Japanese horror

Content warnings: Gore, sexual content, abuse, violence, pedophilia

Japanese horror was always so interesting to me as what I had seen was always so intense in one way or another. Historically, Japanese citizens have had to repress their feelings and that is why their dramas are so "feely," their comedies are so bizarre, and their horror genre has been so... Interesting. They're usually very gorey and even quite creative besides for the slasher ones, but there aren't too many creative slasher movies besides the methods of death. Most I've seen have some strange sexual undertone or element. Whether the killer is a rapist, sexually repressed, or an abuser or the killer was a victim to any of those or bullying. I much prefer the second option, the killer being a victim, so the kills are justified and you can even side with the killer on a level. I hate horror films where you're forced to side with the killer/abuser.

"To Be Killed by a High Schooler" was very interesting in that regard as it fits in the "sexually repressed" category but not necessarily for the "villain" being a killer himself. It's not 100% clear on who the villain is, from my perspective, since Maho/Catherine is a literal killer but a victim of sexual assault and Higashi is kind of framed like a nice guy from the outside but on the inside claims not to be sexually attracted to high school girls but is sexually attracted to be killed by a high school girl. (Maho/Catherine) Now that I think of it, he ordered his dog to attack Maho and strangled her to "awaken" Catherine for his own pleasure. Yeah, he's the villain. It's always interesting to see in the mind of villains and killers but Higashi's case was something unique to me. He has a "kink" called "Autassassinophilia"* which is something I've never heard of. And yes, I know "To Be Killed by a High Schooler" is not technically a horror film but I still wanted to talk about it and Higashi's case is horror to me.

*"Autassassinophilia is a paraphilia in which sexual arousal and satisfaction are achieved through the fantasy or belief that one is in danger of being killed."

100 Signal goes into the gorey category as it's kind of the whole point of it. I wouldn't necessarily call it a "gore fest" or "gore porn" but the basic plot is that a class is hypnotized into each committing suicide if they are triggered by any of the 100 signals like using the phone, committing any act of violence, and crying. The methods of which they commit suicide are pretty unique when it comes to using whatever item is around them to inflict damage but not so much when they just smash their heads into the walls/floors or just jumping out of the window. Besides the first group of deaths, they rarely ever re-use the same death twice. This is one of the two on this list that I actually recommend watching if you're interested. it's sort of a "Battle Royale" film but they can't kill each other.

"My Little Goat" is an interesting adaptation of "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats" by the Brothers Grimm, adding a sexual assault allegation and being in stop motion by Tomoki Misato, a very talented animator. The animation is beautiful and meshes well together with the warm lighting. I don't have much to say about this one, as it's a short film and that it's really good and the second film I recommend watching, especially if you have roughly 10 minutes to spare.

I wish I had started "Black Rat" over like "To Be Killed by a High Schooler" when I didn't understand it but I was too far into the movie to do so. To me, it was just a low-budget Japanese slasher film but in reality, it had a much better story line that I read about after about a bullied girl taking revenge on her bullies. Maybe one day I'll re-watch it and come back with a better "review" but until then, I'm going to end this segment here.

I'd love to talk about other Japanese films like Battle Royale but that and other films I can think of are technically dramas or of the crime genre. I sometimes struggle to differentiate the three since I often don't watch one without either.