Death Bell (Gosa) (2008)

[GL]

A group of students at an elite school find that the series of mysterious disappearances are the result of a vengeful ghost intent on playing murderous games with the faculty as retribution for their behavior towards her and must race to solve the clues to stop the games from getting out of hand.

What did everyone think of this one?

[Jen]

Where did you catch this GL? I would like to see it, but it's not available at Netflix.

[GL]

Sundance Channel. It was one of the few times in the past couple months they've aired Horror on their Asia Extreme programming, the others being Bloody Reunion and a repeat of The Ghost of Mae Nak. The rest of the time it's been crime thrillers or violent gangster movies instead of horror, but I still keep an eye on it in case they do show these kinds of movies like these last three.

[HNT]

As you know, man, there are quite a few worthwhile Asian gangster and crime films too. Asia Extreme on Sundance is often pretty sweet viewing.

[GL]

Well, I don't really have fond memories of Asian gangster/crime films at all, since they were responsible for the second of my four self-imposed blackouts of Asian horror to start with, and I'm much, much more of a traditional Action fan over these cross-overs. They're fine, but I'm not really into that so much as I am the traditional Action films, which are eons better anyway.

[HNT]

Whaty are your 4 self-0imposed blackouts of Asian horror? And what made you decide to stop watching them. Personally, I was more thinking that Oldboy is a pretty interesting movie, and definitely qualifies as Asian gangster stuff. Some love Ichi the Killer (although I don't personally) and that is also an Asian gangster film

[GL]

Wow, that's odd. I think I revealed that it took five tries to officially be on-board with them full-time, and I could've sworn I revealed my full history with those five tries of getting into Asian horror here to the board, although I'm thinking that either I said I had tried several times and couldn't stay interested without revealing why or maybe it was officially revealed on the old forum and you forgot. Both are quite likely, but officially then, here's my full history with Asian horror:

The first time, from Summer 99-Winter 99, When Bride of Chucky officially turned me onto horror films for good, I started hunting down anything and everything that was listed on TV as one, yet all I saw at the time were these violent Yakuza/gangster films, so I stopped watching for them.

Then, from Fall 2001-early 2002, I tried getting into them again since there wasn't a whole lot of other horrors on TV at the time, but as I was in the middle of an extreme love affair with European stuff at the time, having just discovered Argento, Fulci, Lenzi, Deodato and Bava on DVD, the fact that at the time I saw four mediocre at best films, coupled with several that were really bad, caused me to jump onto the European ones and ignore the Asian films. This was due to their pacing that I know you all know about with me being exposed quite noticeably.

The third time, from Spring 04-Fall 05, it was the longest time I was into them previously before now as I managed to get friend recommendations this time rather than blindly going into them like before, and I had managed to stay interested in them for about a year or so, but when they stopped airing on TV again, I sort of forgot about them. I stopped watching them merely because they weren't being shown on TV rather than finding issues with the films as a whole, since there was good stuff I saw, but I had no access to them other than being shown on TV and there wasn’t any.

From Winter 06-Spring 07, again I caught up with them because they started airing on TV again, but this time, I left because I saw a series of films I wasn't that interested in. I saw Audition, Lady Vengeance and several more like them I can't get a name to which just seemed like torture films like the Saw series, which I was adamantly against at the time and still am, and coupled with that pacing issue cropping up one more time, again I stopped watching them.

Finally, from Early 08-present, I got into them merely because I figured it was time that, through thick or thin, I've got to get into them since I enjoy just about everything else so I was going into them liking them or never bothering with them ever again. That was the final straw, the time that, if they didn't appeal to me then, they probably never would, but as it turns out, the first ones I saw were really good and I've been into them officially and probably won't stop again. I've seen too many good ones in this bunch, including many of my favorites as well as catching up with previous favorites during the third venture into the genre, and I don't really see it stopping.

That's my history with Asian horror.

[HNT]

huh, interesting. Your reasons make sense. Personally, I think that some of those violent Yakuza/gangster films you are referring to are pretty cool

[GL]

Well, I have to find something interesting in the story being presented to stay invested in a film, and I find nothing excited or rewarding to me about the lifestyle of a gangster since I lived near them and it wasn't fun growing up with your neighbor's across the street using their house as a gangster hideout. It took me until I was about nine or ten to release cars could come in other colors than black and white with blaring sirens on top because all that seemed to come by where police cars taking away the gangbangers across from where I lived, and ever since I haven't found anything all that worthwhile about films which depict people who lived like that. Therefore, I don't enjoy those films even if they cross over into these kinds of films which I do enjoy.