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Title: J-Horror: The Definitive Guide to The Ring ( The Grudge and Beyond)
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Review of J-Horror: The Definitive Guide to The Ring ( The Grudge and Beyond)

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Comments for J-Horror: The Definitive Guide to The Ring ( The Grudge and Beyond)

• Posted on 2008-09-23
  The Book I've Been Looking For!
  
  Ever since I became interested in modern Asian horror films, I've been trying to find a book that would help me pick out what films to watch next. This is that book! Whereas other books touch on such films, this book focuses on them in detail, fully explaining all the different versions of The Ring and The Grudge, which films influenmced them and how they have influenced subsequent films. Fully covers all recent horror films fro Japan, Korea and Hong Kong; as a result of it, I have bought a number of fantastic films that I would not otherwise have heard of.
  
  It includes detailed chapters on: The Ring series; The Grudge series; the Tomie series; Kiroshi Kurosawa; Korean films; Hong Kong films; American remakes. Very readable. Written with enthusiasm and knowledge. Excellent!
  
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• Posted on 2008-07-20
  Has a lot of interesting information, but is spoiler riddled and too heavy on the author's opinion.
  
  This is a good read for someone interested in modern Asian horror, but is best suited to people who already have a healthy amount of experience with the genre. Kalat's book has a LOT of great information about these films, but unfortunately he doesn't seem to know who to target with his book: the neophyte will be put off by the sheer number of spoilers in the book, while the experienced viewer will get irritated by the number and breadth of the plot summaries.
  
  The spoilers are really my problem. If you read the book, you'll see that Kalat makes these half-hearted attempts to avoid spoiling these films for the reader, but at the same time gives away MAJOR twists in some of them.
  
  As someone who's seen a large number of the films he discusses, I've found a lot of useful and interesting information in here, but this really isn't for the neophyte.
  
  The book is also riddled with the author's opinions, many of which are easy to disagree with or, as is the case of his chapter for the "Tomie" films, based on such tenuous reasoning that it seems like he missed the point of the film(s) entirely.
  
  Still, for entrenched fans willing to sift through the opinions and plot summaries, there's some real meat here, and I'd conditionally recommend this.
  
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• Posted on 2007-08-10
  J-Horror is must-have for anyone watching Asian horror films
  
  A terrific book! I also have ASIA SHOCK, which is great, but I think this one is even better, and I hope the author will do an updated edition in another year (if not sooner!). The only thing I would add is an index; there's a lot of great information in here, and index would be a huge help. Otherwise, full marks for a wonderful book that I dip into time and time again!
  
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