Ju-on: The Grudge Collection [Limited Edition] [Blu-ray] [2022]

Product Information

The Ju-On films are a very enjoyable watch. It’s a really good story and although the budget was very low to start with, Takashi Shimizu manages to extract the maximum atmosphere with minimal effects. It’s also very interesting to see the evolution of the franchise as higher budgets became available for the theatrical releases and better special effects allowed for even creepier scenes. Ju-On ( 呪怨, Juon, lit. "Resentment Curse", also known as The Grudge) is a Japanese horror franchise created by Takashi Shimizu. The franchise began in 1998 with the release of the short films Katasumi and 4444444444. Shimizu attended the Film School of Tokyo, where he studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Kurosawa helped Shimizu shepherd the Ju-On projects to fruition. [1] offering all of them on 1080 discs, with Ju-On: The Grudge also getting 4K UHD treatment. As is typically the case with Arrow releases, the Tales from the Grudge - Three short films ( Hotel, School, House) that were released as part of marketing for the film. [15]

Sake imbued with a powerful energy will taste different to certain people. If someone has a strange reaction to it, the house is too dangerous for them.” a b "Ju-on: The Grudge - Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. July 23, 2004 . Retrieved July 7, 2023. Several Ju-On print publications were published by Kadokawa in Japan, and Dark Horse Comics in North America between 2003 and 2015. Every single Ju-On film has received a novel adaptation, except for The Grudge 3. The remake of Dark Water is one of the better ones and I can definitely watch The Grudge with Sarah Michelle Geller. The Grudge 2 is okay but with SMG having a smaller role, it does feel less engaging than the first, but I did find the separate stories being told through the film an interesting idea to connect it all together.Miyake’s entry White Ghost is closer to Shimizu’s original vision by practically rewriting it. Set at Christmas, food delivery boy Fumiya (Hiroki Suzuki) finds the dead bodies of the Isobe family in their house, the vengeful spirit this time being the ghost of the grandmother (with an unconvincing rubber mask in place of ghoulish make-up). Later, Fumiya kills his girlfriend (Mihiro) from seeing the ghost instead of her. Takashi Shimizu Interview on Grudge 2 and the Ju-On Movies". Movies.about.com. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 . Retrieved September 29, 2015. Beginning life as a short film from Takashi Shimizu entitled Katasumi and 4444444444 which he expanded to two straight to video films re-titled Ju-on: The Grudge. With help from his mentor Kiyoshi Kurosawa and in the wake of the international success of Ringu, Shimizu brought Ju-On to the big screen in 2002 for the first time.

The films introduce the anonymous family house in the suburbs of Tokyo where an unspeakable evil lingers alongside its residents, the ghastly mother-son pairing of Kayoko and Toshio Saeki. Shimizu’s disconcerting approach to plotting, unnerving eye for the uncanny details in the dark corners of the frame and an innate talent for effective jump scares so impressed Evil Dead director Sam Raimi that he invited the director to helm two Hollywood remakes. When I think of Japanese horror films I look at the late 90s to early 00s era because a lot of what made the genre more well-known in my opinion were those films that came during this time period. Films like Audition, Dark Waters, Ju-on, One Missed Call, Pulse, and Ringu each provided a great taste of horror with their own spin on the monster, curse or a mix of two. actually the creation of fans (not that there's anything wrong with that), but one way or the other, Arrow has aggregated six Ju-On films in

Ju-On: The Grudge Collection 4K Audio

After growing word of mouth on these two direct to video entries, Shimizu was finally given the budget to realise his vision on the big screen and 2002’s ‘Ju-On: The Grudge’ takes full advantage of not just the access to greater resources but to a greater run-time, enabling the narrative around his twisted nightmares to fully take form. Never quite as straight forward as its peers, Ju-On's plot lines fragment and explode across timelines and even realities as the Curse now spreads like wildfire. Premonitions of Toshio's and Kayako's manifestations now nestle between past and present iterations of the various victims as they are all touched by the malevolent and spreading stain of a violent past, Shimizu providing us with some absolute nightmare fuel of images and sounds. His haunting visions of the franchise's terrifying brand of deadly intimacy are now played out on a much grander canvas and better entwined with its sprawling plotlines. And while this narrative sometimes trips over itself, its anthology-like structure following people and not events or timelines often confuses until some form of near-clarity is achieved later in the film, with some of the most intense and frightening imagery to come out of the whole J-Horror genre explosion, this first theatrical taste for the Ju-On franchise remains one of the very best not just of the franchise but of the entire genre. Numerous ideas are thrown into Part 2 resulting in a less focused, more random piece which again ends on a sudden note. In 2004, Shimizu went to the US to remake the first two films, then in 2009 Ju-On was resurrected in Japan, as Mari Asato and Ryuta Miyake each made a 60-minute straight-to-DVD film to mark the 10 th anniversary of Ju-On, except neither film are directly tied to the originals – i.e. no Kayako!

Sadly, this set doesn’t include the two reboot film from 2014/2015 – Beginning Of The End and The Final Curse– or the aforementioned Sadako vs. Kayako crossover to make this a fully comprehensive collection of the Japanese releases under the Ju-On banner. That said, the HD upgrades are fantastic on all counts, and having the original video films finally available is like the Holy Grail for Ju-On fans outside of Japan, so we can’t complain too much. we get to see how the whole Japanese franchise was born and it’s a fascinating journey through not just a series of films, but of a cinematic culture and its links into the wider social fabric of a country itselfOn one hand, the idea of there being a Ju-On Expanded Universe is a nice one – a whole world of Butoh-inspired ghosts and their endless curses – but in reality, it’s a tough brief to stretch out such a vague concept any further than it’s already gone. Ju-On: The Grudge looks gorgeous in 4K and would absolutely be worth buying on its own if that option was ever made available. It would've been nice for The Grudge 2 to get the same treatment, though I can understand why it might not have been financially worthwhile and the film still looks good in 1080p. Shimizu claims the inspiration for his ghosts’ uncanny appearance came from the Butoh dance groups he was frightened by as a child. Butoh is a mysterious type of avant-garde theatre from postwar Japan that uses contortion, body paint and expressive, uncanny movements to create intense performances, often relating to taboo subject matter. It’s perhaps Shimizu’s channelling of such a visceral, distinctly Japanese tradition that first resonated with his audience. Ju-On: The Curse (2000) a b "Ju-On: The Interview". NeoMag. 2013. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013 . Retrieved August 9, 2013. A stage play adaptation of Ju-On was developed in 2023. It adapts the plots from Ju-On: The Curse and its sequel. [ citation needed] [18] Literature [ edit ]

Sadly, 10 years on from the original shorts, Takashi Shimizu drew a line under things and decided not to return to the franchise for a third American Grudge. Instead, the reins were passed to Toby Wilkins, no stranger to Kayako himself, having directed a series of short mobile films called Tales From The Grudge as promotional material for The Grudge 2. A TV series adaptation, titled Ju-On: Origins, was released exclusively on Netflix worldwide on July 3, 2020. [13] Japanese films [ edit ] Original series [ edit ] Xseed Games described it as a "haunted house simulator", rather than a traditional survival horror game. The game does not feature any combat, as its format relies on subtle exploration and scare tactics. Joystiq reviewers who were present for the demo's screening at the E3 justified this, observing that "in most horror games, a skilled player can actually defeat the creatures (with notable exceptions like Silent Hill 2's Pyramid Head ...), making the game more of a power fantasy than a true fright. In both of these games [ Silent Hill 2 and Ju-On: The Grudge], you can escape the creatures at best". [21] Reception [ edit ] Box office performance [ edit ] Japanese films [ edit ] Film Is an "F" from CinemaScore actually a good thing? Our critics weigh in". The A.V. Club. April 3, 2020 . Retrieved July 7, 2023.

Ju-on: The Curse

With the series now becoming something of a worldwide cult phenomenon, the US remake was inevitable. Ring (and, to a lesser extent, Pulse) had already done great numbers, so Sam Raimi and Ghost House produced this English-language reworking of Ju-On: The Grudge without much fear of it failing. To their credit, they brought in Takashi Shimizu to direct and this helped preserve the purity of his vision, making it one of the less blasphemous remakes. There are some ludicrous scares here too, most of which rely on loud noises and little else, but things get so desperate at one point that a plate of squid ink pasta turns into Kayako’s hair. If it were parody, it would be moderately amusing but, sadly, The Final Curse shows no signs of self-awareness. Likely to be the real draw of this set would be the first time release in this country of the original straight to video films. Ju-On: The Curse is a bare bones, low budget shot on video affair that works on the same principle as the cinema films only in nascent form. With almost no budget, these films rely on atmosphere, which the cheap look actually enhances, whilst Fuji’s terrifying performance as Kayako provides the real chills. Ju-On: Origins - Official Trailer - Netflix". YouTube (in Japanese). May 11, 2020. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021 . Retrieved June 6, 2020. Under very tight budgetary constraints, Shimizu's films garnered much acclaim from both critics and genre fans for their effective use of limited locations and eerie atmosphere to generate chills. Shimizu was at the same time perfectly willing to show his ghosts onscreen, in contrast to some directors who might choose only to hint at their appearance. Critics noted that Shimizu's minimalist approach to directing and storytelling—a necessary by-product of the production's limited overall resources—allows the films to retain their ability to unnerve viewers. Very few scenes in the movies are graphically bloody, making such scenes more disturbing when they occur. [4]