Ju-On: The Grudge

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Ju-On: The Grudge
Juonthegrudgeposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji 呪怨
Kana じゅおん
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn Juon
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Written byTakashi Shimizu [1]
Produced byTaka Ichise [1]
Starring
CinematographyTokusho Kikumura [1]
Edited byNobuyuki Takahashi [1]
Music byShiro Sato [1]
Production
companies
Distributed by Lions Gate Films (US) [1]
Release date
Running time
92 minutes [2]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Box office$3.7 million [3]

Ju-On: The Grudge is a 2002 Japanese supernatural horror film written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. It is the third installment in the Ju-On series and the first to be released theatrically (the first two being direct-to-video productions). It stars Megumi Okina, Misaki Ito, Takashi Matsuyama and Yui Ichikawa.

Contents

Ju-On: The Grudge premiered at the Screamfest Film Festival on 18 October 2002, by Lions Gate Films. The film received favourable reviews from critics, but was initially unfavourably compared to another Japanese horror film, Ring . Subsequent reception has been more positive, with both Ju-On and Ring being considered two of the greatest J-horror films ever made. It spawned a franchise, an American remake, 2006 and 2009 sequels, a 2020 sidequel to the remake and a prequel television series entitled JU-ON: Origins , which premiered in 2020.

Plot

Several years prior to the main plot, Takeo Saeki murders his wife Kayako after discovering she is in love with another man, also killing the family cat, Mar, and his son, Toshio. The murders create a curse that revives the family as vengeful ghosts, with Kayako's ghost murdering Takeo. Whoever enters their house in Nerima, Tokyo, is eventually consumed by the curse, which spreads to the place they die in and in turn consumes anyone who comes in.

The latest owners of the house are the Tokunaga family, consisting of salaryman Katsuya, his wife Kazumi, and his ill mother Sachie. Kazumi is quickly consumed by the curse, and Katsuya is emotionally affected by Takeo's personality before dying too. Katsuya's sister Hitomi dies shortly after Kayako's spirit follows her to her office and then her apartment.

Social worker Rika is sent by her boss Hirohashi to care for Sachie. She discovers Toshio and witnesses Sachie being killed by Kayako's ghost, causing her to faint. Hirohashi finds Rika and contacts the police. Detectives Nakagawa and Igarashi discover Katsuya's and Kazumi's bodies in the attic and later learn of Hitomi's disappearance and the death of a security guard at her workplace. Hirohashi's body is discovered, and Rika is haunted by the ghosts.

Upon researching the history of the house and the Saeki murders, Nakagawa and Igarashi contact a retired detective named Toyama, who is afraid of revisiting the case. Toyama goes to burn the house down but hears a group of teenage girls upstairs. One flees while the others are consumed. Kayako appears, chasing Toyama away but killing Nakagawa and Igarashi. Toyama eventually dies, leaving behind a daughter named Izumi. As a teenager, Izumi went to the house with her friends but fled while her friends were killed by Kayako; this was the event Toyama witnessed in the past.

Izumi is wrought with guilt for abandoning her friends and becomes increasingly paranoid and unstable. Two of her other friends visit her and discover Izumi and her dead friends have their eyes blackened out in photos. Izumi encounters a vision of her dead father and then discovers the ghosts of her friends watching her. She is cornered by her dead friends, only for Kayako to appear and drag her into damnation.

Some time later after visiting the house, Rika has moved on with her life. Her friend Mariko, an elementary school teacher, pays a visit to Toshio, who is registered as her student but has never shown up for class. Rika races to save her but is too late. Kayako's ghost comes after her, and Rika witnesses Kayako briefly take on her appearance. She realizes that she is doomed to play out the curse and the same fate as Kayako. With Toshio watching from the banisters, Takeo’s ghost descends the stairs and kills her.

In the deserted Tokyo streets, many missing persons' posters lie on the ground. Rika's corpse, now with a much longer hairstyle similar to Kayako's, lies in the house's attic, only to reawaken with a death rattle.

Cast

Production

Ju-On: The Grudge was filmed entirely in Tokyo. [4]

Remake

In 2004, Sony Pictures Entertainment released an American remake of the film. The film was directed by Takashi Shimizu and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr. The main plot of the film follows Rika's experience within the house but with a different ending. Its sequel, The Grudge 2 , however, mirrors a similar ending, where Aubrey Davis meets the same fate as Rika.[ citation needed ]

A sidequel and reboot of the original 2004 American film was released on 3 January 2020.[ citation needed ]

Release

Ju-on: The Grudge was shown on 18 October 2002 at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles California under the title The Grudge. [5] The film was also screened as part of Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2003. [1]

Ju-On was given a limited theatrical release by Solar Films in the Philippines on 26 November 2003. [6] The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 23 July 2004. [7]

In the United States, the film grossed a total of $325,680 from 23 July – 9 December 2004. [8] Ju-on: The Grudge was released on DVD by Lions Gate on 9 November. The disc contains an audio commentary with Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel and interviews with the cast and crew. [9]

A sequel to the film titled Ju-on: The Grudge 2 , also directed by Shimizu, was released in 2003. [10]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 80% based on five reviews, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. [11] At Metacritic, a website which assigns a rating out of 100 for reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 48, based on 22 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews". [12] The Washington Post gave the film a mixed reviewing, stating that it "isn't particularly scary. No, it's much harder on you than mere fright: It's ... creepy" and "it lacks any interest in conventional narrative and doesn't bother with hero or heroine, or with any sense of coherency, of any mechanism of solution of its mystery". [13] David Kehr of The New York Times compared the film unfavourably to The Ring (1998), opining that Ju-on: The Grudge "turns into a rote series of killings, with each new sequence introduced by a title with the name of its primary victim. Because there is a new hero to identify with every 10 minutes, the viewer isn't drawn into a sustained suspense, but is merely subjected to a series of more or less foreseeable shocks". [14] Kim Newman gave the film three stars out of five in Empire , noting that "as a film, it is at once too much a part of an overarching story and divided into too many episodes to be all of a piece. However, as a sustained collection of scare moments, it's a winner". [15] Derek Elley compared the film unfavourably to both The Ring and Dark Water , writing that "in the end, The Grudge comes down to little more than when and where the ghostly little boy will next appear, and the final explanation is so-what". [1]

The film's reception has changed to become more positive over time, with many fans and critics now frequently listing it as one of the greatest Japanese horror films ever made. [16] [17]

Some critics have identified loose connections between the story in the film and the traditional Japanese folktale Yotsuya Kaidan . [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Ju-On is a Japanese horror franchise created by Takashi Shimizu. The franchise began in 1998 with the release of the short films Katasumi and 4444444444. Shimizu attended the Film School of Tokyo, where he studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Kurosawa helped Shimizu shepherd the Ju-On projects to fruition.

<i>The Grudge</i> 2004 American film by Takashi Shimizu

The Grudge is a 2004 supernatural horror film directed by Takashi Shimizu, written by Stephen Susco, and produced by Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, and Takashige Ichise. A remake of Shimizu's 2002 Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge, it is the first installment in The Grudge film series. It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, KaDee Strickland, Clea DuVall, and Bill Pullman. Takako Fuji, Yuya Ozeki, and Takashi Matsuyama portray the characters Kayako Saeki, Toshio Saeki, and Takeo Saeki from the original films. The plot is told through a nonlinear sequence of events and includes several intersecting subplots.

<i>The Grudge 2</i> 2006 film by Takashi Shimizu

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<i>Ju-On: The Curse 2</i> 2000 Japanese film

Ju-on: The Curse 2 (呪怨2), also known as simply Ju-on 2, is a 2000 Japanese V-Cinema supernatural horror film and the second installment in the Ju-on series. The film was released in Japan on March 25, 2000, and was later released on video on April 14.

<i>Ju-On: The Grudge 2</i> 2003 Japanese film

Ju-On: The Grudge 2 is a 2003 Japanese horror film and a sequel to Ju-On: The Grudge. The film was written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. It was released in Japan on August 23, 2003.

<i>Katasumi</i> and <i>4444444444</i> 1998 Japanese film

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<i>The Grudge 3</i> 2009 film by Toby Wilkins

The Grudge 3 is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed by Toby Wilkins and written by Brad Keene. The film is a sequel to The Grudge 2 (2006) and the third installment in the American The Grudge film series. The film stars Johanna Braddy, Gil McKinney, Emi Ikehata, Jadie Rose Robson, Beau Mirchoff, and Shawnee Smith, with a special appearance by Matthew Knight. It features a linear plotline unlike all of its predecessors, which used nonlinear sequences of events for their respective plots and subplots.

<i>Ju-On: The Curse</i> 2000 Japanese film

Ju-on: The Curse, also known as simply Ju-on, is a 2000 Japanese V-Cinema supernatural horror film and the first installment in the Ju-on franchise, following two short films. The film was written and directed by Takashi Shimizu and is divided into six parts, chronicling the experiences of tenants of a cursed house where a man, Takeo Saeki killed his wife, Kayako, in a jealous rage. It was followed by Ju-on: The Curse 2 in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kayako Saeki</span> Fictional character in the Ju-On franchise

Kayako Saeki is the main antagonist of the Ju-On and The Grudge horror franchises. Kayako's fictional history alternates slightly between continuities, but all depict her as the vengeful ghost of a woman killed by her husband, Takeo, along with their son Toshio, in a murder–suicide that happened after he came to believe she was having an affair. After the crime, the spirits of all three are bound to their family home, haunting and killing all who enter in the following years.

The Grudge is an American supernatural horror film series released by Sony Pictures based on and a part of the larger Japanese Ju-On franchise. The first installment is a remake of Ju-On: The Grudge and follows a similar storyline to the Japanese film. The sequel, The Grudge 2, is not a remake and follows a unique storyline, albeit still borrowing some plot elements from several Japanese predecessors. Another sequel, The Grudge 3, picks up shortly after the events of the second film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takeo Saeki</span> Fictional character

Takeo Saeki is a fictional character appearing in the Ju-on film franchise and the husband of Kayako Saeki. Since his introduction up to The Grudge 3, he has been portrayed by long-time veteran actor Takashi Matsuyama; he is the only Saeki family member not to be portrayed by multiple actors. However, Matsuyama was replaced by actor Yasuhito Hida for the 2014 Japanese reboot, Ju-on: Beginning of the End, and its sequel Ju-on: The Final Curse.

<i>Ju-On: The Grudge</i> (video game) 2009 video game

Ju-On: The Grudge, known in Japan as Kyōfu Taikan: Ju-On, is a survival horror video game developed for the Wii. It was produced in honor of the Ju-On series' 10th anniversary. The game was directed by Takashi Shimizu, who also helmed the films. The game was developed by feelplus and published in Japan by AQ Interactive on July 30, 2009, and in North America and Europe in October of the same year by Xseed Games and Rising Star Games, respectively.

<i>Ju-On: White Ghost</i> 2009 Japanese horror film

Ju-On: White Ghost is a 2009 Japanese supernatural horror film produced in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Ju-on series. Like most films in the franchise, White Ghost is told through anachronistic order, with each vignette titled after a character central to the story. The Saeki murders, central to previous Ju-on films, are absent from the sequel, with Toshio Saeki making a brief cameo being the only exception.

Karen Davis (<i>The Grudge</i>) Fictional character

Karen Davis is a fictional character from The Grudge franchise. Being the central character of the American franchise, she uncovers the Saeki house's dark past and is the only one to survive the first film. She returns in The Grudge 2 and compels her sister, Aubrey, to put a stop to the curse. Her portrayal was met with acclaim by critics and the films crew. She makes a cameo appearance in The Grudge 3 with a flashback scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toshio Saeki</span> Fictional character

Toshio Saeki is a fictional character from the Ju-on franchise, created by Takashi Shimizu. He was played by several child actors, including Daiki Sawada in the short movie 4444444444, Ryōta Koyama in the original two V-Cinema movies, Yuya Ozeki in the theatrical movies and The Grudge, Ohga Tanaka in The Grudge 2, Shimba Tsuchiya in The Grudge 3, Shūsei Uto in Ju-on: White Ghost and Ju-on: Black Ghost, Kai Kobayashi in the 2014 Japanese reboot Ju-on: The Beginning of the End, and Garrett Masuda in the parody Scary Movie 4. He is characterized by his pitch-black eyes, pale skin, and the haunting meowing sounds he makes.

<i>Ju-On: The Beginning of the End</i> 2014 Japanese film

Ju-on: The Beginning of the End is a 2014 Japanese supernatural horror film and the tenth installment of the Ju-on franchise. The film was directed and co-written by Masayuki Ochiai with Takashige Ichise producing and co-writing. The Beginning of the End is a reboot of the series, retelling the events of the cursed Saeki family that centers on a house in Nerima, Japan.

<i>Ju-On: The Final Curse</i> 2015 Japanese film

Ju-On: The Final Curse is a 2015 Japanese supernatural horror film and the eleventh installment of the Ju-on franchise. The film is a direct sequel to Ju-on: The Beginning of the End, set in that film's continuity and was marketed as the final film in the Ju-on franchise. The film was produced and co-written by Takashige Ichise and directed and co-written by Masayuki Ochiai. The film was released on June 20, 2015.

<i>Sadako vs. Kayako</i> 2016 Japanese film

Sadako vs. Kayako is a 2016 Japanese supernatural horror film directed by Kōji Shiraishi. It is a crossover of the Ju-on and Ring series. The film was first teased as an April Fools' joke on April 1, 2015, but was later confirmed on December 10 to be a real production. It was released in Japan on June 18, 2016, Indonesia on August 10, and in North America on the streaming site Shudder on January 26, 2017. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Saeki is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Elley, Derek (28 October 2003). "Review: 'The Grudge'". Variety . Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (15)". Medusa Communications & Marketing. British Board of Film Classification. 14 August 2003. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  3. ↑ "Ju-on: The Grudge". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  4. ↑ "15 Famous Movies Filmed in Tokyo (Japan)". The Irishman.com. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "The Grudge". Screamfest Horror Film Festival. Archived from the original on 20 October 2002. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  6. ↑ "Opens Today At Selected Theaters Only". Philippine Daily Inquirer . The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc. 26 November 2003. p. A30. Retrieved 8 September 2022. Makapanindig balahibu! Mapapaihi ka sa takot... Mauutal ka sa pagkatulala!!
  7. ↑ Cooper, Tracie. "Ju-on: The Grudge". Allmovie . All Media Guide . Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Ju-On: The Grudge (2004)". Box Office Mojo . Internet Movie Database . Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  9. ↑ "Ju-on: The Grudge". Allmovie. All Media Guide. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  10. ↑ Weissberg, Jay (24 November 2003). "Review: 'The Grudge 2'". Variety . Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Ju-on: The Grudge". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  12. ↑ "Ju-on: The Grudge". Metacritic . Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  13. ↑ Hunter, Stephen (15 October 2004). "'Ju-On': It's Sure To Give You The Creeps". Washington Post . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  14. ↑ Kehr, David (23 July 2004). "Beware the Ghosts in the Closet (and Virtually Everywhere Else)". The New York Times . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  15. ↑ Newman, Kim. "Ju-On: The Grudge". Empire . Retrieved 27 September 2014.[ dead link ]
  16. ↑ Top 10 J Horror Films , retrieved 25 December 2023
  17. ↑ Casalena, Em (8 September 2016). "The 16 Best Japanese Horror Movies of All Time". ScreenRant. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  18. ↑ 28 December 2019 (28 December 2019). "The Grudge's Ghost Origin Story Explained". Screen Rant. Retrieved 5 November 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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