The Grudge
Columbia Pictures, Ghost House Pictures, Fellah Pictures, Senator International, Vertigo Entertainment, USA, Japan, 2004.
This is an American remake/reboot of Takashi Shimizu's "Ju-on" series.
When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage a curse is born.
In Tokyo teacher Peter (Bill Pullman) suddenly jumps down his balcony. Some years later Yoko (Yôko Maki) is treating Emma (Grace Zabriskie) who has dementia. Yoko hears rattling sound coming from the attic. It is Kayako (Takako Fuji) alright!
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| Peter |
Social worker Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her boyfriend Doug (Jason Behr) have moved to Japan. Yoko is missing so Karen is sent to take care of Emma. Karen finds weird boy Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) and a cat sitting in a closet. Matthew (William Mapother) and Jennifer (Clea DuVall) who lived in the house with Emma have disappeared.
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| Karen and Doug |
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| Saeki house |
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| Toshio |
Previously real estate agent Suzuki (Hajime Okayama) sold them the house and saw a ghost. Jennifer had hard time adjusting to life in Japan, but that became the least of her problems. Soon Toshio began to haunt Jennifer.
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| Jennifer |
Karen's boss Alex (Ted Raimi) finds Emma dead and Karen in shocked state. Detectives Nagakawa (Ryo Ishibashi) and Igarashi (Hiroshi Matsunaga) investigate the case. They find the missing couple and a jawbone. Matthew's sister Susan (KaDee Strickland) is also missing. The next segment shows why.
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| Nagakawa, Igarashi and Alex |
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| Susan |
Karen begins to find out about who Toshio is and finds a news report about the Saeki murder case. Toshio and his mother Kayako (Takako Fuji) were murdered in the house by father Takeo (Takashi Matsuyama). Peter committed suicide soon after the murders so Karen goes to ask Peter's wife Maria (Rosa Blasi) if he knew Kayako. Next segment shows Peter's story.
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| Kayako |
Again the film is divided into segments, each telling a part of the story. What is missing are the segment title cards. The real estate agent's name is Suzuki which is a reference to the first "Ju-on: The Curse." The originals were very minimalistic, the increased budget takes away some of the charm. Also the sound effect terror of the originals suffers from Hollywood-style horror music. It is not bad but redundant if you have seen the original Japanese versions as the plot is essentially same as in "Ju-on: The Grudge" and recycling the scary scenes of four Japanese movies. What is the greatest difference that this time the story centres around one main character (Karen) making the other segments less interesting. Produced by fan of the original "Ju-on", Sam Raimi.
Rating: 
Average
Average
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Clea DuVall, KaDee Strickland, Grace Zabriskie, Bill Pullman, Rosa Blasi, Ted Raimi, Ryo Ishibashi, Yôko Maki, Yuya Ozeki, Takako Fuji, Takashi Matsuyama, Hiroshi Matsunaga, Hajime Okayama, Yoshiyuki Morishita, Kazuyuki Tsumura, Taigi Kobayashi, Junko Koizumi, Nana Koizumi, Yôichi Okamura, Eiji Ôki, Katsuhiro Oyama, Satoshi Ninomiya, Shinji Nomura
Director: Takashi Shimizu
I kinda sorta lost my interest with this after Pullman's death defying dive to death. Never really bothered with the sequels either, even though I have own them all.
ReplyDeleteYeah, not much new in this part. Let's see if the next two change the already too familiar formula at least a bit (although I have doubts about the third Grudge).
DeleteThe Japanese versions already got a reboot, and it is only a matter of time when Hollywood makes remakes of these remakes (it is a neverending cycle!).
I'm honestly laughing out loud here, since this is one of the only scary movies I've seen and that plot you are describing sounds so unfamiliar. I don't remember a thing about it. Only the scares, and there were a lot of them. And I had to sleep with the lights on for about a week after I saw this movie. Terrifying... Terrifying! I'm not one for scary movies...
ReplyDeleteAnd the original Ju-ons were even scarier! I guess watching this remake would have felt scarier if I just hadn't watched the Japanese versions, as many of the scares were recycled here with minor alterations.
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