What's worth watching at the moment?

Not a lot if the cinemas anything to go by. The only film I've thought a cut above the rest recently was The Machinist, but then Christian Bale seems to pick his films well (and should embody the Dark Knight very nicely). The film made me think of Kafka's short story the Hungerkunstler. Constantine was awful, but enjoyable trash - Keanu dialling in a performance again (quite how Rachel Weisz manages to come out of this sort of film - think "The Mummy" - untarnished, I have no idea), as was Ring 2, a shame as the first re-make was on the money for me - although I do think Ringu 2 was weaker than the first in the cycle anyway. Hostage was a giggle for a bit, but a damp squib later. Melinda and Melinda was amusing Woody Allen (and a return to form for Will Ferrell, why on earth was the execrable Anchorman being praised to the hilt?) but far from his best. Both Robots and Valiant showed that a lot of the creativity lacking in mainstream films is being channeled into animation at present. When is somebody going to release something decent to watch?

Hair and Japanese Films

I don't know if this is a recent thing or not - but watching some trailers for Asian films on Tartan DVD the other night, I noticed a lot of horror films where female black hair (usually wet) is being used to create an aura of terror. I'm obviously thinking of the Ring cycle in particular, but also of The Grudge and others as well...
I'm well aware of some of the symbolism of male hair representation (power and sexual potency) in literature (and you only have to think of werewolf films to think of some male hairiness examples - Ginger Snaps didn't cut it in my book, and was of course more about blood than hairiness) with Samson shorn and the Father in Balzac's Cousine Bette suffering a hyperinflation of hairiness and sexiness (as the rest of the family goes down the tubes). This seems somehow different.
I know blonde hair has a strong connotations (and I seem to remember reading a review in Le Figaro a few weeks ago about a Cambridge Professor's book about blondes - apparently female blonde hair is strongly associated with saintliness in parts of Africa, and certainly Virgin Mary representations play a strong role in this). Rapunzel lets down her hair (blonde in all the books I remember), Rumpelstitskin weaves the blonde hair into golden threads...but I don't remember much in the realm of black hair (which will obviously play a more central role in Asian symbolism) - even red hair I can think of more symbolc links (although these are generally evil, being connected with the Devil and vampires).
Anyway, I'd love to know if anyone knows much about the symbolism of long, straight, dark hair in Asian cinema (or literature and art), and why it appears to be linked to female ghosts, I'd love to know.