The majority of Junji Itō adaptations are underseen or simply unknown. The sheer amount may also come as a surprise. The peak of movies based on the horror mangaka’s works was during the “J-Horror” wave; The Ring (1998) signaled a sea change in Japanese horror, and studios were looking everywhere for inspiration. Unfortunately, Itō is not the easiest of source materials. His stories and illustrations are surreal and visceral, and translating all of that into moving images is, to say the least, challenging.
Two years after living-dead girl Tomie made the leap to the big screen in 1998, Uzumaki was brought to life. The movie, which was put on a double-bill with Tomie: Replay, served as Akihiro “Higuchinsky” Higuchi’s feature debut. And so far in the cinematic collective derived from Itō’s oeuvre, Uzumaki is one of the most competent. Other adaptations have been partly inspired by their basis; they tend not to be bound by precision and authenticity. Whereas Higuchinsky insisted on some semblance of accuracy. Seeing is believing when understanding the difference in execution between Uzumaki and other Itō movies.
Like in the three-part manga, Uzumaki or Spiral — not to be confused with the Ring sequel of the same name — is set in a coastal area whose name literally translates to Black Vortex Town. That might have been a hint of the problems in store, but alas, the characters are taken by surprise. The first to notice the increasingly helical goings-on is, as usual for the horror genre, the young people. Eriko Hatsune plays protagonist Kirie, who is becoming more and more aware of all the whirly weirdness. From snail-obsessed parents to death-driven students chasing after spiral patterns, the town is under attack. By what, though, this movie never exactly explains with absolute clarity.
Pictured: Someone gets tired in Uzumaki (2000).
At the time, there was nothing quite like Uzumaki in Itō adaptations. Sure, other movies upheld the macabre ingredients, but as far as style goes, they didn’t dig their nails in as much as Higuchinsky. He easily could have forsaken the more visually arresting elements of the manga and instead found pragmatic means to communicate the cosmic dread of the story. Thankfully there is a sense of obligation to Itō’s artistic derangement as well as narrative strangeness.
Even for those folks who have only admired Junji Itō’s artwork from afar, they can still find pleasure in this live-action take on Uzumaki. Not being familiar with the story doesn’t affect the other merits of this ambitious interpretation. And if nothing else, the movie is a solid preview before delving into the more graphic — and not to mention enlightening — manga, which didn’t conclude until after the adaptation began production. So the endings are widely varying, with the manga’s being more of a downer. The movie, on the other hand, emphasizes the symbolism of the spiral: there is no real end.
Unlike Uzumaki, the cinematic version of Kakashi has escaped recognition in the West. This is primarily due to the fact that the adaptation was never officially released in the United States. To catch this movie, ardent J-Horror fiends resorted to overseas copies, including a now-obscure and English-translated release from Hong Kong. Perhaps odder is how much Kakashi has slipped through the cracks since 2001. By no means is it faithful to what Itō conceived, but at the same time, this rendition of Kakashi is refreshingly distinct.
Pictured: Kou Shibasaki as Izumi in Kakashi (2001).
The original Kakashi (Scarecrow) can be found in the fourth volume of Horror World of Junji Itō. And apart from the scarecrows-coming-to-life aspect, it has little in common with the movie. In the manga’s story, the grieving residents of a small community discover a way to bring back the dearly departed: erect a scarecrow at the grave of the deceased, and soon his or her face will gradually manifest on the scarecrow.
Meanwhile, Norio Tsuruta’s movie can be treated as an original work with only minimal inspiration from the manga. Here a woman named Kaoru (Maho Nonami) visits a tucked away village where she suspects her missing brother is now residing. Her arrival is untimely, however, because the peculiar locals are in the midst of setting up their annual festival. One involving a great many scarecrows.
To pitch Kakashi as a mere killer scarecrow movie would be a mistake. In actuality, the proper genre designation is folk horror. Prevailing offerings of J-Horror dabbled in folklore, but in most cases that was limited to placing mythological entities, such as yūrei (ghosts), in modern environments. The likes of The Ring and Ju-On mainly looked to understand their specters’ present stories as opposed to their old histories and legendary origins. Kakashi does both, albeit lightly. The movie prefaces itself with a brief explanation of these scarecrows and how they came into being. The rest can be assumed once the festival is fully underway.
Pictured: Maho Nonami and Shunsuke Matsuoka respectively as Kaoru and Tsuyoshi in Kakashi (2001).
The Kakashi movie explains the uncanniness of Itō’s story while also taking everything farther. The implication in the manga was that the scarecrows didn’t just become ensouled and start to look like the dead; they gained their emotions, including anger and sadness. One man is impaled to death by his stepson’s scarecrow, and it’s believed this was an act of revenge after the stepfather murdered the boy. Another man then dies after his late fiancée’s scarecrow falls on top of him. This plot component from the manga is carried over in the movie, although not in the same manner.
Kakashi was too short of a story to adapt as a long feature, so for the movie’s writers to go off and do their own thing is understandable. Maybe even recommended. The outcome is indeed different but good in its own right. And like other Tsuruta horrors, the movie’s slow-burn quality adds to the unnerving atmosphere.
It would be easy to tell the uninitiated to stick to the manga if interested in exploring Junji Itō. Yes, the overall film side has a tendency to stray, dilute, or fail to live up to Itō’s illustrations. Nevertheless, there are spots of creativity in these movies that shouldn’t be overlooked either.
Be sure to watch the new Uzumaki anime on Adult Swim, starting on September 29.
Horrors Elsewhere is a recurring column that spotlights a variety of movies from all around the globe, particularly those not from the United States. Fears may not be universal, but one thing is for sure — a scream is understood, always and everywhere.
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