Online course: “Kaidan. Tradition of terror in Japan”.

In 1998 no one could have anticipated the success that this modest film entitled The Ring would end up achieving worldwide fame. Its shocking images and revolutionary resources overwhelmed viewers to the point that Sadako, its spectral protagonist, now occupies a privileged place in geek culture and the history of horror films. But Hideo Nakata’s success was not entirely genuine, as it only consisted in rescuing for the Big Screen the exciting Japanese mythology and its fertile supernatural narrative.

The course will try to reason why the yōkai, oni or yūrei arose, reviewing, in turn, this invisible army creature by creature. Once the previous concepts have been assimilated, we will enter the universe of cinema and manganime, assuming these audiovisual formats as the penultimate link in a long chain of fictions that began more than a thousand years ago..

Program:

  • Session 1 – What is Kaidan?
    Japan, the land of ghosts. Rokujo Monogatari. One hundred horror stories by candlelight. The theater of the dead. Compilers of horror.
  • Session 2 – Types of supernatural beings
    Yúrei, the most complex ghost in the world. Kami, the gods of Japan. Oni, demons of subjective malignity? A flower of a thousand colors: the Yôkai.
  • Session 3 – Ghost Movies and J-Horror.
    Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1959). Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964). Kuroneko (Kaneto Shindo,1968). Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998). Expansion of the genre outside Japan. J-horror in the present day.

Professor:

Antonio Míguez Santa Cruz holds a PhD in Art History and Extraordinary Doctorate Award in Humanities 2016. A specialist in Japanese history and cinema, he has more than forty publications including articles and monographs, apart from being the author of books such as Rokujo Monogatari and editor of the magazine Windumanoth, In his teaching role, he has taught seven different subjects at the University of Cordoba since the now distant 2013. Author of the book Kaidan. Tradition of terror in Japan, published by Berenice publishing house.

  • 04/10/2021

  • 4th, 5th and 6th of October.
    Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, from 18.00 h to 20.00 h.
    3 sessions of 2 hours. Total of 6 hours.

  • Online. 24h prior to the event, enrolled people will receive the required information to access.

  • Price: 39 euros.

  • Casa Asia, in collaboration with Berenice Publishing House.