re:mote voices

Title: Ju-on: The Grudge
Cast: Megumi Okina, Misaki Ito, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa, Yuya Ozeki
Director: Takashi Shimizu

This is, I gather, the first in a series of Japanese horror films – ju-on being a type of curse. In this case a curse that has been left on a house after a brutal killing – the film starting with a man killing his wife and son. From there the film plays around with continuity to some degree, starting with Rika Nishina, a voluntary social worker who is badgered into visiting the house by her house. Once she gets there she finds the house in a mess, then an old woman dazed and bed bound. Which is all distressing, but not too bad, but then she starts hearing noises upstairs. Tracking them down, she finds a cupboard that has been taped shut. Inside she finds a black cat and a small boy, and then things start to get weird.

From there we flash back and forward, following the members of the old woman’s family as each of them encounters the supernatural, Rika’s boss who comes looking for her, then the police who are dealing with this case, and then the policeman who dealt with the original murder case. Along the way the first contact always comes with the small boy and his pancaked white face, and big dark eyes. But of course as things escalate he is the least of the victim’s worries!

Ranging at times from the sinister (in that Japanese horror film fashion) to the ludicrous. Some of the most effective/memorable scenes include the black cat (the room full of them, shown in the trailer, and under the table) and the daughter of the policeman who investigated the original killings (particularly the switch in time as her father sees the future, and the way in which her haunting escalates).

Like The Ring trilogy before it Ju-On leaves me with mixed feelings, part of which I suspect is cultural differences, such that things might be creepy in Japan don’t translate in quite the same manner to us. Still there is fun to be had, especially in getting a chance to see it in the cinema, which I did, as the first in this year’s Asia Extreme season.