Ju-On: The Grudge

Japanese schoolgirls aplenty in the film that inspires the forthcoming Sam Raimi remake.

It seems that Asian horror movies are all the rave these days, they have been credited with reinvigorating a genre that was becoming somewhat dated and now countless Hollywood remakes have been lined up. Ju-on: The Grudge is one such movie; it is a film that has garnered a lot of attention and has now received a limited release for western audiences.

In fact the film has proved to be so popular that the Tinseltown remake is already in post production and has Sarah Michelle Gellar cast in the lead role. Before your tongues start wagging in anticipation however I feel I must point out that some of these movies have been grossly overrated as they tend to concentrate on scaring the viewer but the storyline is quite often overlooked. Ju-on: The Grudge is a perfect example of this, the plot is completely convoluted and its makers seem happy enough to feed off the success of rival movies in order to make a few bucks. Whilst this is a well made film, it merely incorporates storyline features and film-making techniques from other Asian horror movies such as the Eye and the Ring but fails to add very little of its own.

Ju-on opens quite well and the viewer is gradually enticed by some mysterious scenes which allude to the mysterious curse that the movie concerns. The majority of the film takes place in a house where a vengeful spirit resides, all those that enter fall under its wicked spell and are doomed. Does this sound kind of familiar? Well all those who have seen The Ring will start to notice the similarities from this point on, but that isn't the end of it as this movie also just happens to feature a rather scary looking woman just like the character in the Ring and even has ghosts that are identical to those in The Eye. What ensues is a great collection of some rather disturbing scenes but as they are pieced together the film begins to disintegrate due to the fact that as a whole it makes little sense. A common criticism of similar horror flicks is that the endings are often quite perplexing and the viewer is left scratching his head as to what actually happened, The Grudge however seems happy to skip through time with little regard to what is happening except to keep up with the order of the characters' appearance. One by one, each of them are knocked off and as the time ticked by I was left pondering in my seat as to when the film would finally end.

In terms of frights Ju-on: The Grudge delivers, it has you on the edge of your seat and digging your fingernails into the armrests! There are some wonderful scenes where the director subtlety sets up tense moments by showing a glimpse of the impending horror and slowly building to a dramatic conclusion. First time viewers of Asian horror will be really impressed, unfortunately those of us who have seen a couple of films will find it all too familiar. In comparison with a lot of Hollywood's recent scary movies though The Grudge still manages to stand out, while it might not be entirely original the film still shows up the West's rather timid attempts at horror. While most US offerings go over the top with blood and guts, Ju-on uses tension and suspense to tremendous effect. The fact that you cannot see the impending disaster but can sense that something bad is going to happen leaves your heart thumping at a hundred miles a minute, so much so that the climax is almost a relief at times!

This film is itself a remake of Ju-on, a straight to video affair made on a low budget; while it may have been unique at the time, plenty of other movies have been released since and as a result it is very unoriginal in parts The annoying part is that so many of its features, from the dramatic devices to the plot, seem unoriginal in contrast to those displayed in the films I have already mentioned. Ju-on: The Grudge bears so many similarities to The Eye that you'll be left rubbing your eyes in disbelief! One can start by highlighting the obvious features that the films share like the ghosts, not only do they look the same but they are introduced into scenes in the exact same fashion. The director, Takeshi Shimizu, takes a leaf out of the Pang brothers' book and uses passing shoots and takes advantage of peripheral vision to create disorientating scenes. As a result the viewer can't be quite sure of what he has seen; he is equally unaware of the danger as the victim and reacts with the same shock as the intended target when the climax is reached. It is a nice piece of film-making but something which has been done before, as I was familiar with the technique it took away from my experience and I couldn't help but recall the other efforts.

My main criticism of this film is the rather poor storyline, it seems to just jump from place to place and the viewer is just left to make sense of it A common rebuttal for this complaint is that this movie was intended for a different audience and as a result it is my own ignorance which has made the film unenjoyable. I really have to disagree when it comes to Ju-on: The Grudge as the only thing that ties the film together is the order of appearance of the characters. Whilst we are given some insight into the origin of the curse in the film's opening scene there is little else to tie the rest of the movie to the initial events. Things really spiral out of control when it seems that anyone who steps foot in the house is liable to die but if that was the case then the death toll would be in hundreds. Two characters in the movie are spared their fate for what seems an unreasonable amount of time compared to the fate of some of the film's less fortunate characters, add a spot of time-travelling into the mix and there is little chance for the viewer to follow The Grudge's storyline.

While western audiences may not be familiar with the majority of the cast, one cannot leave the cinema without being impressed by most of their performances. It is funny that in recent times the Scary Movie franchise has parodied most of Hollywood's most famous horror movies, even Scream gave us the guidelines as how to get out of such a film alive. However in Ju-on: The Grudge the viewer is left just as in the dark as the film's hapless victims, the cast's performance in this respect pays dividends as I had the feeling of constantly being watched throughout the film. I wasn't particularly enamoured by Takako Fuji's performance in the role of the main ghost as I found that Yuya Ozeki, her younger co-star, stole the show. Ozeki's portrayal of a young boy in the film really stands to show that horror movies do not have to be all about special effects, tremendous acting skills can be more impressive than waterfalls of blood. The dramatic devices used to bring the evil spirits to the forefront may not be entirely original, but it is worth commending the actors' execution of what was demanded of them nonetheless.

Piaras Kelly
Editor, Kikizo Movies