Hollywood Looks East for Terror

July 8, 2005 — -- Remember when "Japanese import" meant an economical sedan? Nowadays, Japan is shipping us big scares, at least at the theater, where now even our slasher films are imported from the Far East.

"Dark Water," opening today, is the next in an explosion of Asian horror films that Hollywood is lining up to clone. It's based on a 2002 Japanese film and follows in the footsteps of "The Ring," another Japanese import remade for America. When that film became a surprise hit, grossing $130 million, studio executives hopped on planes and began exploring Japan and the Pacific Rim for axe-wielding thrills.

In "Dark Water," Jennifer Connelly stars as a recently divorced mother who takes refuge in a rundown apartment with her daughter, only to be terrorized by the ghost of a former resident. The Oscar-winning actress says the new film is much more than a paint-by-numbers remake.

"There's character development," she says. "You learn more about my character's history with her mother, and I think that works well because it anchors the film, so that when it starts floating past the limits of rationality and into the supernatural, you can go with it."

Hollywood's motives are very clear. With the cost of production skyrocketing, Hollywood has, for years, been turning to recycling old movies and vintage TV shows. But Nicole Kidman in "Bewitched" this summer was just as disappointing as Nicole Kidman in "The Stepford Wives" last summer. Remaking familiar hits from American TV and cinema is no longer money in the bank.

In Asia, especially Japan and South Korea, Hollywood is finding a wealth of material that has already been test-marketed, and it doesn't hurt that Asian-Americans are loyal moviegoers.

In August, Tom Cruise's production company hits theaters with "The Eye," an adaptation of the Hong Kong thriller "Jian Gui." In it, a girl gets a cornea transplant and starts seeing ghosts who have a score to settle with her organ donor.

It might seem that filmmakers would not have to travel so far for such campy plots. Still, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who split with Miramax last year, have made the remake of the Japanese gore-fest "Kairo" one of their first orders of new business. The film, due out next year, revolves around an Internet Web cam that lets people interact with the dead.