Ju-On: The Grudge

You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 01/ 5/2005, at 11:40.

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The rest of our Play order was delivered yesterday. We pondered for a while whether we should see the original Ju-On: The Grudge before the US remake, which we'll go and see today. We ended up watching the original.

It's bloody creepy and ranks among the very best horror films (A Tale of Two Sisters, Dark Water and Ring). The movie begins with murders that leave the spirits of the deceased haunting the house. Of course, lots of innocent bystanders visit the house and end up suffering from the spirits' vengeance.

The plot of the movie isn't linear and that has caused some confusion. For example, a girl called Izumi appears in the movie as a child and later as a teenager. But yeah, movies can have time leaps even if the dates of the events aren't explicitly told! We found the order of the events fairly easy to figure out. Too much explanation hurts the movie and at least we weren't really confused at all. Some questions remain, as usual, but nothing critical.

My expectations for the US remake are mixed. The movie will probably look better. The special effects aren't flashy in the Japanese version. It's still impressive, but perhaps the dead could've used better look than simply white makeup? I do hope they can replicate the excellent soundtrack. The sounds were often more scary than the sights! Japanese horror movies (and games, like the Silent Hill series) have often made good use of scary sounds. The plot will probably be simplified a bit - hopefully not too much.

I'll write more about the US remake tomorrow when I've seen it. Meanwhile, the original is highly recommended.

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