i love japanese horror films, and some of my favorites are Oldboy and Lady vengence. does anyone know if these originated from books. any others that can be suggested?

I’m gonna get all nerdy on you and say, the two movies you mentioned are Korean not Japanese :P If you like them though check out the first part Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

Lady vengeance was an original story and Oldboy was based on a Japanese Manga as far as I know.

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s Japan really took the horror movie world by storm, the most obvious ones being Ringu (The Ring), Ju-on (The Grudge), Verses, Audition (based on a book by Ryu Murakami) and Battle Royale (book by Koushun Takami)

Korean film makers jumped in at some point and made some great scary movies. If you haven’t seen them I’d recommend the following;

The Host
Memories of Murder
Three…Extremes
R-Point
Into the Mirror
A tale of Two Sisters

I had no idea Auditon was based on a Murakami novel. I recently read his In the Miso Soup and really liked it.

Koji Suzuki's Ring novels are great (well, I've read the first two so far.)

I loved In the Miso Soup. I read it earlier this year and it's really stuck with me. I've also read Piercing which isn't as good but it's really funny at time. I have a copy of Audition to read but god knows when I'll get to it. Just started reading Almost Transparent Blue which is ok so far.

I need to get some more of his books. I think I have a few on my Amazon wishlist.

Philhappy wrote: "I’m gonna get all nerdy on you and say, the two movies you mentioned are Korean not Japanese :P If you like them though check out the first part Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.

for some reason i couldn't get into smpathy for mr vengeance, i'll have to try again. now lets hope my public library carries some of these authors. happy to hear audition is a read, that movie was great. thanks!

I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg, but "Uzumaki" is both a movie and a series of graphic novels. I own the three novels as well as the movie. It's my favorite Asian horror film. Pretty bizarre, too.

"Kwaidan" is also based on a novel. That's an excellent movie.

Uzumaki was a manga initially.

Elizabeth wrote: "I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg, but "Uzumaki" is both a movie and a series of graphic novels. I own the three novels as well as the movie. It's my favorite Asian horror film...."
i apparently saw "kwaidan" because i gave it 5 stars, but it must have been along time ago. i just retrieved "in the miso soup" from the library, can't wait.

Kwaidan was pretty good. I especially liked the story about the snow woman; that one had beautiful visuals.

The snow woman was my favorite in "Kwaidan", Scott.