Ju-on has been remade as The Grudge, but it's actually getting a small release in the States before the release of its Americanized spawn. After having watched the original, I'm not sure if the remake is such a good idea. The plot of Ju-on was unclear at best, and I can't attribute this to the language barrier. It revolves around a house somewhere in Japan; at some point, a man kills his wife in the house, and then stuffs her in the attic. For some unexplained reason, the house then becomes cursed by the woman's spirit, and anyone who subsequently enters the house for any length of time will be pursued and eventually killed by the spirit. It's certainly creepy in spots. The "grudge" manifests itself in suitably frightening ways: the young son of the murdered woman appears to stare wide-eyed at the cursed and disappears; the murdered woman herself crawls slowly across the floor using only her hands to propel herself; creepy guttural voices come over the phone; televisions act strangely; and a squalling black cat makes a few appearances. Problem was, I was spending so much time trying to figure out what the hell was going on that I was never, you know, scared. The disjointed time structure, jumping from the past to the future to the present with no warning, just made my head hurt. Maybe the Japanese (who have had functional time-machines available at retail for at least 15 years) have no problem following this kind of thing. Maybe the Hollywood remake will make it clearer. Or maybe I should have asked the HUGE fucking nerd that sat a row behind us. About 2.7 seconds after the end credits rolled, he began explaining how Takashi Shimizu has made three other Grudge movies, and also directed the Hollywood version. He then added that he couldn't wait to get home to his one-room efficiency apartment so he could masturbate to his extensive collection of anime tentacle porn on his computer. Well, maybe I made up that part about him saying he wanted to get home to masturbate. But he was a gigantic nerd, and you know he was thinking it.
Review by |
