Ju-On - The Grudge [2003]

Customer Reviews:

Classic Japanese Horror.......2008-03-09

This film really is vastly superior to it's Hollywood remake. Tense and atmospheric, with far better acting, and completely lacking in the hollow gloss of the American version. The fear of these Japanese actors is far more real than anything I saw in the American version, and what's more, the mood of the film is far more expertly crafted; subtle.

It concerns a family who have gone missing, and several social workers who are sent out to investigate their apparently abandoned home. What follows are a series of sinister and genuinely unsettling chapters all of which use a very visceral and striking directorial approach, which is characteristic of Japanese horror films. Lurking cats, oddly creepy children and the frequent use of striking visual imagery are all used to great effect.

That's what makes this film so enjoyable: a great sense of style, subtlety, supernatural suspense, and some genuinely creepy scenes. Which all goes to show that excessive gore and half-naked, blonde American actresses are superfluous to great horror films.

Truly Chilling Japanese Horror........2008-01-23

Thankfully I saw this before the (idiot-friendly) American remake with Buffy in it. This is a very dark film. It has all the atmosphere and full fat strangeness that was lacking in the remake. Basically the central theme is about a cursed house and the way it affects all the unfortunate people who come into contact with it. Note: it does not have a happy ending. The message seems to be that revenge is is circular and infinite. The film relies on psychological horror rather than tiresome shlock and this is what makes it so effective. This also means that the average hollywood teen slasher fest viewer will probably not find this of interest.

Slow-burning, intelligent horror that is genuinely creepy........2007-10-22

By now, most audiences will be fairly familiar with the Japanese series of films known as Ju On: The Grudge; the phenomenally successful saga that began with the straight to video projects Ju On: The Curse, parts 1 and 2 - in which jealousy and adultery in a quaint Japanese suburb leads to an awful murder that marks the house for anyone who subsequently enters it - right the way through to the larger-budgeted Hollywood remake of the film in question and it's equally glossy sequel. Subsequent films following on from The Curse have taken the initial murder as their starting point and created around it a film of loosely connected horror vignettes; mostly in which a series of hapless characters end up in the film's iconic haunted house and then find themselves marked for death by the two most prominent apparitions of the story.

If you have already seen the American re-make of The Grudge with Sarah Michelle Geller then there's a good chance that this Japanese original will come as something of shock. Unlike its US counterpart, this grudge features no real central character and has no real plot development (at least, not in the traditional sense). I personally don't see this as a bad thing, as it allows director Takashi Shimizu to concentrate on crafting a number of scenes of gripping high tension - as the collection of disparate innocents who unknowingly come into contact with the infamous house must come to turns with the unexplainable horror that is happening all around them - but obviously, viewers who look for things like narrative closure, explanations of plot developments and something approaching a hero that they can root for might be sorely disappointed.

As I mentioned above, this version of The Grudge instead strings together a series of inter-woven scenes that establish the significance of the curse whist setting up a number of fantastic, edge-of-your seat moments of haunted house horror. This isn't a gritty gore-fest with annoying, smug, ultra-cynical characters (as seems to be the trend with much contemporary horror - think Wolf Creek, Hostel, Cabin Fever, The Hills Have Eyes remake and 28 Weeks Later) but rather, the kind of horror that should appeal to anyone who has had to walk home late at night through an empty park and felt the presence of someone (or something) following closely behind. Your heart starts racing as you quicken your step and become convinced that you can hear footsteps rapidly approaching from the left of your shoulder! When you finally pick up the courage to turn around and look, you realise your mind has been playing tricks on you, but the thrill was still heart-stopping regardless.

I prefer this kind of horror, which is why I'm such a huge fan of the horror films coming out of Japan, China and North Korea; great works like The Eye trilogy, Wishing Stairs, Abnormal Beauty, Premonition, Infection, Chaos, A Tale of Two Sisters and Takashi Shimizu's own Grudge-follow up Reincarnation. It's slow moving and slow building, almost ambient even; often coming at you from the rear speakers rather than full and on in your face, which for me, really creates a great, eerie atmosphere that works perfectly if you're watching it at 1:30 AM and have to pause for a toilet break and to let the dog out to stretch her legs.

Unlike a lot of his American contemporaries, Takashi Shimizu realises that horror isn't about what you see, but what you don't see, and with this in mind he saves any prolonged glimpses of our ghostly antagonists until right towards the very end. He also manages to create a wonderful feeling of isolation, alienation and hopeless emptiness; not only from the haunted house so central to the story, but even in the brightly-lit suburban streets, schools, office blocks and apartment buildings that our characters inhabit. The film is also shot very simply and traditionally, with none of the hyper-cutting and frantic camera movements of western horror, which again, gives the Grudge a more believable and authentic feeling that only heightens the senses of horror and tension. This is also helped by the wonderful performances of the cast who manage to ably convey the right sense of fraught emotion without descending into screaming histrionics.

For me, The Grudge is great horror. I'm not even going to call it great Japanese horror because it goes even beyond that. This is horror for those who want chills rather than spills, and those who like to invest some serious time in something that is slower, more deliberate and more dramatic than the usual stalk and slash type stuff (not that I don't love that kind of horror as well, but it's nice to have an intelligent alternative). As mentioned previously, there will be some viewers who won't want to invest their time in such a film that has no obvious sense of narrative and no single identifiable character, but at the end of the day, that's their decision. But they're clearly missing out!

No-one makes horrors quite like the Japanese..........2007-09-12

...If being genuinely scared rigid to your seat is more your thing than tension-deprived gore-fests. 'Ju-On' is a brilliantly evocative and disturbing psychological chiller that relies on the sense that something truly awful is about to happen and wrings the chills out of every frame. This is most unequivocably a tribute to Takashi Shimizu, whose flawless direction exploits the theme with discipline and craft. I admit I haven't seen the American re-make but, from what I hear, the original is by far the superior version.

As another reviewer remarked accurately, 'Ju-On' has an effective episodic style, as the viewer has their senses disjointed by the various tales of horror that different victims experience in the house. Also impressive is the minimal use of production values, with Shimizu relying more on clever camera trickery to scare his audience. Most of the film is shot in one location and it would be easy to conceive this being made on a miniscule budget. This for me underlines Shimizu's talent, as this scared me far more than many other costly, mainstream productions.

The Japanese (and other filmmakers from the terrific Tartan Asia Extreme line) generally make better horrors than those in Hollywood. Why? Because they do not pull any punches and work on the imagination more than the visceral. No character seems to come away with a 'happy ending' and events are never completely resolved, leaving you with a distinctly unsettled feeling. A great example of a classic, intelligent horror movie and one that does the genre proud.

BETTER THAN THE AMERICAN REMAKE.......2007-08-07

Rika Nishina (Megumi Okina) works for a social services agency in Tokyo, although she's never seen any clients. When a new case comes in and they're short on staff, her boss has to send her out. Her first case is a doozy. When she enters the client's home, no one seems to be there, and the house is a mess. She hears scraping on a door--the old woman she is to care for is there, but in a semi-catatonic state. Soon after, she learns that there is much more wrong than bad housekeeping and a neglected old woman. There just may be threatening supernatural forces behind the scenes.

This film is really the third in the Japanese Ju-On series. I won't usually watch a series out of order I was very anxious to watch the American remake, The Grudge (2004), and actually watched it the day before watching this film.

The first 40-something minutes are closest to the American remake, but it was surprising that this film is much more linear. It's also more episodic. Neither of those facts are negative here, and both lend to a somewhat easier understanding of the broader mythology behind the Ju-On "monsters", which is presented much more clearly in this film. However, the episodic nature also means that the viewer has to pay attention to the various characters and their names, or there is a good chance that one will get lost--this story touches on many different people, in many different scenarios. Occasionally, there are characters brought into each other's episodes, sometimes as subtly as a name mentioned in a news report. These cross-references, which can also slightly break the linear timeline, are effective if one is alert.

There are things that writer/director Takashi Shimizu does better in this version, and things he does better in the American version. In this version, I loved the brutal opening sequence. Although it's somewhat present towards the end of the American version, it is much more effective here. I enjoyed the more traditional Japanese home--this film was shot on location in an actual house, whereas the American remake was shot on a house constructed on a soundstage. The Japanese house is more claustrophobic. On the other hand, the soundstage house was a bit grungier, which works nicely in the context of the remake. I liked this film's transition in the famous "stair crawling" scene (although I thought the flashbacks weren't necessary), and I also loved some of the more dissonant music here.

The biggest differences occur after the first forty minutes, when Shimizu expands the number of monsters. The film seems to threaten a Romero-like plague that I'd like to see explored more in other Ju-On films (if that hasn't been done already).

The bottom line though is that this is a nicely atmospheric horror film, with a creepy scene per minute. There were a couple very minor flaws--occasionally awkward performances or editing being the primary one, but overall this is highly recommended. It earned a 9 out of 10 from me.

Average customer rating:

A sequel too far.
Just a bit more of the same ....
In my opinion; this is easily as great - and perhaps even more terrifying - than the first instalment.
a pale imitation of a sequel
Weird Voices

The Grudge 2 (Ju-On) [2003]
Starring: Noriko Sakai , and Chiharu Niyama
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Manufacturer: Contender Entertainment Group
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All World Cinema | World Cinema | Categories | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0006L7O3O
Release Date: 2006-10-09

Customer Reviews:

A sequel too far........2008-01-23

I have to disagree with some of the previous reviewers. Having recently re-watched both Ju-Ons (the cinematic versions) I think this is a hugely inferior film. It doesn't have the atmosphere or chills of the first, although this must partly be due to the fact that we have already been exposed to the first film. I think that Ju-On was really a film to stand on its own and does not need a sequel. Right from the start of this I found myself getting bored and wanting to watch something else.
(BTW I know that Ju-On is a remake of an 80s TV movie, but having never seen it I can't really comment on that.)

Just a bit more of the same ...........2008-01-23

I really enjoyed the first Ju-On (Grudge) movie and found it genuinely scary. What a shame the same can't be said for this sequel.

If you've not seen the first instalment then you might find this scary in places - however if you have seen the first - you won't!

There is no story build-up as there is with the original and the imagery is exactly the same in both movies so there's nothing to surprise you.

A real disappointment.

In my opinion; this is easily as great - and perhaps even more terrifying - than the first instalment........2007-10-30

By now, most audiences will be fairly familiar with the Japanese series of films known as Ju On: The Grudge; the phenomenally successful saga that began with the straight to video projects Ju On: The Curse, parts 1 and 2 - in which jealousy and adultery in a quaint Japanese suburb leads to an awful murder that marks the house for anyone who subsequently enters it - right the way through to the larger-budgeted Hollywood remake of the film and it's equally glossy sequel. Subsequent films following on from The Curse have taken the initial murder as their starting point and created around it a film of loosely connected horror vignettes, mostly in which a series of hapless characters end up in the film's iconic haunted house and then find themselves marked for death by the two most prominent apparitions of the story.

If you have already seen the American re-make of The Grudge with Sarah Michelle Geller then there's a good chance that this follow up to the Japanese original will come as something of shock. Unlike its US counterpart, this grudge features no real central character and has no real plot development (at least, not in the traditional sense). I personally don't see this as a bad thing, as it allows director Takashi Shimizu to concentrate on crafting a number of scenes of gripping high tension - as the collection of disparate innocents (this time a TV crew shooting a horror film based upon the events of the original film) who unknowingly come into contact with the infamous house and then must come to terms with the unexplainable horror that is happening all around them. However, viewers who look for things like narrative closure, explanations of plot developments and something approaching a hero that they can root for might be sorely disappointed.

As I mentioned above, this version of The Grudge instead strings together a series of inter-woven scenes that establish the significance of the curse whist setting up a number of fantastic, edge-of-your seat moments of haunted house horror. This isn't a gritty gore-fest with annoying, smug, ultra-cynical characters (as seems to be the trend with much contemporary horror - think Wolf Creek, Hostel, Cabin Fever, The Hills Have Eyes remake and 28 Weeks Later) but rather, the kind of horror that should appeal to anyone who has had to walk home late at night through an empty park and felt the presence of someone (or something) following closely behind. Your heart starts racing as you quicken your step and become convinced that you can hear footsteps rapidly approaching from the left of your shoulder! When you finally pick up the courage to turn around and look, you realise your mind has been playing tricks on you, but the thrill was still heart-stopping regardless.

I prefer this kind of horror, which is why I'm such a huge fan of the horror films coming out of Japan, China and North Korea; great works like The Eye trilogy, Wishing Stairs, Abnormal Beauty, Premonition, Infection, Chaos, A Tale of Two Sisters and Takashi Shimizu's own Grudge-follow up Reincarnation. It's slow moving and slow building, almost ambient even; often coming at you from the rear speakers rather than full and on in your face, which for me, really creates a great, eerie atmosphere that works perfectly if you're watching it at 1:30 AM and have to pause for a toilet break and to let the dog out to stretch her legs.

Unlike a lot of his American contemporaries, Takashi Shimizu realises that horror isn't about what you see, but what you don't see, and with this in mind he saves any prolonged glimpses of our ghostly antagonists until right towards the very end. He also manages to create a wonderful feeling of isolation, alienation and hopeless emptiness; not only from the haunted house so central to the story, but even in the brightly-lit suburban streets, schools, office blocks and apartment buildings that our characters inhabit. The film is also shot very simply and traditionally, with none of the hyper-cutting and frantic camera movements of western horror, which again, gives the Grudge a more believable and authentic feeling that only heightens the senses of horror and tension. This is also helped by the wonderful performances of the cast who manage to ably convey the right sense of fraught emotion without descending into screaming histrionics.

For me, The Grudge 2 is easily as great the first instalment; although some viewers may find the more outrageous elements of the closing scenes to be a little too much (I'm guessing the planned third instalment will pick up on and explain some of these ideas, but we'll have to wait and see). This is horror for those who want chills rather than spills, and those who like to invest some serious time in something that is slower, more deliberate and more dramatic than the usual stalk and slash type stuff (not that I don't love that kind of horror as well, but it's nice to have an intelligent alternative). As mentioned previously, there will be some viewers who won't want to invest their time in such a film that has no obvious sense of narrative and no single identifiable character, but at the end of the day, that's their decision. But they're clearly missing out!

a pale imitation of a sequel.......2007-06-22

Sequels are a bit like the infamous "difficult 2nd Album", in that they are difficult to do well. Some almost succeed but are not quite up to the original, such as Die Hard and Die Harder (ludicrous title don't you think?), some are better on every level (I'm thinking Spiderman and Spiderman 2 here), and some succeed by being totally different films (Alien and Aliens for example). However, many are simply pale imitations of their predecessors, and it is into this trap that Grudge 2 stumbles and falls.
Essentially Grudge 2 gives us more of the same as we got in the first film, picking up the story of the haunted house and the curse that dwells there an indeterminable length of time after the events of the first film. A group of documentary makers discover the urban legend surrounding the house, and decide to make a program about it, including their special guest star, a movie actress known as "the Queen of horror" Kyoko (Noriko Sakai). Needless to say, once again the house begins to wreak its terrible effect on the film-makers, cast and crew, as restless and vengeful spirits Kayako (Takako Fuji) and Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) exact their terrible retribution. Thrown into this very similar plot (hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it) is a subplot concerning Kyoko's unborn child, which may or may not be hers following an encounter with little Toshio.
Whilst the film uses much the same techniques as the first film (a distinctly unnerving use of sound effects, a non linear narrative, a creeping sense of dread and very little explicit violence) it fails to form a coherent whole. The first film demanded your attention and rewarded you as a result, and this demands the same of the viewer, but unfortunately seems rushed and more than a little unfocused in a lot of places. I actually find it hard to believe that this film was written and directed by the same man as the first film, Takashi Shimizu, because although it shares a similar style with the first film, it is in no way the equal of it.

Weird Voices.......2007-03-20

Hi I watched this film by mistake I thought it was the American version. However, I was pleasently surprised it had a reasonably good storyline but to be honest I had to watch it twice to figure out what was going on.
I actually watched half of the film in Japanese before I realised I had forgotten to put the dubbed English on. I reccommend you not to put these on as you will hear some REALLY WEIRD DUBBING I am quite sure they could have got better voice overs.
Watch it itsworth renting

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