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Ghost in the Well
The Hidden History of Horror Films in Japan
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Book Presentation:
Ghost in the Well is the first study to provide a full history of the horror genre in Japanese cinema, from the silent era to Classical period movies such as Nakagawa Nobuo's Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1959) to the contemporary global popularity of J-horror pictures like the Ring and Ju-on franchises.
Michael Crandol draws on a wide range of Japanese language sources, including magazines, posters and interviews with directors such as Kurosawa Kiyoshi, to consider the development of kaiki eiga, the Japanese phrase meaning "weird" or "bizarre" films that most closely corresponds to Western understandings of "horror". He traces the origins of kaika eiga in Japanese kabuki theatre and traditions of the monstrous feminine, showing how these traditional forms were combined with the style and conventions of Hollywood horror to produce an aesthetic that was both transnational and peculiarly Japanese.
Ghost in the Well sheds new light on one of Japanese cinema's best-known genres, while also serving as a fascinating case study of how popular film genres are re-imagined across cultural divides.
About the Author:
Michael Crandol is an assistant professor of Japanese studies at Leiden University. He is the author of several articles on the history of Japanese horror film, including a chapter in the British Film Institute's The Japanese Cinema Book, to be published byBloomsbury Press in Spring 2020.
Press Reviews:
"An engrossing, insightful celebration of Japan's rich horror-film history, a saga shaped by war, military occupation, time-honored tales, and innovative artists who remain largely unknown abroad." ―Cineaste
See the publisher website: Bloomsbury Academic
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A Critical Analysis and Filmography of 103 Features Released in the United States, 1950–1992
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