Nightmare
 

I saw this Korean horror flick (Nightmare) on Fear.net last night. Although I did have some trouble figuring out what was going on initially, it was a pretty good film in the tradition of Asian ghost stories. It had more blood than Ju-on, Dark Water, Ringu, etc. but otherwise reminded me of those films. Anybody else seen this?

Good to know. I liked Phone too, so now I feel much better about blind buying apartment like I had planned.

I liked it. I felt bad for the poor kitty though...(I'm an animal lover, can't stand to see em hurt, even in movies.) Also, what is with Asian horro movies and long-haired female ghosts (Sadako, Kayako, Kyung-ah)? (Looks to omcdave for assisetnce)

A cat was hurt in Nightmare. Crap, I don't even remember that. That usually bothers me too, so now I'm puzzled that I can't seem to remember it. Damn aging!

It's based on japanese folklore. Most japanese horror movies are based on ghosts, and spirits remaining in places/objects when they die in great trauma, like being murdered etc.

Sadako, and all long haired ghostly girls in J-Horror are based on an ancient Japanese story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuya_kaidan

:)

Curiously, in the writer-director's follow-up to NIGHTMARE - called PHONE - there's a scene where a child psychologist interprets a drawing a little girl has made of herself with long hair. The kid's shrink interprets the long hair as representing sexual maturity.

In the book THE RING COMPANION, the author writes about the long tradition in Japan of regarding women as not just second-class citizens but as barely human. Within that kind of cultural framework, it is almost inevitable that the group being repressed will return in popular art as some kind of monster.