Dawn of the Dead – Japanese explanation?

[Rhythmdvl]

From the IMDB Alternate Versions page for Dawn of the Dead:

What sets the Japanese Theatrical Version apart from all the other versions is the inclusion in the beginning of an explanation. Herald Films, the Japanese distributor of DOTD, felt that the Japanese audience would not be able to accept the ambiguous setting of zombies on Earth that Romero had so skillfully left unanswered. Instead, they felt the Japanese audience must have an answer or else they wouldn’t be able to get the story. They accomplished this by sticking some white words on to a black background that typed across the screen while a heavy clicking came from the soundtrack.

Does anyone know what the distributor’s explanation was? Seeing as this is the Café, anyone want to post their own theories? Thanks~
Rhythmdvl

[Sajon]

I find this incredibly ironic. In my experience the Japanese seem to have a great acceptance for metaphysical phenomena. There are plenty of Japanese movies as well as anime that offer very little or no explanation for the supernatural. I wonder why Dawn of the Dead would be an exception.

My only guess would be that a lot of the metaphysics that appear unexplained to me are understood as plausable to the Japanese for cultural reasons I am not atuned to. Maybe Romero’s supernatural phenomena is an example of the reverse.
-Matt

[Darwin_s_Finch]

In Night of the Living Dead, it was speculated that the cause of the dead returning to life was excessive radiation from a Venus probe…or something. Could it be that this was essentially the explanation at the beginning of the Japanese Dawn?

From what I understand, the Japanese don’t have the same concept of “movie monsters” that westerners do. Our staples of horror fare - zombies, werewolves, vampires, etc. - differ from the Japanese ghouls, witches, demons and possessed folks. The concept of “zombie as human come back from the dead” may simply not exist (pure speculation on my part, of course) over there, so the whole idea behind Dawn of the Dead may have been somewhat foreign (especially if NotLD was never released previously. Such would not be without precedence: I believe Dawn was released in Italy simply as Zombi, which in turn spawned a bunch of pseudo-sequels by various directors). So, simply introducing western-concept zombies, without really explaining what they are may have been a bit much for Japanese audiences.

[Silentgoldfish]

*Originally posted by Darwin’s Finch *
**In Night of the Living Dead, it was speculated that the cause of the dead returning to life was excessive radiation from a Venus probe…or something. Could it be that this was essentially the explanation at the beginning of the Japanese Dawn?

From what I understand, the Japanese don’t have the same concept of “movie monsters” that westerners do. Our staples of horror fare - zombies, werewolves, vampires, etc. - differ from the Japanese ghouls, witches, demons and possessed folks. The concept of “zombie as human come back from the dead” may simply not exist (pure speculation on my part, of course) over there, so the whole idea behind Dawn of the Dead may have been somewhat foreign (especially if NotLD was never released previously. Such would not be without precedence: I believe Dawn was released in Italy simply as Zombi, which in turn spawned a bunch of pseudo-sequels by various directors). So, simply introducing western-concept zombies, without really explaining what they are may have been a bit much for Japanese audiences. **

And Godzilla. Mustn’t forget Godzilla.