Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)

A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.

Director:

Takashi Shimizu

Writer:

Takashi Shimizu

Stars:

Megumi Okina, Misaki Itô, Misa Uehara

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Megumi Okina	...	Rika Nishina
Misaki Itô	...	Hitomi Tokunaga
Misa Uehara	...	Izumi Tôyama
Yui Ichikawa	...	Chiharu
Kanji Tsuda	...	Katsuya Tokunaga
Kayoko Shibata	...	Mariko
Yukako Kukuri	...	Miyuki
Shuri Matsuda	...	Kazumi Tokunaga
Yôji Tanaka	...	Yûji Tôyama
Yoshiyuki Morishita	...	Keibiin
Hideo Sakaki	...	Fukushi Sentâ Jimuin
Takashi Matsuyama	...	Takeo Saeki
Yuya Ozeki	...	Toshio
Takako Fuji	...	Kayako
Chikara Ishikura	...	Hirohashi

Storyline

In Japan, when the volunteer social assistant Rika Nishina is assigned to visit a family, she is cursed and chased by two revengeful fiends: Kayako, a woman brutally murdered by her husband and her son Toshio. Each person that lives in or visits the haunted house is murdered or disappears.

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Plot Keywords:

shower | ghost boy | ghost child | ghost | bad guy wins | 

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Taglines:

When a grudge from the dead passes to the living - Who is safe?

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

25 January 2003 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Ju-on

Filming Locations:

Nerima, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,032, 30 July 2004, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$325,661, 5 December 2004

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pioneer LDC, Nikkatsu, Oz Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 103 min (original cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS-Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is the third installment of the Ju-on series. The film was preceded by two low budget films from 2000 (Ju-on (2000) and Ju-on 2 (2000)), whose storylines are continued in this sequel.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 18 mins) When Rika wakes up in bed to a room full of yowling black cats, several of the cats are obviously statues. Some of them are even clearly replicas of the same statue.

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Quotes

[repeated line]
Hirohashi: Thanks for the effort.

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Connections

Referenced in My Pure Joy (2011)

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Soundtracks

Kagi ga akanai
Music by Hiroyuki Hamamoto
Lyrics by Kei Noguchi
Performed by Suitei Shôjo
Courtesy of Epic Records Japan

User Reviews

Not bad, one of the better ones

With obvious homages to Ring, The Grudge could be accused of an element of plagiarism. That doesn't, however, detract from the fact it's a pretty decent picture, and one of the better Tartan Asia Extreme movies.

First things first - I *love* Ring, and of course, I mean the Japanese original. That film is by far and away the greatest horror flick ever devised and goes above and beyond what I ever expected a movie to do. However, it also instigated a ready conveyor belt of substandard imitators from the same shores ready to cash in on this unique success. Dire nonsense like the hollow Dark Water, the dull and over stylised Eye, the truly pitiful Phone and the slightly bizarre Audition haven't truly come close to the level of Ring.

Now, while Grudge isn't quite up there with the very best horror films, as far as these Asian efforts go, it's definitely one of the more effective selections.

Megumi Okina is Rika, a volunteer homehelper. On being assigned to a family whose regular assistant is temporarily unavailable, she encounters the mother of the family who seems unresponsive. However, after a disturbing incident at the family home, Rika finds herself seemingly haunted by some kind of entity and everyone who gets involved in the case seems to endure the same trauma.

It's a slightly convoluted story to explain, but it works pretty well on screen. As usual the Japanese acting is generally pretty bland, but a few loud screams certainly add colour.

The main 'bad guy' seems to be some type of ghostly being, and while it doesn't utterly terrify, it definitely brings a few chills. The only real problem is we see too much of it, and not enough is left to our imagination ala Ring. This takes away a certain air mystery and fear. Moreover, the fact the entity resembles the symbolic Japanese girl with long black hair we've come to expect in the likes of Ring and Dark Water slightly detracts from notions of originality.

However, this is redeemed by some pretty effective direction and camera-work, which aid to promote certain wrongness about what is going on.

Perhaps a few aspects don't altogether make complete sense, but there's enough style here to paper over such cracks.

Movies like this do go to show that when it comes to horror, the Far East have a handle over the Western world.

It's by no means the most brilliant horror I've ever seen, but it's definitely not bad and if you're up for a chill or 2, you could do far worse.