Ju-On: Films (2000-15)

Ju-On: Films (2000-15)

Dirs. Various

Ju-On's debut on screen was in 1998 as two short films created, written, and directed by Takashi Shimizu. Together they made up one half of a TV Movie named Gakkō no kaidan G (1998), but I'll be skipping those and going direct to the feature-length movies that followed. (The shorts are titled Katasumi and 4444444444, if you wish to research further.)

It might seem like the wrong approach to take, but it's not necessary to have seen them to enjoy what came after. Furthermore, the order below isn't even the one that I experienced them on first viewing, thanks to how they were released in the UK at the time. [1]

01. Ju-On: The Curse (2000 / Dir. Takashi Shimizu) was the first feature-length entry in the series. A straight-to-video (V-Cinema) release that came out two years before the more successful cinema-released film (#3 below). In general, the setting is a haunted house that makes 112 Ocean Avenue (Amityville) seem about as scary as a Wendy house. [2]

It has a peculiar segmented story structure that may seem confusing on first viewing, but it's something that you'll need to get used to if you choose to continue with the subsequent films because the sequels mostly followed the same format. Of the six segments, I feel the fifth one is the best. If you want them linear, you'll have to piece it together in your head.

If like me you saw the films in the order they were released outside Japan, then going backwards may make it seem like a cheaper version of what followed, but don't confuse 'cheaper' with 'poor-man's', because it does just as well with what it had to work with. Its 4:3 'TV size' frame makes the house feel uncomfortably cramped, which adds to the unease. Overall, the production is less refined but arguably more personal than its bigger budget siblings.

02. If you watch the film mentioned directly above, then you can safely skip past the first 30+ minutes of Ju-On: The Curse 2 (2000 / Dir. Takashi Shimizu) because it's the same as two stories that were shown previously. I don't just mean it's similar - it's identical, the exact same footage! I admit my memory is bad, but it isn't that bad.

The parts that are new aren't really worth the time of anyone who's not already deeply invested in the Ju-On happenings, and despite being more linear than usual, and therefore easier to follow on first viewing, it'll likely feel too incomplete to a newcomer.

Dir. Takashi Shimizu's ability to find or generate unease and creepiness in commonplace locations without relying on canted camera angles, etc, is the best that it has to offer.

03. Ju-On: The Grudge (2002 / Dir. Takashi Shimizu) was my introduction to Ju-On. The episodic nature and different time periods — sometimes with no visual cues to signpost the change — was disorientating and at times I wondered just what the hell was going on, but the environment in which I was living at the time, including the way it was laid out and the chill of the night-time air, all contributed to a feeling that what I was seeing was the most terrifying piece of fictional film that I've ever experienced. I wanted to escape my own skin but I couldn't.

My best advice for first-time viewers would be to keep in mind while viewing that 'family' is often at the centre of Japanese culture; if you acknowledge that it's also at the centre of Ju-On, then the film becomes much deeper than first impressions might suggest.

04. In Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003 / Dir. Takashi Shimizu) a film crew making a documentary about a cursed house inadvertently give life to the vengeful spirit that resides within their chosen location and, predictably, it starts to kill them off one by one, but not before trying to scare them half to death first.

I found Ju-On 2 to be mostly dull. It has the same episodic nature as before, but is (happily?) much simpler to follow. It once more makes staircases and long hair scary, but overall it failed to keep me engaged. It's more wigs than actual wiggins. Tomoka's story was the most eerie, and upon reflection would've made a wonderful standalone short.

The Ju-On series continued as two shorter films released simultaneously, each approximately one hour in length. I'll mention them in the order that I watched them:

05. Ju-On: Shiroi Rojo (2009 / Dir. Ryuta Miyake) aka Ju-On: White Ghost / The Grudge: Old Lady in White, tells of the murder of a family and the haunting that follows as a consequence. It has the scares and soil-yourself moments that I'd come to expect and overall is an effective slice of J-horror. I’d not have complained had it been a full-length V-Cinema release.

06. Ju-On: Kuroi Shōjo (2009 / Mari Asato) aka Ju-On: Black Ghost / The Grudge: Girl in Black, is the weaker of the two. It has the terrifying guttural noise that makes my skin crawl, but the remainder of the scares are predictable and lacklustre. The story would've been an interesting premise on paper, but it's pretty shitty onscreen. Even though there were moments near the end that showed promise for the director's future, as a horror it fell flat, mostly.

07. Ju-On: The Beginning of the End (2014 / Dir. Masayuki Ochiai) is an unnecessary reboot that doesn't improve upon the original film(s) in any way, or even do enough that's different to justify its existence. As usual there's more than one time period under the scope, this time with a total of eight stories split across them, each tied somehow to the Saeki house.

It takes a long time to get to the scares, but when they do come they're decent enough for a while, even though by this stage we've seen the same things before in better films. The steady, creeping camera movements range from being merely perfunctory to nicely timed, and it's always great to see practical effects outnumber CGI, so credit for both of those things. However, the second half really drops the ball, and the ending is stupid.

08. Ju-On: The Final Curse (2015 / Dir. Masayuki Ochiai) is a sequel to The Beginning of the End that really ought to have been the 'final' entry because without Takashi Shimizu's input the series is going down the shitter faster than you can count the shades of brown that it used to cause in your trousers.

The sister of one of the victims from the previous film comes under the curse's influence while attempting to discover the whereabouts of her sibling. It decides that one Toshio wasn't scary enough, so throws over a dozen of the little shits into one scene. Hmmmm. If it's your first ever Japanese horror film you might be impressed; it'll last until you see one of the good ones.

A crossover with the Ring franchise titled Sadako vs. Kayako (2016 / Dir. Kōji Shiraishi) followed a year later. I covered it in a previous post, so won't mention it further here.

[1] The UK got Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) and Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003) before any of the earlier V-Cinema films. I didn't see the original shorts until much later.

[2] A friend in America made me aware that the term 'Wendy House' might not be understood outside of Britain. It's a playhouse for children, a safe environment where they can play with their toys, etc, typically set up in the garden during summer. It's basically a treehouse on the ground. The point I was trying to make in the respective paragraph is that the Amityville house is for kids in comparison to the Saeki residence.