Tag: Japanese Horror

Celebrate 30 Years of Kabuki with this Hardcover Collection!

If you love Japanese ghost stories coupled with crime and classic lore all in one, then picking up Kabuki: 30th Anniversary Edition is a must!

Kabuki 30th Anniversary Edition Book CoverDark Horse Comics

Emmy & Eisner Award-nominated comics artist and writer David Mack (Daredevil, Echo, Cover, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods) celebrates the 30th Anniversary of his original series, Kabuki, the story of a government agent operating in Japan in the near future. To honor the occasion, Dark Horse Books has compiled the complete story into one must-have volume: The Complete Kabuki: 30th Anniversary Edition. The entire comic run is presented in 1,280 pages in an oversized hardcover (9″ x 12″) volume with a new, gorgeous painted cover by Mack.

“Kabuki is the foundation of my work in comics,” said Mack. “Both as a writer & as an artist. Kabuki is what got me the offer to write Daredevil at Marvel, & to create Echo. All of my work in comics began from this story & this art.  It was my Senior Thesis in Literature”

About Kabuki:

Japan: A woman, code-named “Kabuki,” works for a government agency known as “the Noh”.  When the agency she works for is compromised, Kabuki’s quest sends her down a difficult path, which brings her into direct conflict with the powers she formerly served. Delving into the Ainu (the indigenous people of Japan), Japanese Mythology, a crime story, an espionage story,  hauntingly told through the lens of the Japanese Ghost story.

Get the entire collection in one impressive volume when The Complete Kabuki: 30th Anniversary Edition arrives in bookstores on December 10, 2024, and comic shops on December 11, 2024. Pre-order now from your local bookstore, comic book shop, Amazon, or favourite outlet for $149.99.

You Can’t Break The Haunted Swordsman at LAAPFF 2020

McTurk’s masterpiece brings a touch of the European Gothic to tapestry where many a Japanese folktale lie–from a watercolours to washes of grey, they convey a sense of despair going on in the soul of the titular hero.

The Haunted Swordsman (2019) - IMDbBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Available to viewers in Southern California (excluding San Diego County) from October 1, 2020 at 12pm PT to October 31, 2020 at 11:59pm PT. Click here to watch the film on Eventive.

If Studio Laika ever feels they’re stuck on what to make next, they should talk to Kevin McTurk and give him the chance to realize The Haunted Swordsman as a full length film. His work may not be mainstream, but the Japanese folklore about the spirit world he’s borrowing from certainly is! His Kickstarter page reveals how the spooky narrative would develop, and his use of Bunraku Puppet Theater must be seen to be believed. It’s nearly photo-realistic, and the puppeteers are hidden from view to move scale figures in alluring detail. The spook factor is something even The Addams Family would approve of.

Laika made a name for themselves with their equally haunting works, Coraline and Kubo & the Two Strings. Their ability to generate box office hits is very hit or miss. Certain groups will love puppet theatre, but for the masses, CGI has sadly tainted the spectrum. McTurk’s previous short won him accolades. The Mill at Calder’s End earned 14 awards and Guillermo del Toro purchased Grimshaw for his traveling museum exhibition At Home With Monsters.

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[Victoria Film Festival 2017] Dealing with Karma in The Suffering of Ninko

the-suffering-of-ninko-film-posterBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The trailer for the movie, Suffering of Ninko, is deceptively wonderful. We are presented with what appears to be a comedy about Ninko (Masato Tsujioka), a novice Buddhist monk, whom many a woman wants to cuddle up with. There’s even two male members of his order who show interest, and to see how he struggles to stay celibate is at the heart of this rated R film. Reciting his mantras is easy, but when he is presented with physical challenges, averting his eyes is not. However, there’s more he must face to test his virtue.

The people from Edo-period Japan tends to have a deeper spiritual connection with the world. Whether that’s in the art they produce or their every day life, the supernatural is generally believed to exist everywhere. When rendered to a form either on paper or with a word, there’s a life given to the work. With literature, it gives the narrative a higher meaning. In the full 70minute film, just what this tale means is worth exploring. Is it folklore, a Brothers Grimm type tale or symphonic prose?

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