The Grudge: A Retrospective

Well, we have done a retrospective on The Ring franchise, so it makes sense to do the same to its sisterly series: The Grudge. Better known as Ju-On in Japan, the series was created by Takashi Shimizu, who made a bone-chilling premise. I caught the American remake on television and it scared the hell out of me, giving me nightmares for a long time. Both The Ring and The Grudge are both creepy, unsettling experiences that thrive in unnerving the audience.

Ju-On revolves around a cursed haunted house in suburban Tokyo, where a family were murdered through violent means, and their ghosts return as unstoppable, vengeful, and very angry, restless spirits. The housewife Kayako Saeki had an obsessive crush on her son’s teacher. Her husband Takeo found out, went berserk, and broke her neck. Depending on the often confusing continuity, he may have also killed their son Toshio, and his pet cat too. Anyone who steps into the house is doomed, and will eventually be consumed by the curse, or even becoming a part of it. Kayako’s signature, disturbing, croaky death rattle, and Toshio’s meowing taunts have cemented their place in my mind.

Each film is told through a series of vignettes focusing on different characters, though often in a disorganized, non-linear fashion, so each film jumps around a lot in its own timeline. Each film, at least in the Japanese series, connect to one another through minor scenes or background events. The franchise consists of two short films, two TV movies, two cinematic releases, two back-to-back spin-offs, a reboot and sequel, an American trilogy, and a crossover with The Ring. But, remarkably, it feels like the same film has been remade over and over again. The same things often happen, and it can make The Grudge a little tiring if you intend on watching the whole franchise.

Ju-On: The Curse

The first “V-Cinema” television film released in 1998 by Takashi Shimizu, Ju-On: The Curse was preceded by two short films – “Katasumi” and “44444444”, which both tie-in to the film. Why on earth they didn’t just insert them into the film is beyond me? It revolves around the cursed Saeki house, and those who encounter it – as does every other film that follows.

The main plot focuses on Toshio’s teacher Kobayashi visiting the home, unaware that the Saeki family are all dead, and his student is a freaky, meowing ghost. This sequence has a lot of creepy moments, and eagle eyed viewers can spot some really creepy things in the background and wide shots. Kobayashi discovers Kayako’s body in the attic, and then receives a rather disturbing phone call from her jealous husband Takeo (Takashi Matsuyama), revealing he has murdered Kobayashi’s pregnant wife. Then, Kayako (Takako Fuji) emerges from the attic and slowly crawls down the stairs. Having a broken neck and ankles, she can only groan and crawl around the franchise, and in an increasingly hair-raising manner. Though, it doesn’t stop her from uttering her lone line of dialogue in the whole film, still enamoured with the teacher. And during all this, Toshio is meowing down the phone. We also see Kayako’s ghost then come for her murderous husband.

This whole sequence is severely unsettling, and perhaps the scariest that this franchise gets in terms of atmosphere. The performances by Fuji, Matsuyama, and Toshio’s actor Ryota Koyama are all fantastic and extremely frightening. Kayako’s marionette movements and death rattle, Toshio’s meowing, and Takeo’s dark breathing are creepy as hell. The trio, or at least Takako Fuji and Takashi Matsuyama, would play the roles throughout the Japanese series and then in the American remakes.

The remainder of the film focuses on the family who moved into the house after the Saekis died. Sadly, there isn’t much character growth in the film (or the series), and most characters are just canon fodder to be killed. One character has a phobia of cats, which doesn’t help when her friend has tons of cat toys that stare at her, hinting at the larger supernatural presence in the house. As we shall see, Kayako and co. can do just about whatever they want with reality in their house.

Another great moment is when one character disappears offscreen and returns as a shuffling zombie missing her bottom jaw, though the special effects are naff. Chiaki Kuriyama, best known from Battle Royale and Kill Bill, appears in a supporting role. The film doesn’t really have a final act, but rather a set up for the sequel, involving a pair of sibling estate agents plotting to sell the Saeki house to a new family. The sister, being psychic, a common occurrence in Japanese films, senses something is wrong with the house. But, her brother has already sold the house. The film has a memorable score by Geirî Ashiya, and the use of minimalistic scares works well.

Ju-On: The Curse 2

After the first film, its sequel is a half-film, since a majority of its footage is recycled from the original, specifically Kobayashi’s vignette, and the last fifteen minutes, which set up this film’s plot. The estate agent siblings, Tatsuya and Kyoko, sell the Saeki house, but soon face its influence. It turns out Tatsuya and his son Nobuyuki live in Kobayashi’s old apartment. Nobuyuki and Kyoko are left traumatised and clearly haunted after encountering a re-enactment of Takeo murdering Kobayashi’s wife. Tatsuya takes them to his parents’ house, but things go very wrong. This plot wraps up halfway through, and the last twenty-five minutes or so go through a series of increasingly silly scares to kill off the remaining cast of the first film. One thing of importance is established about the curse – it spreads like an infection. If a person goes into the house, but dies elsewhere, that location becomes infected with the curse.

Ju-On: The Grudge

The first cinematic release, Ju-On: The Grudge is commonly mistook for the first film in the series. Our main heroine or victim is Rika, a care worker who is assigned to care for an elderly woman living in the infamous house. She hears meowing behind a taped up closet door, and finds Toshio trapped inside. It has a great build up of tension. Rika then drops out of the story for, well, years. She doesn’t return til the third act, set years later, and is drawn suddenly back into the spider web and suffers a terrible fate. Yes, not only does the curse influence space, but also time.

In another subplot, a traumatised police officer Toyama has to confront his demons, his colleagues consumed by the curse. There is a terrifying moment where he watches security footage, and witnesses Kayako’s spectre lurch towards the camera, vanish, and then suddenly appear right in front of it with her eyes staring directly at him. Whilst trying to burn down the house, Toyama is flung forward in time and encounters a high school girl who regards him with familiarity. Toyama then dies offscreen, and this girl turns out to be his daughter, Izumi, who was introduced as child. Izumi is certainly one of the more tragic victims of the curse, tormented by the phantoms of friends she abandoned in the house after a dare went wrong.

I’d say the most eerie part of the film is the very end, showing desolate streets of Tokyo with tons of missing persons posters covering every wall and lamppost, implying the curse has spread far and wide.

Ju-On: The Grudge 2

The fourth installment can easily be considered the finale of the original series. While it has the usual tentpoles of the franchise, it has the most fascinating goals of the franchise. The film focuses on an actress named Kyoko who is caught in a car crash staged by Toshio, suffers a miscarriage, and her husband is left comatose. But, then Toshio appears to her in hospital, touching her stomach, and Kyoko ends up pregnant. We learn through the vignettes that Kyoko was involved in filming a TV show in the Saeki house, now a local legend. The other crew members get their own plotlines along the way, though it is mostly to be killed through creative means.

Kayako becomes particularly violent and unforgiving, murdering characters without mercy. The crew’s screenwriter is hung through an elaborate, time-displacing sequence, and the make up artist is, well, attacked by a wig that transforms into Kayako. Any sense of sympathy for Kayako and Toshio is gone, as they are depicted as malicious banshees, and Kayako is at her most frightening, now a lurching, bloodstained contortionist. The curse’s ability to play with time becomes even more absurd, with Toshio, still alive, steps out of the past into the present to interact with Kyoko. There’s a rather pointless subplot involving one of Izumi’s surviving friends, who is dragged through time by the curse, and then randomly dies.

The film’s ending is pretty amazing. Kyoko comes across Kayako’s personal diary and suddenly falls into labour. She is rushed into hospital, and gives birth to a reborn Kayako. This may have been the ghosts’ plan the whole time. Cut to several years later, the now toddler Kayako pushes Kyoko off a bridge for no reason, and departs into the unknown with her diary in hand. And this is, chronologically, the last time we see the character, leaving a lot of unanswered questions about the curse and timeline of the films. What about that apocalyptic ending of the last film? This by far the best of the Ju-On films, and if Takashi Shimizu intended on this to be the last hurrah, it was a wonderfully bleak film to end with.

The American Trilogy

Chronologically, the American trilogy was released next. The Grudge is basically a direct remake and fusion of the first and third Japanese films. Sarah Michelle Gellar fulfils Rika’s role, but sadly never whips out a vampire stake at any point to fight the ghosts. Takako Fuji and Takashi Matsuyama returned for the remakes, and are now even more terrifying as Kayako and Takeo. Being an American remake, a few familiar actors show up. Bill Pullman appears as Toshio’s teacher, and Ted Raimi appears in a supporting role. Japanese horror veteran Ryo Ishibashi (of Audition fame) appears as Detective Nakagawa. Originally, The Grudge was going to be a standalone film with a relatively happy ending, with the ghosts allowed to move on and find peace, but the ending was changed to make sequels.

The Grudge 2 takes elements from Ju-On: The Grudge 2, but does some original things to, unnecessarily trying to explain certain parts of the mythology. There are three stories: Amber Tamblyn (who had also appeared in The Ring) plays Sarah Michelle Gellar’s sister, who goes to Japan to retrieve her sister, but she is killed by Kayako; three high school students go into the house and you can guess what happens; and far away in Chicago, a family move into a tower block and find the neighbours are a little creepy. The three subplots all connect together, with a couple of surprises about who, what, and when take place.

The most interesting part is when Amber Tamblyn tracks down Kayako’s mother, a spirit medium who force fed a young Kayako bad spirits, mostly an excuse to explain why she is such a frightening ghost. Kayako then appears and kills her mother in what feels like one of the few personal kills in the film. I do particularly like the plot twist in the third act, and it opens up a whole new can of worms with the curse going international. Sadly, this was the last time Takako Fuji plays Kayako; like Boris Karloff, she worried her iconic role would turn stale, and bowed out from the role. Takashi Shimizu also stopped directing the films after this. Too bad the producers didn’t do the same.

The Grudge 3 is just pants. Kayako seems to have ditched the psychological, crawling-under-your-skin scares and just relies on American clichés and gore to kill people. Kayako’s sister Naoko, heads to Chicago to exorcise her sister from the tower block. Tenants of the building, specifically three siblings, Lisa, Max, and Rose, become involved in Naoko’s task. Toshio is played by Shimba Tsuchiya, making the young boy appear slightly older. Despite an engaging finale and interesting ideas, it is a poor end to the American trilogy, lacking Shimizu’s sense of chills and thrills, and relies on jumpscares and gore to frighten the audience.

White Ghost & Black Ghost

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Ju-On, two back-to-back spin-off films were released: White Ghost & Black Ghost. Aside from cameos by Toshio, these films are disassociated with the main characters and completely original. I do like this idea and exploring that possibility of there being more than one “grudge” in Tokyo. The Halloween series attempted this, but it backfired, since audiences were accustomed to Michael Myers. Both films are only an hour long and vaguely connected if you pay close attention.

White Ghost is closer in tone to the main series, involving another haunted house and a ghostly family. A teenager, Akane, mourns the death of her childhood friend Mirai, feeling guilt for not protecting her from her abusive uncle. After performing an Ouija game, Mirai’s ghost appears and haunts Akane. The film is told in a non-linear fashion as always, but has a few pointless subplots. Mirai’s ghost appeared to murder Akane’s father on Christmas Eve, but acts innocent and as a victim throughout the film. The film clumsily handles moments that are meant to be serious, but feel silly. What should feel like a serious movie, comes off as unintentionally hilarious.

Black Ghost is the better of the two, and has a far more original story. It is about a hospitalised girl, Fukie Yotoka, who shows signs of possession. Her mother and aunt discover Fukie’s body is shared with a cyst – the remains of an absorbed twin, which wants its own life. What a fantastic idea. It takes a couple of viewings to understand the plot, but it is a good one. The film has a rather tragic ending, and dramatic consequences for well-intentioned people. There is a minor tie-in to White Ghost, both involving the same house, so Black Ghost actually takes place before the other film. I would love to see more original Ju-On films, but sadly, the next film was yet another remake.

Ju-On: The Beginning of the End

A pointless remake with a pointless title. A remake and reboot of the original films, recycling plot elements and offers little original content. A teacher, this time a woman, goes to the Saeki house to find out why Toshio isn’t coming to school, while a group of school girls dare each other to go into the haunted house. As you might expect, the ghosts soon start to stalk and kill the characters. Rinse and repeat. Toshio gets a strange new origin story. He is a body-jumping ghost of a dead child, reborn anew as Toshio, only to then die again and become a ghost again. He’s stuck in this weird loop.

The titular grudge comes on a whim, when Kayako randomly tells Takeo that Toshio isn’t his child (technically he is, but he’s also the spirit of an already dead child). Takeo starts mugging at the camera, goes nuts, and murders his wife, and nukes the family cat in the microwave. What a creep! One thing of interest is that we see Kayako’s transformation into her iconic phantom appearance. A lot of the film is taken from the others – the broken jaw, the spooky diary, etc. There is a lot of silly moments in the films. Cardboard boxes shudder and jump around “menacingly”, one girl is dragged to her doom into a fridge (does Toshio know Zuul?), and then there’s the subway scare scene.

One character, Nanami, encounters the ghosts of her dead friends on the train. One is missing her lower jaw, and Nanami’s reaction isn’t exactly one of fright. She then turns around, and finds another friend has become a giant for some reason, and this causes her to scream in terror. Even the traditional “Kayako comes down the stairs” scenes gets mishandled. The camera hovers on the stairs, the music rises in anticipation, only for the camera to then swing to the right, revealing Kayako is upside-down on the ceiling. This whole film is a waste of time and not worth the watch. 

Ju-On: The Final Curse

 

The quote-on-quote final film of the Ju-On franchise (if Sadako vs. Kayako doesn’t count), Ju-On: The Final Curse is a sequel to the previous film, and is a little better. The teacher from the last film disappeared, and her sister becomes the main character. But her storyline is boring and treads through familiar water. What is really interesting is the other subplot, where Toshio (who can leave his mortal body) moves in with his cousin Reo and her mother. Toshio is still creepy as hell, but it does humanise him a little. Sadly, he brings the curse and his mother’s ghost with him, so his family meet unfortunate fates.

There’s a lovely scene where Toshio visits a terminally ill girl in hospital after she spots his ghost from afar. Rather than kill her, Toshio has a conversation with her, even letting her pet his cat (who somehow went from ginger to black). She states she’ll die soon, and offers to keep him company in the afterlife. This turns out to be a double-edged deal, since Toshio possesses her body and then dumps it aside, revealing the curse continues through him, and he can control bodies like puppets for some reason. The Final Curse isn’t a bad film, but focuses on the wrong story.

I feel that the Saeki family have run their course. White Ghost and Black Ghost found the right track, and if this franchise was to continue, it should follow a similar path by telling original stories. You can only make the same movie so many times.

Happy Halloween!