Japanese Horror Movie Hair

Having seen The Ring, The Grudge and Pulse in both their Japanese and American incarnations, I've noticed that the Japanese practitioners of filmic fright tend to make liberal use of flowing black hair to ratchet up the scary. In the shower, in darkened hallways, in bed — everywhere the cast of a given Japanese horror movie goes, they see black hair snaking around, foretelling their own imminent demise. A new film — known variously as Ekusute, Exte or Extensions — has fun with this motif. It centers on haunted hair that terrorizes the Japanese salon-going public. The heroine: Yuko, a hairdresser, played by Chiaki Kuriyama of Battle Royale and Kill Bill fame. I really wanted this film to be a comedy, but there's apparently playing it straight. Too bad. At the very least, I'm happy to see somebody else has noticed that this is a trend.