Ju-on: The Grudge
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Ju-on: The Grudge |
| Original title | Juon |
| Country of production | Japan |
| original language | Japanese |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Takashi Shimizu |
| script | Takashi Shimizu |
| production | Takashige Ichise |
| music | Shiro Sato |
| camera | Tokusho Kikumura |
| cut | Nobuyuki Takahashi |
| occupation | |
| |
Ju-on: The Grudge ( jap. 呪 怨 , Juon ) is a Japanese film from 2002 directed by Takashi Shimizu . It is the first feature film in the Ju-on series, of which only two video market releases had previously appeared, was continued in the same year with Ju-on: The Grudge 2 and received a US remake in 2004 with The Grudge .
action
Note: This action statement reflects the events in their actual order. In the film itself, these follow in an achronological manner and with changing perspectives.
A few years after the events of Ju-On: The Curse and Ju-On: The Curse 2 the house of the Saeki family has new residents: the family Tokunaga, consisting of the Salaryman Katsuya, his wife Kazumi and Katsuyas demented mother Sachie. When Katsuya goes to work as usual on his sister Hitomi's birthday, Kazumi is haunted at home by Kayako Saeki's ghost. She is lying apathetically on her bed when he comes back and does not react to his attempts to get her attention. Suddenly she seems to have some kind of epileptic fit and dies. An alien entity (the spirit of Takeo Saeki) takes possession of the terrified Katsuya. When Hitomi shows up to celebrate her birthday with the family, Katsuya behaves absently and hostile towards her, babbles to her confusion about a child who is not supposed to be his and sends her away again. He then carries Kazumi's body to the attic, where Kayako's ghost awaits him.
A few days later, the geriatric nurse Rika is called to the Tokunagas house, where she finds Sachie, who seems to be standing completely beside her. While Rika is tidying up the house, she hears a cat meowing out of a closet on the upper floor. When she opens the cupboard, she sees them, but also a little boy called Toshio, the Saekis' son. She cannot find out from him what happened to the Tokunagas or where he is from and reports this to her superior Hirohashi on the phone. When Hitomi calls afterwards, she doesn't answer and just overhears her angry demand for an explanation for Katsuya's strange behavior on the answering machine. Rika turns back to Sachie, who is suddenly attacked by a shadowy figure. Rika passed out from shock.
At the same time, after making her phone call, Hitomi is haunted by ghostly apparitions in the office building where she works. She alerts a security guard and sends him to the ladies' room, where she was last harassed by a mysterious figure with long black hair. In his office she follows a surveillance camera as he is pulled into the toilet by a shadowy entity when he arrives, and then flees to her office in a panic. But it is not safe there either. As she crawls under the covers, Kayako's ghost appears underneath and disappears with her.
The next day, Hirohashi found the unconscious Rika and alerted the police. Detectives Nakagawa and Igarashi find the bodies of Katsuyas and Kazumi in the attic and later learn of Hitomi's disappearance and the death of a security guard in their office building. Meanwhile, Rika is haunted by the ghosts of Toshio and Kayakos at home. Nakagawa and Igarashi contact former police officer Toyama, who is investigating the Saeki murder but is afraid to return to it. When they play him the videotape of the security guard's death, he is also haunted by a shadowy figure and panicked to flee. He tries to burn down the Saeki house with gasoline, but is distracted by a vision that shows him his child-like daughter Izumi as a teenager, who enters the house with her friends a few years later but leaves them alone. The remaining three friends are killed by Kayako (this is probably the last chapter of Ju-On: The Curse 2 ). Izumi also seems to notice her father when these two time levels overlap. After the vision disappeared, Nakagawa and Igarashi appear to try to dissuade Toyama from his plan. However, all three are surprised by the spirit of Kayakos. Toyama manages to escape, while Nakagawa and Igarashi, frozen in shock, are killed by Kayako.
An indefinite time later, Rika, who has come to terms with the terrible experiences, is working again as a geriatric nurse, but is suddenly harassed again by ghostly apparitions. When her friend Mariko, a primary school teacher, tells her over the phone that she has gone to the Saeki house because Toshio is registered as one of her students but never showed up in class, Rika rushes to her rescue. However, she comes too late and can only watch helplessly as Mariko is dragged into nothingness by an invisible force. As she is about to leave the house, she notices to her confusion and dismay that when she looks in a mirror, Kayako appears there instead. She becomes aware of Kayakos and Toshio's previous appearances as attempts at contact and tries to communicate with them. Kayako's ghost now reappears and crawls down the stairs, covered in blood and groaning in agony, which now evokes compassion in Rika. Then, however, Takeo's ghost also appears and approaches Rika, who realizes too late that he will reenact the murder of his wife and that she has been chosen to take Kayako's place. He kills her before she can escape.
There are now numerous posters with missing people on the seemingly deserted streets of Tokyo. Meanwhile, Rika is lying in the attic of the Saeki house, with long black hair and wrapped in plastic like Kayako did when she was murdered. She opens her eyes and, like them, gives off a death rattle , which suggests that the cycle starts all over again and she too becomes an onryo , a spirit of revenge.
A few years later, Toyama also died and the older Izumi visited the Saeki house with her friends as a test of courage. She suffers from feeling guilty about leaving them behind and acts absently towards her other friends. When they received photos from school trips, Izumi's eyes and those of her missing friends were blackened. The other two friends visit Izumi, who is now completely isolated and has become paranoid. After they left, Izumi had a dream of her late father Toyama, who did not respond to her attempts to talk to him. When she wakes up again, she is haunted by the ghosts of her friends. Izumi tries to flee in panic, but is finally grabbed by Kayako, who pulls her into the afterlife, where Izumi keeps her father company.
Production and publication
The film was produced by the Oz Company and directed by Takashi Shimizu , who also wrote the screenplay. The producer was Takashige Ichise, the music was composed by Shiro Sato.
In October 2002 Ju-on: The Grudge was performed at the Scream Festival in the USA for the first time. The film premiered on January 25, 2003 in Japan. It was then shown at the Fantasy Film Festival 2003 and translated into English, Spanish and Russian. Highlight Film released the film in German on DVD in 2004.
Web links
- Ju-on: The Grudge in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Anime News Network about the film and its adaptations and sequels