tic Bringing Out the Horror Of What He Knows Best

BringingOut the Horror
Of What He KnowsBest
ByRANDYKENNEDY
L'Observatoire International, top; KpF, above
.E.D.screen projecting soft-focus
I waterfront warehouses.
:tic$m
Koji Suzuki does not look like a
rock star. He is a short,slim man,47,
with slightly graying hair that flops
over his eyebrows. The other dav.
sipping hot tea in a French restaurant in the Flatiron district, he wore
a mock turtleneck shirt and a dark
seersuckerjacket and looked like a
diffident literature piofessor or a
lonely tourist trying to blend into the
crowd.
. But in Tokyo,where he lives with
his wife and two daughters, Mr.
Suzukioften generatesrock-star level adulation when he makes public
appearancesor even when he ven_
Jennifer S. Altmil for :fhe Newyoii
tures into the neighborhoodnear his
times
apartment overlooking Tokyo Bay. Koji Suzuki's horror novels have
"I was out recently doingpush-upsin pervaded Japanesepop culture.
the park," Mr. Suzukisaid,through a
translator, smiling, ..andI couldhear
these people talking, looking at me, anese popular culture, becoming a
boogeymanused to scare childien
saying,'It'sKoji Suzuki!',,
This is becauseover the last dec- and, for adults, a metaphor for ev_
ade Mr. Suzukihas written a series erything corrupt, cruel and frightenof horror novels and short stories ing aboutmodernsociety.
that have earnedhim the title - one . Beginningwith the 1998film adap_
that alternately annoys and flatters tation of "The Ring," by the director
him - of the StephenKing of Japan. Hideo Nakata - which became the
He has sold more than l0 million cop- highest-earninghorror film in Japaies of his booksin his native countrv. nese history - Mr. Suzukihas also
But much more so than Carrie or become a virtual one-man scarvCujoor Christine,Mr. Suzuki,smost movie plot machine. He is credited
frightening creation - Sadako,a de- as oneof the creatorsof a new.scari_
monic, hermaphroditic girl at the er, psychological horror genre
center of his 1989book ,,TheRing', known as J-horror, with less splatter
and its sequels- has pervadedJapContinued
onpageg
To those in the know there was
rmethingpoignantabout the pas de
lux that Ms. Volochkovaand EvgeI Ivanchenkodanced from ,.The
hantomBall," a lggbballet by Dmi
i Briantsev.Mr. Briantsev. the b7rar-olddirectorof Moscow'ssecond
ajor balletcompany,the Stanislav,y andNemirovich-Danchenko
Ball, hasnotbeenseensincehe left his
rtel in Prague in July. The Czech
lice are investigating his disaparance.
TheRussianNights Festival, a cel'te*"t
ration 0f Russianculture that endhF^J :l-"
\Cq,\""2-tt-.t
went strangelyunher,yesterday,
('Nl:*J*'b -1-h"&ri
led in NewYork but includedmore
m worthwhile poetry readings,
ncerts and presentationsof earlv
viet films.
Saturday'sgala was both a classi
t variety show and a thinly disisedshowcase
for Ms. Volochkova.
.o appearedsix times on the prolm. AII the other artists, except
;ompanists and the Kremlin
amber Orchestra, which opened
I closedthe evening, performed
le.
vls.Volochkova,
looking big-boned
: svelte,did battle with a floor
th .that was obviously more
lred to moving grand pianos in
I out than to dancing on toe. She
)pedthreetimes but never fell.
TALEoFTALE'
Heather
Buck,center,
in thetitte,itTJi1fi:1"Jil*.ffi
\mericanshave seenher to better sea of stories," which had its world premiere
yesterday at the New york
Continuedonpage
2
City Opera. Anthony Tommasini's ..rriew appears in the Metro
Report.
E' HQTDS
. BAIIETIN HAI/ANA
AT THI BOXOFHICE
. PAGE
2