American horror productions have been pretty stale as of late,
most productions trading proper 'fear' for cheap shocks of
the 'cat in a dumpster' variety. Horror fans looking for more 'cerebral' genre fare have had to cast their eyes to Asia as
of late, as currently, when it comes to horror nobody can match them. The touchstone for recent Asian horror movies is
generally referred to as Ringu (The Ring) by Hideo Nakata, which was recently remade in Hollywood by director Gore Verbinski
(Pirates of The Caribbean). I haven't yet seen the remake but those that have say they've made quite a few changes
to the story and have upped the jump quotient somewhat. A lot of Western viewers seem to find the pacing of the original
off-putting, mistaking atmosphere and tension building as, essentially, dead space that needs to be filled by action. I
would imagine that Ju-On: The Grudge will be more to their tastes as there are shocks, of the magnitude of Ringu's
climax, littered throughout the movie, usually about every 10-15 minutes. It is worth noting that Ju-On is also in the
process of being remade for a Western audience, the remake is retaining the original's Director Takashi Shimizu and
Japanese setting, but now headlines Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV's Buffy).
"Ju-On: the curse of one who dies in a powerful rage.
It gathers and takes effect in the places that person was alive.
Those who encounter it die, and a new curse is born."
The 'Grudge' of the title stems from a grainy pre-title sequence when a grisly murder occurs in a house, as per the
pre-title text (quoted above) the house is then filled with restless, angry spirits who are determined to share and spread
their misery and eternal torment. There's not really much more in the way of a proper storyline to explain to you, as the
movie is, essentially, a collection of short stories where all the events revolve around the cursed house and it's ghostly
inhabitants. The stories focus on the people who come into contact with the house and the way in which the curse then
manifests itself in their lives. Oh, and it's damned scary!
'Thing' needed to get out...
He was running to meet Cousin Itt in the men's room!
The saying goes that "Necessity is the Mother of Invention," and I believe that is why Ju-On: The Grudge works so damn
well. The makers were obviously not working with a massively huge budget so couldn't go for the easy, American option of
"washing away problems with the money hose" (to quote Robert Rodriguez) - This movie is all about the storytelling and the
creation of a sustained feeling of dread. In these regards, the movie is a resounding success. I'm normally pretty 'ho-hum'
when it comes to modern horror movies, there's little that really scares me with them. Asian horror movies though, have that
way of quietly getting under your skin and then only letting you know they're there when the moment calls for it.
After you've seen the first couple of stories (which are all titled with the name of the person who they're concentrating
on) then you'll pretty much know how the rest of the movie goes, as they are all pretty samey. I don't bring that up as a
real criticism, as this movie, to me, doesn't seem to be about pulling the rug out from under you. It is about letting the
audience know what's going to happen, filling them with a sense of impending dread about those forthcoming events and then
scaring the bejesus out of them as their worst fears are realised. It works, and it works wonderfully, pretty much every
time, but not always.
So why does it work? Well, Asian directors at the moment seem to be practicing what so many people preach, in that what
scares you is not always what what you see. It's what you don't see and how your imagination then fills in the blanks. Take
Ju-On's opening sequence for instance, it's made up of grainy, grimy, washed out imagery. Close up shots of the detail of a
woman's blood spattered face, a man opening up a Stanley knife and grabbing a cat and then a cut-away to something else as
we hear a meaty, wet squelching and cutting sound. The total effect is grisly and unpleasant but it's all been presented to
you without any explicit detail, allowing (or forcing) your mind to fill in all the nasty little blanks. This is also why,
in my opinion, The Blair Witch Project was so successful in certain parts. Also, when we come to the scares they are wrung
for every last bit of possible tension...
Shimizu directs the whole affair with a pretty unfussy eye, he does use the camera to pull off some pretty effective reveals
though, which leads me to believe that the reason for the overall style not being more dynamic, might be due to budget
restraints. He does pull off some very effective imagery though, you might not have believed that the sight of a little,
skinny pasty child mewling like a cat would freak you out, but this movie would prove you wrong!
I should imagine the structure of this movie will allow it to appeal to those people who found Ringu such a drag, as due
to it being a collection of short stories there is a lot less time between the 'big shocks.' In that way, the pacing is more
akin to that of Western movies.
The Grudge isn't perfect by any means. There is a lot that goes, frustratingly, unexplained in this movie. Now I'm not one
of those people who needs to have every little thing in movies explained, I like to figure the answers out for myself but
you're not even given 'clues' to some of this stuff!?! Also, one of the stories is pretty much a duffer.
Cousin Itt's patience was wearing thin...
'Thing' was late... Again!
The picture on this disc is presented at around the 1:78:1 aspect ratio and is anamorphically enhanced. The picture is
pleasingly strong enough, there are certainly no major complaints to list, it’s just workmanlike rather than outstanding.
I did notice some grain at certain points in the movie, but I think that might be a result of the film stock used rather
than any encoding problems. I daresay, though, that there’s little risk of this being used as a demo disc to show off your
new T.V. (the sound though, if a different matter altogether).
There's only one soundtrack on this disc, Dolby Digital 5.1 in the original Japanese language and it's fantastic, and really
showcases the extra effort that has gone into the sound design on this film. All the speakers are used very actively in this
movie, the sound of a door slamming shut in one speaker and then the feet of a barefoot child running across the soundstage
will likely leave you awake for weeks with 'the fear.' As a special note, I'll add that the throaty sound that signals the
presence of the main antagonist never fails to chill my blood! Movies like this make a full Home Cinema System well worth
the investment!
As for the extra material... "What are the extras?", you Cry... "None!" says I, and then we move on!
In summary, it's safe to say that despite it's faults, I really like this film. It's a movie that you can say 'is' genuinely
scary and since it acheives that rare thing I can forgive it a lot. As for the presentation on the disc, the lack of extras
is diappointing but the picture is fine and the sound is excellent. It might be worth noting that rumour has it that Ju-On:
The Grudge is due a UK cinema release later this year through 'Premiere Asia' and there definitely will be a UK Region 2
release following that (most likely with tons of extras, as both the Korean version and the initial Japanese 'Limited
Edition' of this film both come with a DTS soundtrack and a second disc). This HK disc can be picked up pretty cheaply now so,
if extras don't seal the deal for youand just want a cheap and... Erm... cheerful(?) way of seeing this film then this disc
will work a treat!
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
