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This is not really the topic of this post, although for you zombie fans out there, I will certainly acknowledge the very real cultural contributions of the Japanese undead. Actually, I had just read an article in Slate this morning about RapeLay, a violent interactive rape simulation game from Japan. This got me thinking about Japanese teen fashions which, a couple of months ago, including the fashion-fad of dressing-up like you'd just been beat to shit: purple bruises, bulky casts, and artfully wound bandages. At this point my topic rapidly cycled into Why Are The Japanese So Nuts?
For that, I have a fairly speedy answer. The Japanese are nuts because, by necessity (eg. centuries old civilization, little-bitty island, few natural resources), they have an extremely rigid society. The more rigid the society, the more violent the porn. The End. All that is true, but hardly the stuff of a good chewy post, especially after discovering there is a US availability of RapeLay, and that knowledge is currently radiating in my brain like an exploded dirty bomb.
With a lot of throat-clearing, all manner of US venues are banning the game, but a fast 30 seconds on Google will uncover a fully functional copy you can download, creepily promising "hours of fun!". The Slate reviewer reports it's more like hours of depression, contemplating that special basement where true scum suckers live. Like a lot of Japanese bad-ideas, RapeLay is aestheticized so that its true yuckiness lives below a scrim of improbabilities. For example, once you've cornered your fair lady, a make-out session ensues and, after a yes-I-will-no-I-won't kind of struggle, the deed is done. And wuddya know. She likes it! Just like all rape victims really do. RapeLay is fodder for a lot of ire and ire a-plenty has already been expressed on the Jezebel and Shakesville websites. Me, I'm holding off on my own molten ire in order to hop on Japanese zombies.
Actually, the more I get into zombies, the more of a pounding I can expect from true zombie fans. Since I don't enjoy seeing the undead eat the living, my zombie-knowledge is woeful. In digging around, I discovered that some zombie lovers have created an artistic hierachy for zombie judging. There are those who believe that black zombies are the true undead creme, and they have their reasons. Zombies originate in Haiti, home of mixed races, and besides, there was that guy in Night of the Living Dead who was black, and Night of the Living Dead is the gold standard of zombie movies. However, an angry poster on a zombie website, like UnDead BackBrain, pointed out that the black guy in Living Dead wasn't a zombie at all. The first poster fired back, so what? He was the coolest guy in the movie. At which point I baled.
Supposedly the best Japanese zombie movie is one called Junk. I don't know. I've only examined a bunch of stills from few undead flicks. Checking those out, I conclude that Japanese zombies appear well-groomed, neatly often fashionably dressed, with really excellent makeup, which makes them scarier in a way. You're unlikely to know who's really a zombie unless you spot one squatting on a subway platform, munching up a commuter. Here at least, they demonstrate one universal quality of zombies: making pigs of themselves. After gobbling up one of the unfortunate, the Japanese undead have whole rivers of brilliant red blood coursing down their chins, which they leave in place (see illus. above). Actually, I consider this a weak point, horror-wise.
I'm a great fan of the straight vanilla Japanese horror movie. My quibble with them, however, is their buckets-o-blood syndrome. It's always too bright, too glittery, too much of it. But that's just my cultural bias.
We Americans like our virtual blood to look realistic.
I'm not sure why.
For that, I have a fairly speedy answer. The Japanese are nuts because, by necessity (eg. centuries old civilization, little-bitty island, few natural resources), they have an extremely rigid society. The more rigid the society, the more violent the porn. The End. All that is true, but hardly the stuff of a good chewy post, especially after discovering there is a US availability of RapeLay, and that knowledge is currently radiating in my brain like an exploded dirty bomb.
With a lot of throat-clearing, all manner of US venues are banning the game, but a fast 30 seconds on Google will uncover a fully functional copy you can download, creepily promising "hours of fun!". The Slate reviewer reports it's more like hours of depression, contemplating that special basement where true scum suckers live. Like a lot of Japanese bad-ideas, RapeLay is aestheticized so that its true yuckiness lives below a scrim of improbabilities. For example, once you've cornered your fair lady, a make-out session ensues and, after a yes-I-will-no-I-won't kind of struggle, the deed is done. And wuddya know. She likes it! Just like all rape victims really do. RapeLay is fodder for a lot of ire and ire a-plenty has already been expressed on the Jezebel and Shakesville websites. Me, I'm holding off on my own molten ire in order to hop on Japanese zombies.
Actually, the more I get into zombies, the more of a pounding I can expect from true zombie fans. Since I don't enjoy seeing the undead eat the living, my zombie-knowledge is woeful. In digging around, I discovered that some zombie lovers have created an artistic hierachy for zombie judging. There are those who believe that black zombies are the true undead creme, and they have their reasons. Zombies originate in Haiti, home of mixed races, and besides, there was that guy in Night of the Living Dead who was black, and Night of the Living Dead is the gold standard of zombie movies. However, an angry poster on a zombie website, like UnDead BackBrain, pointed out that the black guy in Living Dead wasn't a zombie at all. The first poster fired back, so what? He was the coolest guy in the movie. At which point I baled.
Supposedly the best Japanese zombie movie is one called Junk. I don't know. I've only examined a bunch of stills from few undead flicks. Checking those out, I conclude that Japanese zombies appear well-groomed, neatly often fashionably dressed, with really excellent makeup, which makes them scarier in a way. You're unlikely to know who's really a zombie unless you spot one squatting on a subway platform, munching up a commuter. Here at least, they demonstrate one universal quality of zombies: making pigs of themselves. After gobbling up one of the unfortunate, the Japanese undead have whole rivers of brilliant red blood coursing down their chins, which they leave in place (see illus. above). Actually, I consider this a weak point, horror-wise.
I'm a great fan of the straight vanilla Japanese horror movie. My quibble with them, however, is their buckets-o-blood syndrome. It's always too bright, too glittery, too much of it. But that's just my cultural bias.
We Americans like our virtual blood to look realistic.
I'm not sure why.
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