Ju-On: The Grudge



Ju-On: The Grudge (2003) is the latest Japanese horror film to gain attention in the U.S. because of an English language remake. Ju-On is basically a very simple haunted house story that for some reason was hugely popular in Japan. I had a tough time getting involved in the movie because it lacks a plot. Ju-On is basically a collection of creepy scenes, some of which have no connection to each other. It also doesn’t help that this particular movie fails to provide either a coherent set of rules by which “the grudge” operates or an explanation of where it came from. This is probably because there were two TV movies that preceded the theatrical movie, but us Americans have to go into Ju-On’s first theatrical incarnation cold.


"Cool! Now do a dog!"

Rika (Megumi Okina) is a volunteer intern at some sort of social welfare organization. She’s told to go visit a house and help out a family with an elderly mother who needs special care. Rika arrives at the house and finds it to be extremely messy and the old woman apparently uncared for. Rika cleans up the house and puts the woman to bed, then follows some sounds upstairs and finds a child trapped in a closet upstairs. Rika calls the authorities, but before they arrive a ghostly presence kills the old woman and scares Rika into catalepsy.

The movie then jumps around in time, sometimes into the recent past, sometimes years into future. As every segment opens we are shown a title card with a character’s name on it. By the end of the segment, with one exception, that character is dead, which means that there is practically no suspense. Not that it’s hard to figure out that as soon as someone starts hearing weird noises they will die, but to actually flat out give us the character’s name seems like director Takashi Shimizu is dead set against the audience being surprised at all. This impression is strengthened by the fact that the final fate of Rika (the closest thing we have to a main character) is spoiled by a news report in the background of segment that takes place farther into the future.


"Excuse me ma'am, may I have another bowl of gruel?"

With all suspense effectively killed, Ju-On becomes a mechanical exercise in the building of creepy scenes. The two main apparitions, a pale kid who makes cat sounds and an older woman occasionally covered in blood, can induce willies, but after about the eighth time of playing "guess what piece of furniture will the ghost pop out of" the movie loses it's novelty.

Incidentally, the DVD includes an alternate ending with commentary by director Takashi Shimizu. Watching this cleared up a lot of the questions I had about the film. It's a shame that all the plot ended up hidden in the DVD extras.

Posted: Sun - November 28, 2004 at      

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