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MOVIES JU-ON
You may know the bigger budget American remake of this movie, called The Grudge, and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I haven't seen that movie yet, but when I saw this movie from my local DVD lending library, I wanted to check it out. I prefer to see the original before seeing a remake, anyway. So, this japanese horror movie is about the curse left on a place (as in a haunted house) when someone dies with rage. It tells the stories of many people who come in contact with this evil spirit, and the results (which would be them losing their lives). I like the way the story unfolded, with many short stories in a jumbled order. But I definitely got confused as the movie played out. Maybe it's because I couldn't keep the characters straight (And that may be because many of the characters looked similiar to my westernized eyes, or maybe because not much time was spent with any one character long enough (except Rika) to understand that person and identify with them)). Some of the images are really creepy. That kid kept showing up in the background, or in quick scenes, or in reflections. Very nicely done. The makers of this film were able to get as many scares as they could on this shoe-string budget. There's not much in the way of blood or gore, just good old fashioned scares. However, the movie sort of falls apart. The bunch of short scenes all had the same theme of the curse, and many shared characters, but I didn't really understand how it all came together. We never get an origin to this condition. We don't get a proper ending either. I'm not really sure what happened now, come to think of it. But the individual scenes were entertaining on their own. At any rate, I thought it was better than Ringu (but I didn't really care for Ringu now did I?) Quality: 4.0 Visuals:
5.5 Intensity: 6.0 reviewed
2005
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