I’ve never been a big fan of horror movies. Psychological thrillers, yes. But horror has never been my thing. Studying film has forced me to watch a few, of course, but I’m too much of a scaredy cat for them.
Oh, well. What can I do?
With Halloween right around the corner and a partner who loves horror (but hasn’t watched a lot of Japanese or Korean cinema), I thought I could write this post for him โ and for all of you (or your boyfriends/girlfriends/partners in crime/best friends) who don’t know where to start with K- and J-horror.
Are you going to start with Ring and Train to Busan?
I have decided to not include Ring (1998) and Train to Busan (2016) becauseโฆ hasn’t everyone already watched them? If you haven’t, don’t even hesitate. They are two films that not only influenced a series of other important films around the world but they were also the gateway to Japanese and Korean cinema for a lot of Western fans.
Ring perfectly depicts the Japanese talent for horror that isn’t about blood and gore, but lingering dread and psychological terror. It blends modernity and folklore, tapping into our innermost fears and leaving us with a sense of anguish with the inevitability of evil. Meanwhile, Train to Busan shows what Korean cinema does best: mix thrill, fear, and entertainment with social commentary all the while holding a clear emotional undertone.
All reviews are spoiler-free. Enjoy! If you don’t have time to read them all, make sure to pin this list (find our pin at the bottom!)
Long before Ring and Train to Busan, Japan and Korea were already producing several films that are, to this day, considered gems of horror cinema history. So here are 10 Asian films (five Korean + five Japanese + some extra nods) that horror fans should be watching this Halloween:
Kwaidan (1964)
Based on Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904), a collection of Japanese ghost stories, Kwaidan is a 3-hour-long masterpiece by Kobayashi Masaki. Kwaidan is an anthology film, featuring four separate stories all based on Japanese folklore. Considered to be one of the best films of all time, Kwaidan received the Special Jury Prize at the 18th Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 38th Academy Awards. But it doesn’t stop there: Guillermo del Toro, in an interview for The Criterion Channel, says that Kwaidan is “what I consider one of the most perfect films artistically.“
Kobayashi masterfully uses light and colour to tell eerie tales that play with our subconscious. The cinematography, both surreal and spectacular, is a work of art in and of itself, not only contributing to the narrative but also holding us spellbound. As each story explores different encounters with the supernatural, toying with our imagination and inner fears, Kwaidan combines traditional Japanese ghost stories with Japanese aesthetics in a way that is impossible to forget. Beyond Kobayashi’s meticulously crafted colour-saturated sets and haunting camerawork, Kwaidan unravels at a very particular pace, infusing the film with a persistent sense of dread. All of these elements together create a perfect example of atmospheric storytelling: unsettling, ethereal and thoroughly unique.
Even though some fans might mourn the lack of gore and violence, this is a stunning piece of film history that deserves to be watched โ and one of my personal favourites.
Here, I’d also add Tanaka Tokuzo’s The Snow Woman (1968), which is based on the same story as the first tale in Kwaidan. Another beautiful yet chilling visual retelling that is another must-watch.
You can watch Kwaidan on:
Kuroneko (1968)
Shindo Kaneto is a renowned Japanese film director and screenwriter known for portraying class struggle, the role and fate of women, and sexuality. These are the themes he skillfully managed to merge into his second attempt at horror, Kuroneko. Kaneto directed what’s considered to be the first major J-horror film, Onibaba, in 1964. From there, several directors started exploring what they could do with the genre, and most of the earlier attempts are often based on traditional folklore โ as with Kwaidan, above, Onibaba, and Kuroneko.
Kuroneko tells the story of two women who, after being abused and killed by a band of samurai, return to Earth as two vengeful spirits (also known as “onryo”). They then proceed to seduce and kill every samurai they encounter.
In a way, I feel that Kuroneko is a sharper, more sober take on horror than Onibaba (that also deserves a watch if you’re a horror fan), which is why I decided to include it in this list. A superficial look at it might tell you this is another revenge ghost story with the oft-seen female onryo as protagonists. But Shindo gives it incredible depth by portraying it through a refreshingly feminist perspective and going beyond horror to encompass love, longing, and justice.
The first few scenes are absolutely sickening, and adding that to Nobuko Otowa and Kiwako Taichi’s incredible performances, you’re led to root for the spirits. You want to see them get their revenge โ and their tale offers enough freakish scenes to quench that thirst. However, as the story progresses, anger takes different shapes as it turns into fear, despair, and grief. This is another film that won’t give you the gore and jump scares one might prefer from a horror movie. However, a multilayered script and minimalist yet ghostly cinematography make Kuroneko into another excellent example of the Japanese atmospheric, psychological horror.
There’s this incredible interview with Shindo Kaneto and film scholar Joan Mellen that explores both Onibaba and Kuroneko, as well as discusses the themes behind Kaneto’s filmography. A must-read. You can find it here.
You can watch Kuroneko on:
House (1977)
House isโฆ weirdโฆ and silly. In the best way possible. Surreal and proudly bizarre, this is one of the greatest psychedelic horror experiences you’ll ever have.
Directed by Obayashi Nobuhiko, this is the story of Gorgeous (Ikegami Kimiko), a schoolgirl who invites six of her friends to spend their summer holidays in her aunt’s house. The house, it seems, is haunted and supernatural events start popping up everywhere almost as soon as they settle down. From the very beginning, Obayashi wanted to experiment and try something that one couldn’t find in the film industry back then. He then asked his pre-teen daughter for ideas, and much of what you see in the movie were her suggestions. Even though the studio thought the film was nonsensical, we can now see that House embodied an avant-garde experimentalism that was both brave and insane.
The special effects are purposefully cartoonish, the humour is absurd, and the narrative feels like a fever dream. Obayashi decided to turn a slasher film on its head, giving it a fairytale-esque framing and illustrating it with bold and colourful compositions. It feels like he’s playing with filmmaking as much as he’s playing with us, his audience.
To top it all off, the rock band Godiego was responsible for the score. So if you’re looking for an unpredictable, crazy ride in a mash of comedy and horror, House is your film.
You can watch House (a.k.a.”Hausu”) on:
Whispering Corridors (1998)
After the end of the Korean military dictatorship, the Korean film industry found itself free of the heavy censorship that had stifled its filmmakers. Part of the late ’90s East Asian horror boom, Whispering Corridors is one of the titles that arose from that freedom and established the Korean horror cinema. Directed by Park Ki-hyung, Whispering Corridors tells the story of a group of troubled teenagers and their teachers in an all-girls high school.
Left: Official poster of Whispering Corridors (Credit: Cinema Service)
A violent ghost story with strong social critique, the film uses horror to explore the oppressive and rigid education system in Korea. By taking friendship, bullying, and social pressure to the extreme and mixing them with supernatural elements, Whispering Corridors offers both the gore and shocks that horror fans enjoy and a harsh exposรฉ of the authoritarianism that invades Korean schools. An uncanny atmosphere is emphasised by colour and effective camerawork throughout, and the script, delivered with conviction, benefits from the complex relationships between the girls and the psychological anxiety that defines their high school lives to create an intense, sinister film.
Whispering Corridors is followed by five sequels, all with unrelated plots but all using an all-girls high school as background.
You can watch Whispering Corridors on:
Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)
Created by Shimizu Takashi, Ju-On is an entire franchise that consists of over ten films (including their American remakes), video games, novels, manga, and graphic novels. Ju-On: The Grudge is the third feature, but the very first to receive a theatrical release.
Ju-On: The Grudge is a clear descendant of Ring and one of the films that helped define modern J-horror. The story follows the doomed fate of everyone who comes across a cursed house, where a family died. The family returns to Earth as “onryo” (or vengeful spirits), spreading death and fear among the living.
The film relies on extreme tension and suspense instead of gore, a classic characteristic of Japanese horror films. Ju-On: The Grudge stands out for its non-linear storytelling, which adds to our discomfort by giving the narrative a nightmarish quality. Bit by bit, the film piles supernatural elements, increasing the psychological pressure on its audience.
It’s an incredibly creepy film that continues to freak us out in Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003), which is also very much worth a watch.
Quick note: You don’t really need to watch the first two films to watch this one (especially the second one, which is almost entirely a summary of the first). You’ll follow it just fine (especially if you’ve already seen the American remake).
You can watch Ju-On: The Grudge on:
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
I find A Tale of Two Sisters to be one of the finest K-horror films to date. Directed by Kim Jee-woon, A Tale of Two Sisters tells the story of Su-mi (Im Soo-jung), a teenage girl who is released from a mental institution with her little sister, Su-yeon (Moon Geun-young). They return to their home, where their father has remarried after the death of their mother. As their relationship with their stepmother becomes worse and worse, supernatural events make their lives even more difficult.
Inspired by a traditional Korean folktale, A Tale of Two Sisters clearly carries the spirit of a twisted fairy tale. The combination of flawless production design and effective camerawork creates claustrophobic environments and a disquieting atmosphere, perfectly setting the stage for a psychologically complex horror tale. Dancing between the tragic and the terrifying, the film offers plenty of disconcerting twists and turns as the script unravels an intricate narrative whose themes go much further than a couple of scares. Cleverly written and beautifully shot, A Tale of Two Sisters explores loneliness, loss, mental illness, and familial bonds, giving an extra emotional depth to the narrative. The film also counts on an all-star cast, delivering powerful performances that live up to such a script.
A splendidly haunting psychological horror, A Tale of Two Sisters is an example of the visual artistry, emotional resonance, and narrative complexity that horror can offer โ while delivering the creepy ghostly apparitions we’re here for.
You can watch A Tale of Two Sisters on:
Noroi: The Curse (2005)
There’s something extra ominous about found-footage films. That’s why, when done right, this is one technique that works very well in horror.
Shiraishi Koji nails the pseudo-documentary style in Noroi: The Curse, in which a paranormal researcher documents his investigations into supernatural events to produce a documentary called โ you guessed it โ The Curse. I know that, if you look through ’90s and ’00s J-horror films, you’ll find several whose effects don’t stand the test of time (and 4K televisions). But, in Noroi: The Curse, special effects are precise and convincing, and the presentation gives it such a level of realism that it’s fascinating.
In addition to exceptional visual storytelling, Noroi: The Curse features marvellous performances and a superb script based on a complex, interwoven narrative. As the film explores its own mythology, suspense builds up gradually. Slowly, different threads come together, setting a sinister atmosphere that stays with you long after the film ends. Noroi: The Curse is awfully disturbing, with its dreadful beats, authentic delivery, and spine-chilling imagery.
For another ghastly (and masterfully done) found-footage film, I’d recommend Jung Bum-shik’s Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018). An incredibly effective feature that offers a truly nightmarish experience.
You can watch Noroi: The Curse on:
The Host (2006)
Nowadays, who doesn’t know Bong Joon-ho? The director of Parasite (2019) has pretty much become the face of Korean cinema internationally, so you might have already watched this one. There isn’t much that I can do if his third feature, The Host, is a marvel of a creature horror film.
The Host starts with a real-life event: an American who orders his Korean employees to dump a vat of formaldehyde down a drain that leads to the Han River. The idea is: what if a monster is born from this decision? In Bong Joon-ho’s universe, that’s what happens. After Park Gang-du (Song Kang-ho)’s daughter is taken by the creature, he does whatever it takes to save her.
As usual, Bong Joon-ho marks his script with the kind of satire and sociopolitical critique that is characteristic of all his films. So, The Host is not your everyday monster film โ as it skillfully mixes humour, horror, and emotional drama. At the same time, it creeps you out and tenses you up with a threat that feels closer than we’d normally feel comfortable with. Add to that an excellent cast and you have an irresistible film that will entertain and unnerve you.
You can watch The Host on:
Thirst (2009)
Another excellent film from Song Kang-ho’s filmography, Thirst won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Film at the 46th Baeksang Arts Awards. Thirst is Park Chan-wook’s take on รmile Zola’s scandalous Thรฉrรจse Raquin.
In Thirst, Song Kang-ho plays Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest who is respected and cherished by his parishioners. After volunteering for a medical experiment that goes south, he becomes a vampire and starts to fight against overwhelming instincts for violence and lust. Even though Thirst isn’t considered to be the best vampire film in history, it stands out for its philosophical approach to gothic horror, exploring themes of morality, desire, and faith.
Park continues to amaze with his unique eye for visual style and storytelling, taking full advantage of the sensual, darkly comedic side of vampire mythology. As expected from the director of Oldboy, this is a gruesome yet morally complex tale of creature horror, eroticism, and (very) dark humour.
You can watch Thirst on:
The Wailing (2016)
Na Hong-jin’s epic The Wailing is a film that deserves endless praise for its intelligent script, incredible visuals, and impeccable cast.
The story follows Officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won), a policeman who investigates a series of inexplicable deaths in a small village after the arrival of a stranger. Between illnesses, killings, and possessions, Jong-goo finds himself in the middle of a dark and profoundly evil mystery. Na masterfully blends ancient Asian mythology and modern horror elements, bringing to the mix anything from ghosts to shamanism to body horror. Then, he adds just a pinch of police procedural and psychological thriller. Boom, that’s The Wailing.
And so, The Wailing stands out for its complex, layered script. But not only that. It’s Na’s precise pacing that allows the film to never run out of steam despite spanning two and a half hours. The Wailing is sinister, bizarre, and awfully disturbing. At the same time, it’s thoroughly addictive, compelling, and gripping.
The story exudes this aura of paranoia and fear, not only thanks to the narrative itself but also to the disquieting themes that underlie the script. As The Wailing explores the nature of evil, faith, superstition, and morality, we’re kept hostage in this chilling universe of mysticism and suspense that Na draws us into. An absolute must-watch for all horror fans.
You can watch The Wailing on:
Make sure to pin this list so you remember to watch them all before Halloween!
So what do you think of my list? I’m definitely not an authority on horror, so I’d be happy to hear your suggestions and ideas about these titles! Any other films you’d add to this list? Share in the comments your own experience with Asian horror films!
Happy Halloween!
Leave a Reply