Bloggasm

JaPundit is a Tokyo-based American-born Japanese-English translator who has lived in Japan for 36 years. He started Japundit on January 10, 2005, and was soon joined by Ampotan, another American who is a Japanese-English translator living in Kyushu.

Japundit soon will be adding a Japundit Podcast, which is scheduled to start on January 7, 2006.

Simon Owens: Over the last few years, Japanese horror films have become more popular in America. Why do you think this is? Do you think Americans are becoming bored with the traditional horror plot and are looking elsewhere for their movies?

JaPundit: I really don’t know that much about Japanese horror films myself, so let me turn this question over to Japundit contributor David Weber.

David Weber: Being a bit of a fan of scary movies and ghost stories (however not a scary movie buff per-say) I would say part of the attraction to Japanese horror movies or the dis-attraction from Hollywood horror has to do with these elements:

1. Suspense – good build up rather than cheap jump scares
2. Overall eerie atmosphere – sometimes something doesn’t have to happen in order for a movie or story to be scary
3. Less use of special effects for the scare – true fear comes from the imagination not some bloody CGI ghost/monster. A horrible ghost/monster should only be seen for a very, very short time either with proper build-up or completely out of the blue – or even just drifting quickly past in the background.

If you compare the original “The Haunting” with the remake you can see where special effects ruin any good scary moments. The original had a lot of creepy atmosphere and great camera shots that played with angles and shadows making the house in the film seem to brood. The original was too unreal looking and too over-the-top gothic and so it looked ridiculous. In the original, you wondered if the statues actually moved when the camera would show them from a different angle. In the remake the statues jumped around in a most unscary manner.

The original “Blair Witch Project” was well received because it worked on our imaginations and our fear of the unknown. However the sequel flew in the face of this and came us more Hollywood tripe.

Japanese horror works because it has that creepiness like those good spooky ghost stories we used to hear around the campfire when we were kids.

BTW a really good American ghost movie is “The Changling” with George C. Scott.

Simon Owens: Since Japan is at the forefront of modern technology, do you think that the Japanese are ahead in utilizing the internet as well?

JaPundit: First of all, I think that there would be plenty of people who would question the notion that Japan is at the forefront of modern technology. Of course, there are certain fields where Japan does seem to have a big lead, but then there are other areas where it lags far behind other countries.

Japan’s utilization of the internet is one of the areas where it tends to lag behind. The notion of the internet as a free and open resource that allows a free and open exchange of information was actually resisted quite strongly by the Japanese government at first. Various government ministries were at odds over who would control the new technology, and even developed their own, non-compatible networks that they hoped would become the Japanese standard.

Just recently, we ran a story on JAPUNDIT about a plan by the government to get in to the search engine business along with a number of giant corporations and major universities. This is pretty much the way things are done over here.

Simon Owens: Is the Japundit staff all Japanese bloggers? What made you guys come together to do this project?

JaPundit: The Japundit staff is quite a mixed bunch. Four of our regular contributors (me, Ampotan, David Weber, and Sylvain Bouchard) live in Japan, one (Danny Bloom) lives in Taiwan, one (Marie Mockett) lives in New York, one (KokuRyu) lives in Vancouver, and one (Tubbypaws) lives in the U.K.

Japundit was established by me, at first just to give me a place to talk about life in Japan. I had a (political) blog before starting Japundit, which I set up and designed on my own. Trouble was, hardly anyone ever read it. For Japundit, I decided to get a professional (Elegant Webscapes) to design it and make something that at least looked good.

Japundit launched on January 10, 2005, and I was soon joined by Bill Sakovich, another old Japan hand and good friend who writes under the name of Ampotan. It was the two of us who did all of the initial writing on the site during its early growth phase that really put us on the map.

As the readership grew, we advertised for more contributors, and ended up with our current group of writers.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

JaPundit: I noticed that you asked this of all the others that you interviewed, but I would like to take a pass on this question. We have so many contributors and readers working hard to produce their own blogs, I would hate to suggest that people should be reading one rather than another.