Japanese horror, aka J-horror, is the genre that spawned some impressive cultural and cinematic milestones. However, the likes of Ringu, Audition, Ju-on, and other famous films are the only ones being recommended to horror fans, especially in the West. They are staples of the genre and essential to understanding Japanese horror, but they’re not the only representations.
The weird and wonderful world of J-horror lives on, and though there haven’t been any milestones like the movies mentioned before, they’re still exceptional for pushing the genre forward and making sure it remains alive. Some of the best Japanese horror movies of the last 10 years were directed by legends like Takashi Miike and Sion Sono; their presence still makes the genre feel alive and well. This list will feature the best Japanese horror movies of the last decade, but there won’t be a ranking; instead, the article seeks to celebrate these great works of horror.
10
‘Kisaragi Station’ (2022)
Directed by Jiro Nagae
Image via Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures
Jiro Nagae’s Kisaragi Station is a great example of folk horror that still reigns in the 2020s. The origins of Japanese folk horror go back to Kwaidan and Onibaba, both made in 1964, but the genre continued to prevail through urban legends and scary stories passed on by word of mouth. Kisaragi Station is another urban legend in Japan that began circulating online in 2004, after people claimed to follow the disappearance of a girl named Hasumi in real time. She wrote that her train stopped at Kisaragi station, which was desolate, but her followers urged her to stay on the train because the station doesn’t exist in recorded history.
Kisaragi Station follows young Haruna (Yuri Tsunematsu), who is studying folklore at university, and decides to dive deeper into the urban legend of Kisaragi Station. The movie is visually stunning, and Tsunematsu is a convincing lead; it has all the trademarks of a classic J-horror, showing it’s still alive and well. The movie was incredibly popular in Japan, ensuring this urban legend will live in infamy for years to come and cementing it as a major part of modern Japanese pop culture.
9
‘Mimicry Freaks’ (2019)
Directed by Shugo Fujii
Image via S-Kill
While recommending Mimicry Freaks feels like you’ll have the police called on you, it’s a metaphor for abuse against children, the nuclear fallout, and even eugenics. The conversations between the characters matter more than the splatter and gore that the movie is inevitably covered in, with the older generation being heavily pro-nuclear and the younger ones being anti-nuclear. It also shows the impatience and anger of men whose children are the victims of their rage. Mimicry Freaks isn’t great, but it’s interesting, especially to horror fans.
Mimicry Freaks follows two storylines merging: One is a man and his son waking up in the middle of the forest, chained; the other follows a bride, groom, and both their parents driving through the same forest to reach the wedding venue. When their car stops, they find themselves in the same place as the man and his son, and chaos ensues. Shugo Fujii explained his vision and process in an interview for Asian Movie Pulse, sharing that he was inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Evil Dead.
8
‘Suicide Forest Village’ aka ‘Jukai Mura’ (2021)
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Image via Toei Company
Takashi Shimizu is another legend of J-horror, whose work on the Ju-on/The Grudge films sparked his creativity and career. He began the Village Trilogy in 2019, directing Howling Village, Suicide Forest Village, and Ox-Head Village. Out of the three, the most promising and ominous is the second installment, Suicide Forest Village. Shimizu’s storytelling can be described as suggestive, with some slow-burning, ominous moments that promise a riveting ending. Though the movie has a lot left to be desired, it’s quite well-crafted and adds a supernatural element to the notorious Suicide Forest, aka Aokigahara, in Japan.
If you like slow-burn horror, Shimizu — and Suicide Forest Village — is the right choice.
The movie follows vlogger Akina (Rinka Otani) recording herself outside a forest known in urban legends as the place where people go to commit suicide. While she records, bad things start happening, and soon, her video is cut off. A teenager, Hibiki (Anna Yamada), is watching the video, which, naturally, disturbs her. Since then, Hibiki finds herself connected to numerous deaths. Shimizu’s work is well done here, and there are some familiar faces, like Jun Kunimura and Yumi Adachi. If you like slow-burn horror, Shimizu — and Suicide Forest Village — is the right choice.
7
‘Brutal’ (2017)
Directed by Takashi Hirose
Image via Unearthed Films
Brutal is an interesting POV on heterosexual relationships, an embodied view of mutual destruction. The torment is rarely psychological — well, it is for the viewers — but the two protagonists, who have an unconventional and destructive relationship, mostly physically harm each other. They are mentally scarred individuals, coming together and finding some strange comfort in each other. Brutal is an exploitation piece, directed by Takashi Hirose, for whom this was his first feature-length film, which he also wrote.
Brutal follows a Man who kidnaps and kills women while looking for one who will engage in a sadistic relationship with him. He then meets a Woman (Asami), who kills men, and this Man catches her eye. They begin a twisted and unusual relationship where they pursue and attempt to destroy each other simultaneously. Asami was featured the year before in Sion Sono’s famous film, Antiporno, and she has had an interesting career as a pink film actress and then a glorious action star and lead in several action and horror flicks.
6
‘Yakuza Apocalypse’ (2015)
Directed by Takashi Miike
Image via Nikkatsu
Miike is a Japanese filmmaking legend who has made over 100 films of all kinds. To international audiences, he’s known for Audition and Ichi the Killer, two of the most disturbing body horror and gore films to come out of Japan. Still, Miike is versatile and skilled in various genres, allowing him to introduce that versatility in his newer horror films. That’s how you can observe Yakuza Apocalypse, a horror comedy and action thriller; the film goes to great lengths to be weird and beautiful. Though Over Your Dead Body doesn’t quite make the cut (released in 2014), Yakuza Apocalypse is the second most recent Miike film everyone should see.
Yakuza Apocalypse is about Yakuza boss Kamiura (Lily Franky), who is secretly a vampire. When his second-in-command, Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara), gets fatally wounded, Kamiura bites and turns him into a vampire, too. Then, Kageyama goes on a rampage to bite people around town; there’s a skilled assassin wearing a frog costume, and a Yakuza Captain whose brain sometimes oozes from her ears. It’s more of a horror comedy, with some gore and splatter, and monsters and vampires, but Miike’s vision is worth watching in any form.
5
‘Tag’ (2015)
Directed by Sion Sono
Image via Sedic Deux Inc.
Sion Sono directed many weird and wonderful features, with Tag barely making the cutaway of one of the best J-horrors of the past decade. Sono, much like Miike, is an acquired taste, and his filmmaking style is as overwhelming as it is simple. Tag was based on the book Real Onigokko (the movie’s alternate title) by Yusuke Yamada, and it’s another Sono film that features high school girls. This one makes them badass, though, and ultimately in charge of their destiny, despite going through some exploitative and downright perverse stuff.
Tag is a compilation of various stories that feature the same girl, Mitsuko (Reina Triendl), who finds herself the only person alive on a school bus that gets sliced in half, including all the people on it. Amid the splatter-fest, Mitsuko runs and meets Aki (Yuki Sakurai), Sur (Ami Tomite), Keiko (Mariko Shinoda), and Izumi (Erina Mano). The girls find themselves in bizarre situations that lead them to try to find a way out. Sono might be trying too hard here to prove women are treated as objects of fantasies and dehumanized on various levels, but Tag is still worth watching as it’ll be the most unique action horror film you’ll see.
4
‘Kodoku: Meatball Machine’ (2018)
Directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura
Image via Ark Entertainment
Meatball Machine was a 2005 action sci-fi horror film directed by Yudai Yamaguchi and Junichi Yamamoto; the special effects and makeup were done by Yoshihiro Nishimura. Nishimura ventured into directing the movie’s sequel himself in 2018, naming it Meatball Machine Kodoku (or Kodoku: Meatball Machine). Nishimura ventured into creating a legacy sequel film that heads into horror comedy at times, but is still well-made, with great costumes, makeup, visual and practical effects, and a decent storyline.
Kodoku is fun, very bloody, and sometimes leans into character analysis a little too much.
Kodoku: Meatball Machine follows a man who is down on his luck, Yuji; he is treated poorly by people and has terminal cancer, but his luck suddenly changes when an alien race comes to Earth and starts invading people’s bodies. The people transform into alienoid mutants, and Yuji, in order to win the affection of a woman he likes, steps up to be the hero of the day and fights the aliens from overtaking the planet. Kodoku is fun, very bloody, and sometimes leans into character analysis a little too much, which we never thought would be an issue; it’s kind of like Tetsuo: The Iron Man but in color and filled with around-town action scenes.
3
‘New Religion’ (2022)
Directed by Keishi Kondo
A somber and somewhat pessimistic horror drama, New Religion is about the processing of grief, wrapped in stylish and beautiful packaging laced with red lighting and artistic stills. Keishi Kondo is the director and writer of this beautiful tragedy, for whom this was the first feature-length film. Viewers loved the film’s dark and ominous atmosphere, completed by the presence of a man who can’t speak but only takes photos of a woman’s body parts, meticulously and with undivided attention.
New Religion is about Miyabi (Kaho Seto), who has tragically lost her young daughter. Depressed, she becomes a call-girl and one day gets a client, Oka (Satoshi Oka), who only wishes to take Polaroid photos of her body parts in a room lit up by a red light. When Miyabi realizes each photo brings her closer to her daughter’s memory and presence, she becomes entangled with Oka while dealing with her grief and relationships. New Religion is the kind of movie that will make you think, but it’s an unsettling horror at heart that will make you feel things, too.
2
‘The Forest of Love’ (2019)
Directed by Sion Sono
Image via Netflix
Sion Sono’s vision feels like a fever dream and makes complete sense at the same time. Looking through the fog of craziness isn’t easy, and The Forest of Love is especially proof, but he is often vocal about things he dislikes and disagrees with, showing them in their extreme forms as a form of cautionary tale (Suicide Club is the perfect example). The Forest of Love isn’t all that cautionary because it was based on a true story; Sono’s biggest takeaway from the film was the naive human nature, especially of people who want to belong somewhere or can’t process tragedy well.
The Forest of Love follows high schoolers Mitsuko and Taeko (Eri Kamataki and Kyoko Hinami), who get involved with a trio of wannabe filmmakers, Jay, Shin, and Fukami. The group becomes entangled with a charming but cold con artist, Joe Murata (Kippei Shinna), who tangles them in his web of abuse and control. Murata has a hold over people like no one, and both the girls and the filmmakers seem too captivated to see his true face, even when he shows it. The movie was inspired by a Japanese serial killer who committed crimes from the mid-90s to the early 2000s.
1
‘One Cut of the Dead’ (2017)
Directed by Shinichiro Ueda
Image via Shudder
The most praised and watched J-horror of the decade is, undoubtedly, One Cut of the Dead, the meta-zombie-horror-comedy that took over the world soon after its release. The movie is a miracle in numerous ways — it was filmed for around $25,000 and earned around $27M domestically and $30M worldwide, and it brought back attention to zombie horror in international film. Beyond its impressive box-office run and groundbreaking stats, One Cut of the Dead is just a superb movie. Director Shinichiro Ueda worked mostly on shorts and independent films before this one.
One Cut of the Dead is divided into three storylines: One is about an independent filmmaking crew making a zombie flick in an abandoned water facility, the second shows their movie, and the third is a behind-the-scenes look at its cast and crew. There are a lot of film-within-a-film plots here that could get confusing, but besides that, it’s a unique zombie movie that doubles as an essential movie about making movies. One Cut of the Dead is the best representation of the fact that horror is still alive and thriving in Japan.
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