The Kwaidan



While reading all of these stories my perceptions and expectations of horror were thrown off. As I was reading all of these I noticed that it was very different from the western cultures' view on horror. In western horror, the horror genre typically has a fight between good and evil. An example would be in Werewolf horror books or movies. The story centers around a person who either has a strange or dangerous meeting with an animal(wolf or rabid canine), and then starts to lose themselves to a horrid animalistic change. This results in the person having to gain control of their usual self(good) and the beastly urges(evil).

However, I noticed that in the stories there seems to be no battle between good and evil. Instead it is the influence of otherworldly beings, spirits. These spirits appear to be frightening, but by the end of the story it leaves you in a kind of "cliff hanger", which is left for us to contemplate and decide. This is a completely different approach from western horror and I find it more appealing to read. The sense of not knowing what will happen next makes me more interested.

Another thing I noticed that was different from western horror is that the influence of nature and folklore. Within each of the stories, nature was tied to each of the otherworldly phenomena. It was connected by local legends that were relevant to their own culture. I thought this was very engaging and also told you how influential and connected it is to Chinese/Japanese culture. I had previous knowledge of some of the customs of the Chinese and Japanese culture. One of them was the belief that peoples' souls could be reborn in nature or in another time. So when someone had died, it was believed that they would be reincarnated as a plant, animal, or human being.

All in all the stories were great reads. They made me think about how much different they are compared to western horror. It makes you think about how much that ones culture and beliefs play an important role. It kind of makes you as, "does the battle of good and evil really matter?."