Ju-on: The Grudge (2003)

Director: Takashi Shimizu
Starring: Megumi Okina, Misaki Ito, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa

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Everything I read about this movie said, "Repetitious and baffling. Don't bother," to which I replied, "I saw the mother fucking trailer, man. That's going to be a scary movie." The movie starts off in typical mystery-to-be-solved fashion. We get flash cuts (in grainy black & white, of course) of a violent murder. We get just enough to see and remember faces and to see the blood.

- - -
CUT TO MODERN DAY - WELFARE OFFICE

A woman from the welfare office goes into a client's house, hears noises, investigates. We recognize a face from the prologue, this time paler and bloodier. She screams.

CUT TO BLACK

The couple who live in the home return. For the rest, see above actions.

CUT TO BLACK

And so on in this fashion.

THE END
- - -

Now, in some ways we can say that American films treat the viewer as intellectual dunces. In other ways, we can say that they satisfy urges or curiosities. We would assume in an American film that if there is a prologue, the plot threads from this would be tied up by the end. Ju-On leaves us with nothing. Other than a few scares, we don't know anything about the characters in the prologue. Well, we do get their names at some point in the film, but forget about motives, character development, and reason for their actions. I'd rather not ruin anything, but suffice it to say you'd better make peace right away with any character you meet in the film. Ju-On is not a movie you'll ponder over (unless you're a masochist). It's not a film you'll walk out of sighing satisfactorily. If you are a better person than me, you'd stand up in the theater after it finishes and scream, "That's it? I sat through the same story eight times for it to end like that? Bullshit! Where's the last reel?" Don't forget your torches and pitchforks.

To be fair, Ju-On has some scary images in it, some of the scariest I've seen. At the same time with no real context for them to exist even within the film's narrative, you can just watch the trailer and see the same stuff. Save your money; save your blood pressure.

July 25
Nuart Theater, early afternoon

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D