Customer Reviews

Ju-on

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hi. I own this movie and really love it. It is a very good watch. I watch it over and over and over and over and I like it even more. So why give it 4 stars if I like it so much? Here's why:
First of all, I will say that the movie is split into 6 seperate segments, Each one of them contains a different time, and main character.
1. Toshio: 6/10 - Boring yet creepy.
2. Yuki: 8/10 - Not as boring and very cool ending.
3. Mizuho: 7/10 - Kinda boring yet really exiting.
4. Kanna: 9/10 - Very scary and entertaining.
5. Kayoko: 10/10 - Involves the scene where Kayoko crawls down the stairs.
6. Kyoko: 5/10 - Very boring yet still creepy.
As you just read, some of these chapters were boring. If you watch it, give it a chance and it will scare you. Availible on eBAY.

Definitly, this movie is one of the most original and surprising horror films I've ever seen in my whole life. Ju On, is a beige, bizarre and original film, one of a kind. Definiltly, is the most smart and pure terror film from Japan. No other japanese terror movie can even touch it.

Looks like a modern 70ies film, due to the color of the fotage (almost everything is grey). Takashi took great care on some scenes, making them look like pieces of art. Small histories will make your flesh crawl. There's no gore in this movie. Fear, is pure psychological.
The filmscoring, made with synthesizers, is simple perfect, and the silences from the music, and the sound effects come at the right time.
Some scenes are really creepy and well done, actor performances are superb. They really transmit that horror feeling that makes you identify with their fear. A
The chapters are atemporal, the movie goes forward and backwards, seems that there's no cronological sequence on the movie, it goes telling the history of the different characters that visited the haunted house.
When you visit this house, you're doomed and your soul get lost in time. For example, there are two characters, a father and her daugther, that both die, on different years, when they entered the house. But when they go into the house, they met inside, and the father looks at his grown up daugther in the future, when she also visited the house. Also, when she visited the house, she met her father inside when he died several years ago. You understand this, only when you watch both chapters.
There are things hidden in this movie, that you must watch very carefully to notice. This is one of those films that you have to watch several times to fully understand, but leaving a lot of questions in your mind.

Forget the atrocious American version and watch this original Japanese version instead. A little hard to follow at times but once you get your head around the time fractures (which the American one eased up on--thus making the film more of a bore than a scream) you'll be okay. The Grudge is basically a curse that is born after someone dies a violent death. All those who come in contact with it are cursed to die - as are their family. The randomness of the movie can either turn you off or draw you in even more. Personally I found it rather creepy and disturbing as you didn't know what was going to happen next. Part 2 is even better.

If you like a movie with the occasional creepy moments, but no story or explanation, then this film is for you. This film is essentially a string of death scenes cause by vengeful spirit(s). There's no real story. There's no explanation as to why the problem/ghost exists. There's no explanation as to why the house it exists continued to stand even when so many people died because of it. I know cliches like the psychic or priest usually kill a movie, but I think it would have helped this film. The conflict would have at least given the film some direction or purpose. Sadly, some directors spend too much time trying to make scenes on the screen create an emotional reaction but fail to tie them all together with a story arc. Skip this film.