Junji Ito’s Manga Horrors Hit Harder as Live-Action TV
Junji Ito’s Manga Horrors Hit Harder as Live-Action TV
“It definitely makes you wonder truly who is the real monster in the situation.” Director Yûta Shimotsu is describing events in a new episode of live-action J-horror anthology show Strange: Junji Ito’s Tales for Sleepless Nights, but he could be referring to almost any episode.
“这确实让你怀疑，在这种情况下，谁才是真正的怪物。”导演下津优太在描述真人版日式恐怖选集剧集《怪异：伊藤润二的失眠夜故事》中的新剧集，但他所指的几乎可以是任何一集。
The award-winning manga artist of the title, whose macabre short works are adapted into disturbing 30-minute bites, has a way of blurring lines between protagonist and antagonist amid his surreal nightmares.
这位同名作品的获奖漫画家，将其阴森的短篇作品改编成令人不安的30分钟短片，他有一种在超现实噩梦中模糊主角与反派界限的独特手法。
Tales for Sleepless Nights aired its 12-episode first season on TV Tokyo this summer, and now HBO Max is bringing those eerie frights to US audiences. The first two installments “Lovesickness (Part 1 of 3)” and “The Bully” (previously animated for Netflix’s Junji Ito Maniac) are currently available, but New York Comic Con fans were treated to the US premiere of the episode “Face Thief” based on Ito’s story “The Face Burglar.”
《失眠夜故事》第一季共12集，已于今年夏天在东京电视台播出，现在HBO Max正将这些诡异的恐怖故事带给美国观众。前两集《恋之病（上）》和《霸凌》（此前曾被改编为Netflix的《伊藤润二狂选集》动画）目前已经上线，但纽约动漫展的粉丝们有幸提前观看了基于伊藤润二故事《脸盗》改编的剧集《脸盗》的美国首映。
“Face Thief,” which was previously turned into a Japanese TV movie in 2000, follows the new girl in school, Machida (Nanami Yamazaki), who encounters a weirdly clingy classmate named Kamei (Anna Hoshino). After she sees an identical-looking girl in class who claims she is not related to Kamei, Machida learns this changeling’s MO: “She befriends cute girls then steals their faces.” Indeed, Kamei’s face begins shifting during close conversations with Machida. This repulses the new girl at first, but when Kamei scares away some bullies by growing a third eyeball on her cheek, the two start to bond.
《脸盗》曾于2000年被改编为日本电视电影，讲述了转校生町田（山崎七海饰）在学校遇到了一个极其粘人的同学龟井（星野安娜饰）。在看到班里有一个长相一模一样、却声称与龟井毫无关系的女孩后，町田了解了这个“换脸者”的作案手法：“她与可爱的女孩交朋友，然后偷走她们的脸。”果然，在与町田近距离交谈时，龟井的脸开始发生变化。起初这让町田感到反感，但当龟井通过在脸颊上长出第三只眼睛吓跑了霸凌者后，两人开始建立起联系。
We will not spoil the outcome, but the filmmaker turns it into a biting critique of the conformity and peer pressure common in Japanese society. As he told the crowd after the premiere, “We have social pressure that we are supposed to not to be too different from others. Individuality is not very respected.”
我们不会剧透结局，但这位电影制作人将其转化为对日本社会中常见的从众心理和同辈压力的尖锐批判。正如他在首映后对观众所说：“我们面临着一种社会压力，即我们不应该与他人太不同。个性并不太受尊重。”
Despite Shimotsu’s desire to shape-shift the story by “changing the ending so my live-action version was different,” “Face Thief” still manages to capture the slow burn feel of the original comic published in the pages of Monthly Halloween in 1987, the same year Ito’s famous debut Tomie appeared. That shōjo (for girls) manga magazine’s offshoot Nemuki (“Strange Stories of Sleepless Nights”) inspired the new TV omnibus’s title.
尽管下津希望通过“改变结局，使我的真人版与众不同”来重塑故事，但《脸盗》依然成功捕捉到了1987年发表在《月刊万圣节》上的原版漫画那种缓慢推进的氛围，那一年也是伊藤润二成名作《富江》问世的年份。那本少女漫画杂志的衍生刊《Nemuki》（意为“失眠夜的怪谈”）正是这部新电视选集标题的灵感来源。
Junji Ito himself, now a bespectacled 63-year-old, appeared before NYCC in a video message where he described “Face Burglar” as an early tale he came up with after several unsuccessful stories submitted to his publishers: “Not a ghost, just a unique condition inspired by chameleon camouflage.” Ito added that the new adaptation for Tales for Sleepless Nights was “brought to life by a fresh team of upcoming actors and directors. Rather than jump scares, it builds a slow creeping dream perfect for horror.”
现年63岁、戴着眼镜的伊藤润二本人在纽约动漫展上通过视频致辞，他将《脸盗》描述为他在向出版商提交了几个不成功的作品后构思出的早期故事：“这不是鬼魂，只是受变色龙伪装启发的一种独特状态。”伊藤补充说，这部《失眠夜故事》的新改编版是“由一群充满活力的新晋演员和导演团队赋予了生命。它不是靠惊吓，而是构建了一种缓慢蔓延的梦境，非常适合恐怖题材。”
Another means through which Shimotsu (Best Wishes to All, Shudder’s New Group) finds the essence of Ito in all the episodes he helmed is through stillness in the performances and camerawork that evokes the comic book pages. He told a fan that he hopes to push fidelity to the material one step further in season 2 by shooting at least one episode in black-and-white, Ito’s preferred mode of illustration.
下津（曾执导《Best Wishes to All》及Shudder的《New Group》）在他执导的所有剧集中捕捉伊藤润二精髓的另一种方式，是通过表演和摄影的静谧感来唤起漫画书页面的质感。他告诉一位粉丝，他希望在第二季中更进一步，通过以黑白方式拍摄至少一集来提高对原著的忠实度，因为黑白是伊藤润二最偏爱的创作模式。
When asked by a con attendee which of Ito’s works he would most like to adapt next, the director earned applause by answering Uzumaki, the groundbreaking horror manga which has been brought to the screen several times, including a recent 4-part anime series for Adult Swim. The latter version had a famously rocky production, with quality diving after the first episode to the point that the fourth installment had no director credit. A new live-action version would be incredible—and incredibly strange—in Yûta Shimotsu’s hands.
当被与会者问及接下来最想改编伊藤润二的哪部作品时，这位导演回答《漩涡》，赢得了阵阵掌声。这部开创性的恐怖漫画曾多次被搬上银幕，包括最近Adult Swim推出的4集动画系列。后者的制作过程众所周知非常坎坷，质量在第一集后大幅下滑，以至于第四集甚至没有导演署名。如果由下津优太来执导，一个新的真人版将会非常精彩——而且会非常怪异。
“I would love to keep creating very bizarre, unique aesthetics like Mr. Ito’s work. That’s my goal,” said Shimotsu. “I’m developing a Hollywood project, so see you soon.”
“我希望能继续创作像伊藤先生作品那样非常怪诞、独特的美学风格。这就是我的目标，”下津说。“我正在开发一个好莱坞项目，所以很快再见。”