Review: At first sight, you are probably wondering what exactly this book can bring to an Asian movie fan, as the topic of Asian cinema doesn’t seem to be the author’s main feature. Focusing on the horror genre, FWF gives you an idea about how other countries have exploited the horror movie genre since the beginning of cinema. It appears that many of the countries that the book explores are Asian, which is why this book will find its place next to the best books about Asian cinema.

Hong Kong, Thailand, South-Korea, Indonesia, India, the Philippines and of course Japan are among the countries that FWF explores. Since the book is a compilation of articles written by different writers, not all of the sections have the same layout. Some sections explain the cinematic history of the country; others focus on a specific actor who made an impact on horror cinema while some more contain interviews with a director who influenced the horror genre in their respective country.

The Hong Kong section does a nice perspective on the work of the now famous CatIII actor Anthony Wong. They give you details on his career from the beginning, focusing on the Cat III movies while giving a good analysis of his most important works such as The Untold Story, Ebola Syndrome and a few others. The next interesting chapter is the interview with the Nonzee Nimibutr, director of the Thailand ghost story movie Nang Nak.

One of my favourite parts of the book is the chapter about Korean horror films. Not only does this chapter give you a great analysis of the most important movies of the genre such as the Whispering Corridors series, Tell Me Something and many others, but it also gives you a great explanation about the history of Korean Cinema, which is very interesting and helps you understand why Korean Film has such an interesting appeal now to the International market.

There’s also a chapter on Indonesian cinema and their famous monsters such as the snake queen and the Penanggalan (a hideous creature with a detached head with spine and organs intact). Bollywood also has their own chapter with a great historical background of Indian Cinema, which gives you a great explanation why conventional American Cinema is not working very well in India yet Bollywood movies are making big money. The chapter also focuses on the horror cinema speaking about the Ramsay family and their involvement in the horror genre.

The last section focuses on Japanese cinema. The first chapter focuses on Takashi Miike works, from Fudoh: The New Generation to Ichi the Killer. The writer gives a good analysis of the movies made between those times. The chapter concludes with a small interview with the director. The next chapter is about 2 movie series: Ring and Eko Eko Azarak. In this section, only Ring and Ring two are analyzed; however, the writer introduces the chapter with a great historical background of Japanese ghost movies. As for the Eko Eko Azarak section, we are granted with a great description of the three movies and a bit about the TV series, explaining the similarity between these series and the Ring series. The final chapter concludes the book talking about Sion Sono’s Suicide Club, with a small analysis of the movie (spoiler free) and finishes with a very interesting interview with the director explaining his vision of the many hidden meanings in the movie.

As you can see, there’s plenty of material to pick up the interest of any Asian Cinema Fan, and what I mentioned in this review is only half of the book! You also have chapters about Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paul Naschy, Coffin Joe, Italian Cinema and much more. The only complaint I could say is that with many of the movies depicted in the book, the information about them contains a lot of spoilers. However, this book is not for casual fans or an introduction book about the genre, but really a book made for those who already know the horror genre very well but want to learn more about what is going on around the world on this matter. This is indeed an excellent book for any Asian and Horror cinema fan out there.

Score : 5 / 5

Book Info
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~sschneid/WHC.htm