Too Many Times

The film “Ghost of Mae Nak,” filmed in Thailand, bases itself in ancient folklore thriving in a modern city. Part of the Asia Extreme cinema which pushes the envelop in films in the East.

Yet there’s something overly familiar with it.

Could it be the same theme runs itself through Japanese horror films of late? Perhaps it’s seeing the same ghostly woman with long, dripping hair seeking vengeance.

It’s been done enough times. I couldn’t tell you how many. Countless.

The same imagery, with the brooding woman creeping through shadows, was in another film called “Dream Boat” which was presented by the Masters of Horror series this year. The same thing.

“Dream Boat” didn’t do well for me as it felt like another layer of Japanese horror repeating itself. Has the foremost and best writers run out of ideas?

And I saw "Dream Boat" on DVD a few weeks ago.

The trend of familiarity, beating you over the head with the self-same numbness, replays itself. It’s cropping up through in cycles in the Asian cinema as well as Hollywood. How many times are we going to see this before they decide to do something different?

Too many times.

“Ghost of Mae Nak” isn’t well acted either. Feels like an amateur film that takes itself too seriously. There are some scenes which are very good here and there… but there’s no real sense of impending doom, the freakish aura of evil that seems to lurk around corners. There’s none of that. But there are plenty of things jumping out from the corner of darkness.

Plus, in the vein of familiarity, from the beginning of the film, you see a woman intruder passing the camera in a flash of movement, parading through like a faceless shadow. It’s a tired image.
It might be considered part of the Thai new wave movement. But there’s nothing in this film that we haven’t seen before.

I find myself giving up hope in discovering a horror film with new direction. Perhaps a different style. But we’re viewing the same thing since the film “Ringu” set new heights in the cinema followed by a number of wannabes.

More than a decade ago, there was the same thing perpetrating the Hollywood films when the first “Matrix” was taking the science fiction field by storm. The stunning cinematography, along with the frequent slowing of the film to promote action, gave a sense of a modern film noir for the “Matrix.” Nobody has seen anything like it before.

In just a couple of years, everyone was doing this. You couldn’t get away from a movie that didn’t have an indirect Matrix influence with the fanciful techniques of people moving as if time slowed down. It was saturated into everything from movies to television. You saw it with the first Charlie’s Angel movies. The Borne Identity films finally broke the mode.

The similar fate of redundant filmmaking could be seen in the most recent Japanese horror films. You could add to the list the number of United States copy-cats every which way you turn.

It’s becoming too conventional.

There are tons of remakes now with the film “One Missed Call” or "The Eye" being some of them. I’ve seen the original, Japanese versions which has nothing more to add.

Much of the artistic horror movie-making and atmosphere, with sense of breeding fear, seems to be lost in the shuffle while trying to duplicate the success of the Ringu and Ju-On.

Please stop it.

It’s getting to the point where it’s painful. Start making something different rather than making a rehash of same ideas and concepts. I understand that stark image of the female spirits represent Yurei—basically Japanese ghosts who are caught in some sort of limbo. They must walk amongst the living until their physical problems are resolved. The whitish, ghoulish effects of their faces are similar to the Kabuki stage plays performed in Japan. But the idea is growing weary.

I admit that I was rattled nervous and scared when I first saw "The Ring" a few years ago. But it was my first introduction to Japanese horror films. Most of the other films rolling out on its heels seem like copies.

There are plenty of other types of ghosts and goblins that could be the focus of horror stories. So many poltergeists and weird things could be used as background colors for a horror film. The bleakest reaches of cosmic dismay, the feeling of dread, could be felt in many other instances such as stories by H.P. Lovecraft or the film like "The Exorcist" which deals with possible extraterrestrial threats.

Such stories try to give something different to the audiences without being rooted to the same ideas. They try to broaden their horizons by daring to risk the unobtainable. The next wave of Japanese horror films could do well to learn from a film like "The Exorcist" which continues to unsettle with discomfort to this very day.

One of the few which made a detour from the usual is the film “The Host”—which is about a dysfunctional family that takes on a creature that lives beneath their city. Sure, it’s a monster movie. At least you don’t see a white-faced ghost walking around like she’s been on a diet for far too long.