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Ju On: The Grudge

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:13 am
by stypees back
Watched this with the girlfriend Saturday night, what the hell was this freaking movie about? It stole from so many different films including "The Ring".

It was painfully boring yet beautifully shot, some of the effects were interesting and the zombie creature thing that walked on all fours (was it a "cat woman" what the hell was that?) was a little creepy.

This was one of those films that had so much potential and just flushed itself down the toilet. There was only one scene that made us jump a little than after that it was a total snoozer.

What aggraviates me so much is that this really could have been a good movie, it was just so dam slow.

We forced ourselves to watch the whole thing but were extremely disappointed. If you haven't seen this, don't. The only good thing about it is the preview (which is why I bought the DVD in the first place). It was like watching a really bad Argento movie.

On the other hand if you like zombies or ghosts (?) that look like their covered in grey baby powder than you'll enjoy this and it'll cure any case of insomnia.

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:34 am
by Chris Slack
I dunno, I really enjoyed this one, I thought it was creeepy as hell and had some awesome scares.

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 10:49 am
by ROBERT
I loved it. Awesome scares. The film isn't perfect. For one You don't really care that much for any of the characters. Maybe just the social worker.

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 6:42 am
by Latte Thunder
Is there a subtitled version of this yet? I'd been waiting to see it for the longest time but as usual with most Japanese flicks, they take forever to release a cut with english subs.

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 7:36 am
by stypees back
Yes, there is a subbed version. Do you have a Region Free Player? It's a Region 3 disc I believe. The subs were actually well done.. I was quite surprised. They also don't take away from what's happening on the screen.

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 12:06 pm
by Chris Slack
I got this version at the end of the summer, good subs too!

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/p ... on-videos/

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 7:06 pm
by stypees back
Yeap.. that's the one I got. Nice Site Chris, I like their prices.. how are they with shipping?

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:01 pm
by Kimberly
While I've not seen The Grudge yet... I do have the first one and thought that it was really creepy. It had the trailer for The Grudge on it and am looking foward to seeing it :)

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 2:31 am
by stypees back
Originally posted by Kimberly
While I've not seen The Grudge yet... I do have the first one and thought that it was really creepy. It had the trailer for The Grudge on it and am looking foward to seeing it :)


That's exactly how I felt when I saw the trailer. In fact, it's the reason why I bought the movie. That scene with the kid or women under the bed (not a spoiler) scared the shit out of me so I felt I had to see it. I don't know, I just found it really slow. As I mentioned, I thought the weird zombies or whatever they were had an interesting look and I did get one good scare but other than that it just felt kind of "there". It appears as though the consesus liked the film so more than likely you'll dig it. It's only like 92 minutes long.. When you watch it Kimberly let us know what you think.

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 6:32 am
by Latte Thunder
Originally posted by stypees back
Yeap.. that's the one I got. Nice Site Chris, I like their prices.. how are they with shipping?
They ship fast. I've ordered a couple of times from Yesasia and I have nothing but good things to say about them. Navigating their site is a bit of a pain, but the actual ordering process and shipping is a breeze.

I'm going to have to pick this movie up.

edit: Ordered it a couple of days ago. We'll see how it turns out.

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 9:11 pm
by Latte Thunder
Got my Ju-On in the mail today and after a little bit of fucking around with the player, I switched it into Region 9 and had the disc spinning. Here are my thoughts:

Ju-On scared the fuck out of me. It's that god damn simple. I consider it the Pulp Fiction of horror that works on levels that few horror movies do. You see, The Grudge is genuinely terrifying. It's not shocking like most American horror is where you, the viewer, are bombarded with quick in your face BOO! scares or sudden and explicit violence, The Grudge takes it's time in scaring the shit out of you. It builds tension quickly, let's you register the look of fear on the face of the characters and then lets you see what's so god damn scary.

Several times during the viewing did I think to myself, I can shut this off and pick it up another time when I'm not such a pussy, but like a soldier, I trudged on. The movie played it's hand correctly and used all the devices that scare me. It doesn't take some asshole in a mask to jump out of a closet to make me scared. But if you paint a little Japanese boy white and have him silently sitting in a corner, where he wasn't just a second ago, staring at me like he's also terrified, I guarantee you I'm going to need a pair of Oops I Crapped My Pants, because a combination of a high fiber diet and a little movie from Japan called Ju-On just made a boom in my Darth Maul boxers.

The story, like most Japanese horror flicks, takes a good many grains of salt to accept. To tell the truth, short of a vague understanding that the house harbors some kind of violent cycle of haunting, I'm really not sure of what was going on. I was really too busy wondering what the hell they were going to do next to scare me. Since it's scares were so effective, I'm willing to let the vague story slide and even let the fact that it's yet another Japanese ghost story go. Ju-On was great!

See... This is a very special thing, because I've been hearing for about five years from various people that Japanese or Korean Horror Movie X is going to scare the shit out of me only to see it later on after all the hype and be left completely unfulfilled. Ju-On I've been hearing about for quite some time now and it actually delivered.

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:26 pm
by stypees back
I don't know, while I agree with your points that the story was way to vague. I just didn't get that feeling I wanted to have after seeing the film. Maybe because I was with my girlfriend when I was watching it, in fact, I was the dweeb that jumped during one of those fucked up "under the bed scenes".

That's the kind of stuff that works.. I suppose when I was a kid I always found my security from the boogeyman (or in my case "bigfoot") was hiding under the blanket. So you take that away than your "safety blanket" has completely disappeared.

I'll give it another shot and watch it alone. It'll probably make me shit my pants...

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2004 1:32 pm
by Kimberly
STILL haven't seen The Grudge. There was a mix up on my order and was sent a copy of the first V Cinema version of JuOn (which I already have). However I did get the sequel to the V Cineama one... JuOn 2: The Curse.

The first part of it is like a recap of the first one. Little more detail in explaining the story and footage is used from the first one.

However, the rest of it is just as fucking creepy. At one point my friend and I belted out a scream. Like when watching the first one... I didn't sleep very well last night :/

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 3:17 pm
by digital kkkhrist
hmm..

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 3:38 pm
by Chris Slack
Originally posted by digital kkkhrist
hmm..


Care to elaborate on that?

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:17 am
by Kimberly
Finally watched this last night (along with Ring: Spiral and Bangkok Haunted) and I have to say like the other two I've seen it totally delivers on the creepiness!!

I can totally see where people would get lost watching it. Hell my friend and I were having a hard time keeping track of everyone. It totally didn't let me down and once again I didn't sleep very well.

I read the other day some not so favorable reviews to the sequel to The Grudge. Out of the three that I have seen I'm going to have go with the second V-Cinema as the one I enjoyed the most. It explained the most as far as the story of Toshio, his mother and the mess that his father created... with some scares that were really good, that I don't want to spoil.

I read that the director of all these movies directed the American version... I'm really curious to see how that's going to turn out.

He also did one of the Tomie movies. I have the first one here and will get to it soon. Anyone see it or the other Tomie films? If so, what did you think?

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:15 am
by Latte Thunder
I saw the sequel last week and I really didn't care for it. It seems to miss the point of the original and moves very slowly. It had some really neat ideas that were creepy, but the whole thing overall didn't deliver like the first one did.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:42 pm
by Kimberly
I'll still end up seeing it despite the not so wonderful reviews I've read :)

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 2:18 pm
by DylanDog
So where the fuck does one get a copy of Ju-on the Curse, one or two??? All I see anywhere is the Grudge one and two. And don't tell me eBay.

I do have the Curse 2 downloading off of bit torrent now. Do I need to see one first?

I'm angry.

Btw, I watched Tomie:Rebirth last week. If you like the Tomie series, it's more of the same. If you don't, don't bother with it on account of it being the same director.

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 4:32 pm
by Chris Slack
Originally posted by DylanDog
So where the fuck does one get a copy of Ju-on the Curse, one or two??? All I see anywhere is the Grudge one and two. And don't tell me eBay.

I do have the Curse 2 downloading off of bit torrent now. Do I need to see one first?

I'm angry.

Btw, I watched Tomie:Rebirth last week. If you like the Tomie series, it's more of the same. If you don't, don't bother with it on account of it being the same director.


I could ONLY get Ju-On 1 and 2 (the original v-cinema ones) off of Ebay. They were bootlegs but they were pressed and of good quality.

"Curse" is straight up wrong, the "Curse 2" you have coming down on Bit Torrent is Ju-On The Grudge 2, whoever created the torrent is responsible for the naming, here are the English names for the series:

Ju-On
Ju-On 2
Ju-On The Grudge
Ju-On The Grudge 2

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 6:13 pm
by DylanDog
What a pain in the ass. I just broke down and bought the first two. I hate buying bootleg dvds off of eBay. I feel dirty having done it. Still, I guess I should watch this stuff.

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:34 am
by Kimberly
I got my bootleg DVD's from http://www.superhappyfun.com

I didn't care for Tomie: Rebirth

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:43 pm
by DylanDog
Ok, in the last 4 nights I've watched Ju On 1, 2 and the Grudge. The first one scared the living shit outta me. The second was more of the same, but due to the fact that the first 20 minutes out of 75 was completely reused footage, it was too brief. Really, they should have just cut the first two together into one long movie. My only other gripe with the first two discs has more to do with the television time frame. You know that every 20 minutes or so you are gonna get a big scare, followed by a chance to recollect your wits as the story continues in the next episode.

By the time I got around to watching The Grudge, I think the series was exposed for what it is....a one trick pony. It was just a collection of sequences designed to show you creepy people in places they either shouldn't be or weren't a second ago. The plot was so flimsy that once you got accustomed to this device, the movie had too weak a framework to sustain itself. While watching part one, I couldn't wait to put the lights on because I was so scared. During the Grudge, I couldn't wait to put them on because I was so bored I wanted to do something else.

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:03 am
by Latte Thunder
I also saw the sequel a while back and didn't really care for it.

The part where the woman discovers what the knocking noise on the wall is was fucking terrifying, though. I'll give it that.

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:30 pm
by Kimberly
Opens Friday in Los Angeles @ The Nuart...

w00t!!