Infections, Transmissions, Cultures: Infections, Transmissions, Cultures: The AIDS Scandals of 1990s Japan and the The AIDS Scandals of 1990s Japan and the

Genesis of “J-Horror”Genesis of “J-Horror”

Brian BergstromBrian Bergstrom

Summer Institute 2006Summer Institute 2006

Infections Then & Now: Infectious Diseases ArounInfections Then & Now: Infectious Diseases Around the Worldd the World

June 29, 2006June 29, 2006

Infection （感染）

2004

Ochiai Masayuki

-- First in “J-Horror” Imprint

-- Made in Conjunction with Lion‘s Gate

-- Released in Japan

-- Produced with an Eye Toward Marketability in Am

erica

Infection （感染 ) 2004

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Infection （感染 ) 2004

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A Genealogy of “J-Horror”• Parasite Eve （パラサイト・イブ） Ochiai Masayuki, 1997• Ring （リング） Nakata Hideo, 1998 • Rasen （らせん） Iida Joji, 1998• Ju-on / The Grudge （呪怨） Suzuki Takashi, 2000• Pulse （回路） Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2001• Dark Water （仄暗い水の底から） Nakata Hideo, 2002• One Missed Call （着信アリ） Miike Takashi, 2003• Infection （感染） Ochiai Masayuki, 2004• Premonition （予言） Tsuruta Norio, 2004

(movies listed in yellow have been remade in America)

The HIV-Tainted Blood Product Scandals of the mid-1990s

• Part of a larger phenomenon of uncovered government corruption touched off by changes in party leadership

• Revolved around the distribution of unheated blood plasma to hemophiliacs during the early to mid 1980s that resulted in the infection of almost half of the hemophiliac population in Japan

• Starting in 1995, lawsuits brought against the government and pharmaceutical companies by hemophiliacs became prominent in the public sphere

• In 1996, monetary compensation and formal apologies were compelled from the defendants, and in 1997, three defendants linked to both the government and the pharmaceutical companies involved pled guilty to professional negligence and were sentenced to jail terms in 2000

Distinctive Features of HIV/AIDS in the Japanese Public Sphere

• The Role of Foreigners

• “High Risk” Groups

• Identity Politics:

• Hemophiliacs with HIV

• Hansen‘s Disease Sufferers

• Gay Movement

Reading Disease

• Metaphor

• Susan Sontag, AIDS and Its Metaphors

• The Politics of Reading “Against Interpretation”

• Anagram

• Ferdinand de Saussure

• “The anagram permits us to see how another outside text, a hidden quote, can both organize and modify the order of elements in a given text” -- Mikhail Iampolski, The Memory of Tiresias: Intertextuality and Film

Anagramming Fear: The Patterns of J-Horror• Infection

• The Body as Locus of Fear

• Haunting as Invasion

• Transmission

• Technologies and Networks

• Trauma as Origin

• Culture

• Innocence and Culpability

• Agency

• The End of the World

Parasite Eve （パラサイト・イブ）

1997

Ochiai Masayuki

-- Mitochondria as Foreign Agent

-- Corruption of Science

-- Violation of Agency

Parasite Eve （パラサイト・イブ ） 1994

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One Missed Call （着信アリ）

2003

Miike Takashi

-- Technological Transmission

-- Sociality and Vulnerability

-- Violation of Agency

-- Violation of Bodily Integrity

One Missed Call （着信アリ） 2003

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Ring （リング）

1998

Nakata Hideo

-- Technological Transmission

-- Haunting as Viral Infection

-- The End of the World

The Ring / Ringu （リング） 1998

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Conclusions

• Metaphor and Meaning

• Ethics and Fear I: Reflection

• The Face of HIV

• Transnational Transmissions

• Remake / Reproduction

• International Systems / Foreign Agents

• Apocalypse and Pleasure

• The Viral Sublime

• The Extra/ordinary

• Ethics and Fear II: Projection

Apocalypse and Pleasure:

The End of One Missed Call （着信アリ）

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Selected BibliographyFeldman, Eric A. “Blood Justice: Courts, Conflict, and Compens

ation in Japan, France and the United States.” Law & Society Review (34: 3, 2000) 651-701.

Iampolski, Mikhail. The Memory of Tiresias: Intertextuality and Film. Harsha Ram, trans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Japan Times. “Abe Pleads Not Guilty” Mar. 17, 1997.Japan Times. “AIDS Expert Took Funds from Drug Companies.”

Mar. 11, 1996Japan Times. “Green Cross Executives Guilty.” Mar. 1, 2000.Japan Times. “Health Minister Apologizes to HIV Hemophiliacs.”

Oct. 23, 1995.Rucka, Nicholas. “The Death of J-Horror?” Dec 2, 2005. http://

www.midnighteye.com/features/death-of-j-horror.shtml.Sena, Hideaki. Parasite Eve. Tyrone Grillo, trans. New York: V

ertical, 2005Sontag, Susan. Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphor

s. New York: Picador, 2001Suzuki, Koji. Ring. Glynne Walley, trans. New York: Vertical, 2

003.