A Wild Sheep Chase

     Reading a Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami gave me first hand assumptions that in occurring themes, “horror” films attract the audience, such as myself, by throwing in concepts that contain just the “original” shock effect of being scared or frightened. My assumptions were quickly proven to be wrong, in J-Horror, after researching the differences and comparisons of west and east “horror” films. Referring back to A Wild Sheep Chase I’ve never come to realize that most themes in J-Horror originated from the culturally negative influences from Eastern culture. Differentiating J-Horror from American or “Western Horror,” American Horror is generically based upon, again, by the “shock effect,” and for J-Horror that’s completely different.  For example, in A Wild Sheep Chase the protagonist suffers inner depression and self-inflicting thoughts of not being important for any wordly purpose; referring to the sheep being most associated with dangerous ambitions. The sheep, after more clarification, helped me to understand that the Eastern culture was involved in many wars and turning to dangerous ambitions. J-Horror is more influenced by their society and wanting just to live a generic and normal lifestyle. American Horror tries to recreate these films by giving a more mechanical plot of the original by not giving too much cultural background of the Easter origin. American Horror is just a fun, scary way to get your blood pumping and add suspense into your daily life. I found it interesting that many ghosts in J-Horror are associated with women, and the usual abuse from their husbands or counterparts, which results in the cause of seeking out revenge. Monsters also differ widely in American and J-Horror. American Horror includes zombies, vampires, werewolves, and in J-Horror the monsters mostly revolve around ghosts. Psychological pressure is more prominent in J-Horror more so than American Horror. Horror movies in Japan are the combination of history, culture and current social problems and America well, as I know of doesn’t revolve around using any common sense or any current social problems other than just making fun of women and men and the meaning of horror.