Hello r/japan! Recently, I watched a (https://youtu.be/X7jkdBoddUE), known for its exploration of horror, urban legends, and investigations on YouTube. The latest video essay is a mockumentary/documentary hybrid depicting a family’s descent into madness due to a curse. Essentially, it centers on a missing husband, believed to have been killed by his wife and buried in the family garden. The wife’s children are tormenting their stepfather, warning him to leave the family or face a similar fate. This is part of a three-part series, with Reignbot’s video focusing on the third installment.
I’m curious if there are similar mockumentary/documentary series in Japan that start off light-hearted but then take a sharp turn into horror, ghosts, curses, or true crime. I’ve encountered documentary series before, although they tended to lean towards mundane topics rather than the full-on horror twist I described, particularly when NHK was available on one of our cable channels.
The first two documentaries can be found in full on YouTube, but the first one seems to be lost. Perhaps someone knows more about it; it might be uploaded on NicoNico.
PS: I don’t speak Japanese
[2nd Documentary](https://youtu.be/1hXOg3UeqNs)
[3rd Documentary](https://youtu.be/TtZkPmURGX8)
by DumperRip
10 comments
Noroi
Uh, it’s basically a horror movie in the format of a mockumentary and not a real documentary. It shouldn’t be confused as such.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult_(film)
An old favorite
You might enjoy One Cut of the Dead, a zombie mockumentary.
There is this channel on YouTube called ‘Fake Documentary “Q”’. I love it. They don’t post regularly but when they do, the quality is really good. These aren’t movie-length long, however. [Link](https://youtube.com/@pro9ramQ?si=C1T0nYRj5i5u_Mzu)
Every time kids talked abt dead or missing father,the mother is in background with dead pan face. You have to zoom and look carefully though.
One of my favorites, though it’s more or less more horror related is the movie “Noroi”, or “The Curse”. It starts off so basic, as just a collection of interesting explorations into some weird ritual, and a bunch of vaguely connected clips from filming or popular tv. A game show where something weird happened, a filming of some youtubers filming themselves going to a graveyard, individually they’re very very vaguely spooky but wouldn’t raise much concern. As a whole though, they build on this incredible feeling of dread as the mystery is uncovered. Great great movie, scary because of dread not jumpscares or gore.
I’ve always wanted to make something of this akin and thought it wouldn’t be popular and here it already exists damn.
バット一発 (one swing of the bat!)
十三振だ (thirteen strikes!)
Oh boy he must like baseball! 13 strikes is weird…… though…
………バット 一発 とお さん しん だ…………
Goki’s room is the creepiest part.
I believe a recent two-part josei drama, 「初恋ハラスメント」 has a similar concept. Without going too much into detail, the drama utilises a “show in a show” format, with actors playing fictionalised versions of themselves. It caused a small storm on Twitter when it was first released, if I remember correctly!