Soras place

Modern Japan simply put it a microcosm of change all jam packed into a minute parcel. Japanese modern culture is defined by word such as mini, micro and miniscule from tiny Maki rolls, to snippets of Manga artwork for series such as Bleach, Dragon Ball Z etc. posted online before video animation, through to their obsession with teeny-tiny technology. In J-world size is an obsession. This nation’s obsession with the micro is spreading on a macro scale! It is like a like one of those sweets that have a hard outer shell and a centre that is filled with acridly sour syrup which is a mind blowing overload of flavour! You will either love it or hate it!

Let’s take a film most of us have seen – The Ring, now I’m a massive fan of horror and have written a thesis on how to create it, hold suspense, utilise cinematic properties like Mise-en-scene and building an atmosphere using music. The Hollywood version of the ring was children’s bed-time story compared to the Japanese version. They have developed their own style of horror, macabre. Macabre is a whole different ball game to conventional Hollywood big budget horror. The point up until which the suspense is released can be described as Tantric it builds and builds until you are begging it to just scare you, and yet still they don’t! Not being able to understand Japanese all too well didn’t stop me watching, it was almost masochistic! They have taken the art of Macabre one step further and created video games such as F.E.A.R that envelope the gamer into a world of blood and gore whilst being worried they are going to quite literally soil themselves as they proceed around the next corner due to a dark and twisted vision or the shriek of a little girl clearly possessed.

The pursuit of being terrified is an uncanny fascination upon which many westerners will be addicted to– as is the rest of Japanese culture, to ignore its existence is simply sinful, so come on people indulge!

On a work note, I’ve almost finished the new text on the home heating oil page. It’s never going to be as amazing as the quick fix I delivered for the page, but I will run with it until I have more time. Given that I keep my job, everything will be okay for me and the gang!