Together with Nakata and Shimizu, Norio Tsuruta fronted the Japanese suspense wave. A true, dedicated horror director, though at his best when diverging from the usual less is more fare. A must for people who love Asian horror cinema.
Movies
The addition of the fantastical figure gives Orochi a somewhat novel feel though.
Dark Tales of Japan
Scary True Stories: Summer Special 2018
Well before Ringu and Ju-on turned the Japanese horror genre on its head, the front-runners of the genre were honing their skills working on the Honto ni Atta Kowai anthologies. Not that they were great films, but historically it's a series with considerable significance. Hence why I didn't mind checking out this 2018 TV special. Films like these are decent enough horror filler, but they aren't half as scary as they used to be. The anthology setup makes certain there's enough variety and some of the shorts do manage to create a bit of tension, but it's mostly just familiar territory that's being rehashed. Not terrible, but not very scary either.Read all
Scary True Stories: Summer Special 2011
The OG series of contemporary Japanese horror cinema. All the greats started their horror career working on the first few entries (the early 90s), and Norio Tsuruta returned to co-direct this 2011 summer special. The film is nothing special, but that's because it's stayed true to its roots. You get five stereotypical Japanese haunt stories, which means ghosts appear out of the shadows and bother the living with their unresolved problems. The film sticks to the clichés it established two decades earlier, they just lost most of their effectiveness by now. It's not a terrible film, just a very generic one. The fact that it's an anthology makes it a little easier to get through though.Read all
Tsuruta, once one of the leading Japanese horror directors, ended up in China, making a simple streamer horror that feels flaccid and uninspired. Sure enough, the "web novel" setup gives it a more contemporary (Chinese) spin, but it's not enough to add much value to what is just a very basic horror film. The horror scenes are basic, the investigation is simplistic and the presentation feels cheap. Some scenes are decent, and Tsuruta has a lot of experience under his belt, but most of the film leans on clichés that were established more than two decades ago. It's time for something new.Read all
An early pre-Ringu Tsuruta film. Many of the signature elements of the less-is-more J-Horror wave are already present here. Then again, people who know their horror history and have seen some of the earliest Honto ni Atta Kowai compilations know this isn't all that surprising. A Haunted School is very basic, but the setup is rather fun and the pacing is decent too. There's also a little cameo of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, which is cute, but as someone who has had his fill of the J-Horror clichés, there isn't much here that got me excited. It's decent enough for horror completists, but it's hardly a standout.Read all
Scary True Stories: Realm of Spectres
Scary True Stories: Ten Haunting Tales from the Japanese Underground
