period, about 1830–31 (Tenpō 1–2). Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. William S. and John T. Spaulding Collectio

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Takashi Miike, Audition

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    Takashi Miike,  Audition Miike's  Audition  is a statement film in Asian horror cinema that contains traces of culture and identity, providing a pathway for intricacies, societal gender norms, and personal and ethnic identity to be discussed, challenged, and better understood through the film's  storytelling and cinematography. "Kiri, Kiri, Kiri"  as simple as it is, was the horrifying sound that the audience hears when a kind and timid Asami tortures her so called lover, causing a parallel between what the audience believed a character to be and what they actually turned out to be. Audition  relied on "shocking imagery and graphic violence, can be aesthetically and ideologically linked in their being produced outside of the closed, vertically integrated Japanese studio system” ( Choi 200). As Japanese films delved from being produced by big cinema companies, the creative freedom of the producers allowed the directors to hone in on important...
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