JU-ON: THE GRUDGE 2
Japan, 2003, 91 minutes, Colour.
Noriko Sakai.
Directed by Takashi Shimizu.
The original Grudge told us that the meaning of the word Grudge in the horror context is a fury where someone has died in anger and that fury pervades people who come in contact with the place in which the person died. Same again.
While the first film was comprehensible (and humorously parodied in Scary Movie 4), the sequel is far more complicated as one watches. Perhaps by the end, we can sort out what happened and in what order, but the makers here play with time so that we are moving back and forth and trying to work out who is who and what is happening to them.
In linear terms, a group goes to make a TV program in a house where a father has murdered his family. All those involved, including the actress, reporter, the reporter’s boyfriend, make-up girl, the producer, a young girl who goes to work as an extra, all have menacing and deadly frights. In the meantime, as action goes back and forth from past to future, there are ominous fantasies and nightmares. As in the first film, dark mysterious hair is a sign of the ghostly and avenging presences. This time, a deadly wig menaces the make-up artist.
The characters are prone to do what most characters in horror films do: immediately go into a haunted house by themselves. This time, it is noticeable that when the characters are menaced, they tend to be mesmerised, scream and stay put while cowering in fear – instead of simply hot-footing it away from danger. Eerie but complicated.
1.The impact of the film? The fourth in a series of Grudge films? The original story, the variations on the theme? Repetitions? The eerie atmosphere? Shocks?
2.Japanese horror films, the tradition of ghosts, the place of ghosts in the Japanese imagination? Violence and ghosts? Crimes? Ordinary people as victims of ghosts and their vengeance?
3.The colour photography, the cold blue style, the houses, the sinister set-ups, lighting and shadows? Creation of an eerie atmosphere? The musical score?
4.The title, the focus on the original killing – Saeki Kayako, murdered by her husband? The disappearance of Toshio, the child? The influence of these ghosts on the present?
5.The perspective of the media, the television show on the haunted house and the ghosts, the actress employed to re-enact and go to the house? The TV personality and her fronting the documentary? The director, the crew, the make-up girl and her involvement? The schoolgirls, acting as extras, their being caught up in the action?
6.The episodic nature of the screenplay, the non-linear presentation? Confusion? Time going backwards and forwards? The jigsaw puzzle – and the pieces all coming together at the end?
7.The justice or injustice of the deaths? The horror – and subservient to the genre rather than the psychological understanding of the characters?
8.Kyoko, her reputation as the queen of horror films? Her being pregnant? Her being asked to do the TV show, to visit the house? Her travelling the road with her boyfriend, the accident with the cat, the crash, the appearance of the young boy? Masashi and his being in hospital, the coma? Kyoko and her miscarriage? Her realisation that she was still pregnant? The boy appearing again? The occasion for the death of her mother? Kyoko and her dreams, the haunted house? Her presence terrifying the young girls? Kyoko collapsing, going again to the hospital, her giving birth – the birth of a monster? The doctors, their deaths? The disappearance of her boyfriend? The reappearance of the mother as a young woman, her attack on Kyoko, pushing her down the stairs of the bridge? Kyoko and the scarf, the child taking the diary?
9.The television compere? Her going to the house? Her hearing strange noises in the apartment, the death of her partner, the hair coming down from the roof, strangling him, killing her?
10.The director, the footage being shown, his going to sleep, the apparitions while he slept? The make-up girl, her being attacked by the ghost? The wig moving across the floor? Her disappearance? Her bringing the diary? The increased visions?
11.The extra, the schoolgirls, shocked by seeing the boy, his being pursued? The filming, the girls not being necessary? Running away, collapsing? The girl and the vision of her friend holding her body?
12.The accumulation of horror effects? Characters as victims? Malevolent ghosts? No explanation?
