Week Three: Asian Horror

I thoroughly enjoyed the Kwaidan tales. Specifically, I enjoyed the fact that the supernatural aspects of the legends seemed to have their own rules for how they operated, and that those rules weren’t as simple as right and wrong. They were more about respect, and honor, and felt more natural that some western tales with a culturally specific moralistic code. The stories represented the spirit world in a way that made it feel like it was existing alongside our world naturally, and that this existence or relationship had a certain code, or had to be treated with respect, in the same way that Rainforest tribes have a healthy respect for the Amazon river. I like the fact that this respect or relationship comes from both beauty and fear, and that the spirit world in these tales doesn’t exist benevolently, it makes them feel more genuine. I also liked that they didn’t shy away from showing death.  This also made the stories feel more realistic.