JAPAN: Haunting Films From Japan

OCTOBER 27, 2010

By DAVID MERMELSTEIN

The Japanese have long had a knack for telling a good ghost story. And for more than half a century they've been equally adept at putting those stories on the screen. Yet Japanese movies featuring the supernatural are different from their Western counterparts. Japanese spirits tend to be more passive—their mere presence often driving guilty souls to ruin or redemption. Though such films can be enjoyed anytime, Halloween's approach makes them especially attractive as a welcome twist to an otherwise predictable holiday. Below are several films, available individually on DVD from the Criterion Collection, that show the Japanese flair for fright. Some are undisputed classics, while others represent milestones in the genre's development.

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SOUTH KOREA: Vegeflation and Imperiled Kimchi

There are several interesting articles addressing the skyrocketing prices for cabbage and radishes--key ingredients for the national dish, kimchi--that have resulted from a summer of bad weather.  The unprecedented development has implications for Korean culture and global trade.

• Cabbage Crisis Causes Kimchi Crunch (Joong Ang Daily)
• Dear Cabbage (The Economist)
• Import Tariffs to be Lifted on Napa Cabbage, Radish (The Chosun Ilbo)
• Kimchi Crisis Leaves South Koreans in a Pickle (NPR)
• Korea All-Out to Secure Cabbages Amid Kimchi Crisis (The Korea Times)
• Koreans Go Sour on Soaring Kimchi Prices (AFP)
• Koreans Scramble to Adjust to Soaring Kimchi Prices (The Korea Times)
• Napa Cabbages to be Imported from China Due to Rising Prices (The Chosun Ilbo)
• Pain in the Produce Aisle (JoongAng Daily)
• Solve Kimchi Crisis by Growing Your Own (The Korea Times)
• South Korea Cuts Chinese Vegetable Tariffs (Voice of America)
• South Korea's Kimchi Crisis (Christian Science Monitor)
• Surging Kimchi Prices Bite Korean Restaurants (The Wall Street Journal)