Saturday, February 2, 2008

Movie 12 of 2008: Ju-on: The Grudge



Movie Description:

Directed by Takashi Shimizu, The Grudge follows volunteer homecare worker Rika Nishida (Megumi Okina), whose altruism leads her to Chiharu (Yui Ichikawa), a catatonic old woman slowly dying in a home filled with years worth of accumulated filth. Rika's suspicion is aroused when, during the course of her volunteer duties, she can't help but sense an overwhelming feeling of dread. Eventually, Rika opens an old wardrobe only to discover a malevolent boy who introduces himself as Toshio (Yuya Ozeki). It seems as though the house was formerly occupied by a young couple -- Katsuya (Kanji Tsuda), Chiharu's son, and his wife, Kazumi (Risa Matsuda). Sadly, Kazumi was killed thanks to Toshio shortly after moving in, and it wasn't long before Katsuya met a similar fate. When one of Rika's colleagues alerts the local authorities, an investigation turns the house inside out and exposes an ancient and deadly history.

Trailer:







My opinion:

I typically enjoy Asian horror movies, but honestly... this one didn't do much for me. There were some moments of the movie I enjoyed and due to watching it with a friend who hated it even more and made bad jokes throughout, I was laughing a lot. I just didn't think it was very creepy. Granted, the kid and other ghosts in the movie were freaky looking, but there weren't really any "jump" moments as I'd call 'em and it just wasn't good. LOL! A lot of the Asian movies (whether horror or not) are VERY hard to comprehend and this one did follow somewhat with that pattern as you had to try really hard to keep track of what all was going on in the movie and who was connected/related to whom. Maybe J-Horror movies just aren't meant to scare me. I mean, everyone told me how THE RING was the SCARIEST movie. I thought it was poorly done. I had read THE RING by Koji Suzuki and I then wathched the American movie. And for those that HAVE seen THE RING... there are NO horsese in the book... not a one!!! I have NO idea where that came from. I then went on to watch the Japanese version of the movie, RINGU... it was better and followed closer to the book, but at the end when they told about how the girl got in the well, well... let's just say, it was a different person in the book that put her there. I'm not sure why they switched it for the movie. *shrugs* Anyway, I recommend the books by Suzuki... just skip the movies! LOL!!! Anyway, back to Ju-on... I definitely won't be renting the sequels to this one and I don't really recommend watching it. I also don't plan on watching THE GRUDGE (the American version of this movie) because after THE RING fiasco, I won't bother with American re-makes.

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