A VIDEO MINT VÍZ
VIDEO AS WATER

Chaos, fertility and technology in Hideo Nakata's Ringu (1998)

Author(s): Kálmán Matolcsy
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: video technology; Japanese mythology
Summary/Abstract: The essay tracks down the cultural background of the seminal Jhorror, Ringu, from the Japanese Kaidan to the obscene dreams of 1980s video technology. The author argues that the quality of water in the film is primarily that of the chaos monster's propensity to fertility, which in turn is conveyed to the virus-like replication capacity in video (resulting in the qualities of instantaneity, architectonics and plasticity). The clash of cultural claustrophobia and the awful and aweful technology in biogenetic video provides a memetic transcription of Japanese mythology.

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