Deborah Woehr

I’ve never watched an entire film with subtitles before and have to admit that it felt strange at first. The storyline was very similar to the American remake, but I found that I enjoyed the Japanese version better because it focused more on the psychological horror rather than the gore aspect. The only thing that bothered me was the overdramatization, which sometimes gave away the surprise. Oftentimes, the actors would gasp at the slightest sound.

There was an innocence about these actors that I haven’t seen since the 1950’s reruns I used to watch as a little girl. The actors weren’t heavily made up or tough looking/acting. Neither did they have the “required sex scene” that has become so prevalent in Hollywood. Because of this, I would let my sons watch this movie, if they were interested in scary movies.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to other people who like ghost stories. After watching this, I’m curious to see what other movies Japan has to offer. Does anyone have any recommendations?

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6 Responses to “Review: Ju-on (The Grudge)”

Benjamin Solah on 15 Jan 2007 at 1:57 am #

I’m glad you liked it; it’s one of my faves.

There’s plenty of great J-horror movies out there and the sequel to Ju-On is pretty good too. I also wanna check out Pulse because Fred mentioned it before.

deborah.woehr on 15 Jan 2007 at 8:28 pm #

That’s where I heard of Pulse! I’d watched the previews of it online somewhere (and it looks like a spooky movie), but I knew I’d read about it on a blog.

fred charles on 17 Jan 2007 at 4:14 pm #

If you dig back in my archives, I reviewed a bunch of Japanese horror films awhile back. The Eye was one of the better movies that I watched. I also really liked Pulse and Dark Water (not the American versions).

deborah.woehr on 17 Jan 2007 at 5:12 pm #

Thanks, Fred! I’ll have to check them out.