Asian Horror Reviews: Ju-on(2003)

Asian Horror Reviews: Ju-On
Revisiting an old favourite

Japan (2003)
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It is such a shame that something that caused you a sense of inspired whimsy when you were younger, now leaves you with only a sense of bemusement in your adulthood. It is like how kraft dinner and hot dogs no longer satisfies ones taste palette; perhaps your tastes have matured, or perhaps it just was never that great to begin with.

What inclined me to revisit the japanese horror film Ju-on: The Grudge (2003) recently, is actually purely coincidental, in the past few months i have found myself trying to press onto my new boyfriend my love of horror genre films- that and with the convenience of Netflix, it seemed like a good way to spend a afternoon. Accounting for his unfamiliarity with asian-horror, i decided to ease him in lightly we started out be re-watching the 2004 american remake, The Grudge. This was a re-viewing experience for me and encompassed a certain sense of nostalgia. I fondly recollected shivering in my theatre seat at the age of fourteen considering The Grudge, to be the scariest films i had ever seen. This of course was before i’d stricken any interest in foreign horror- i’d yet to sit through the likes of 2008’s french film Martyr’s, which I now qualify as the scariest film that I have seen to date.- However re-viewing The Grudge on a thursday afternoon, was remotely amusing, i had forgotten about the endearing on-cue acting of good ol’ Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and her performance as the film’s protagonist. In summary of that experience i feel that as far as Hollywood remodelled remakes go, I consider The Grudge to be a notable feat, in fact I would raise the argument that it is actually an improvement upon the original Ju-On.

One benefit to re-watching these films back to back is you are able to make an objective comparison- I of course gave Ju-On a fair chance being well aware of the handicap it had being the predecessor film. Also one had to take into account the obvious budget comparisons and the mere fact that once something is “americanized” a bit of its innocence seems to be lost . However because of this, It would be naive to have the expect that Ju-on would have the same star-child razz-dazz of an american made horror, when its standing was only a semi-successful Japanese horror, seemingly notable enough to be remade and yet shadowed behind the likings of Ring (1998). On that note, I don’t want to get to far into the evils of comparing one to the other explicitly; I think it is important to mention however that director for Ju-On:The Grudge Japanese director Takashi Shimizu, did direct and lead in creative control on the remake The Grudge, so essentially he was granted a second opportunity to expand upon the original.

That said there are to many problems with the structure and narrative of the 2003 Ju-on to ignore, getting into the film i felt often confused and lost by the timeline. The film appears to jump around and it fails to clarify the character’s relationships or locations in the films “time”. Occasionally when watching a subtitled film, i instantly feel the need to justify any confusion i feel with being lost in translation, in this case however bad subtitling has nothing to do with the pure lack of distinction between one point in time and the next. The confusion is ongoing, somehow the film manages to imply that everything is happening at once- when you later learn the events are taking place with years spanning between them.

Getting past that irritating factor, another irksome quirk that Ju-on has is its nearly comical performances- i found myself laughing inappropriately at the lack of “acting” or believable emotion portrayed by each of the film’s cast. Even the grudge characters that were suppose to carry the horror such as the ghostly cat-boy and his sorrowful mother, do not justify the scares that the characters imply. I’d blame this not on bad acting however but more so on the cinematography choice of bright lighting during scary scenes, and the editing choices to hold on to the shock-value moments, notably to long. These qualities paired gives the viewer to much time to absorb the imagery and therefore the fear is lost and even comes across as contrived and comical.

The last thing any viewer wants when watching a film that has been deemed as “horror” is to find themselves laughing out loud at obscurities. Depending on your sense of humour, you may be able find amusement in the pure novelty of awfulness that Ju-On actually is, but aside from the awkward laughs and chuckles id skip it. The only redeeming quality i noted was that the idea of the grudge was frightening, and once the ideas got sorted out it could indeed be an alright film, hence for that reason the existence of the american remake, which i cordially recommend over the Japanese one.

(*** if you do find yourself completely absorbed by any of the Grudge films, I will add that there are some lesser known made-for japanese television preqals and a franchise of equally B grade sequels, that i am sure are real Jems, for you to check out!)

Review By Brandie Tschauner