The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part II: "Ju-On: The Curse 2" (2000)

After "Ju-On: The Curse" (which was known as simply "Ju-On" when it aired on Japanese television, only adding layers of confusion to the cake already smattered with it) was such a massive word-of-mouth success, a V-cinema sequel seemed like a natural progression for creator Takashi Shimizu to follow. And lo and behold, a short time later (and proving that we Americans aren't the only ones who sequelize and bastardize our creations) along came "Ju-On 2" to TV screens in the land of the rising sun. What this movie is, in essence, is something else entirely - and according to some observers, it ain't even a sequel.

Here's the deal - I've scoured the internet (in a heart-wrenching, exhaustive search that lasted all of thirty minutes) for information on just how exactly this movie came to be, and why they chose to release "Ju-On 2" in the format that it has always known. Namely, a 76-minute film, with the first 30 MINUTES consisting of the final two segments of the original movie. Yup, while this movie is called "Ju-On 2," almost half of the freakin' thing is repeated footage that we just saw (and in the case of Japanese audiences, broadcast on television months earlier). A common theory that I've heard from more than a few casual watchers is that Shimizu shot all of the footage for the original two V-cinema films at once, only for the network to cut some footage from their final cut of "Ju-On: Curse 1." Then its popularity unexpectedly explodes, leading to some smart executive releasing the cut footage, along with the finale of the first film, as a "sequel." Seems like a fair shake to me. I've also heard theories such as government conspiracy, Kayako coming to life, and director laziness, but I'll stick with the original.

So yes, American DVD watcher, you get to use your Chapter Skip button a couple times after popping this bad boy in the DVD player. I'm reacting to this movie based on the stuff that I HADN'T seen before. In all seriousness, the "cut footage" theory makes a ton of sense; the four original chapters in this film look virtually identical in visual style to the original "Ju-On," and characters from that film appear in this one. By and large, the stories are much SHORTER this time - the last two are, at max, five minutes each (although one of them is the most memorable scene in the entirety of the two direct-to-video "Ju-On" films; more on that later). If indeed they are deleted scenes, they were deleted for a reason; the stuff contained in "Ju-On 2," while memorable and occasionally scary, is nowhere near as strong as the slow-burning story that was "Ju-On: The Curse."

How's that for an introduction for what amounts to a 46-minute short film with a VERY long lead-in from the previous movie?

THE MOVIE!!

If you haven't deciphered it by now, this movie is very similar in style to the previous entry. Its structure is broken up into character-focused chapters (and I'm absolutely positive I've used that exact phrase in these reviews before - so sue me, I'm an idiot who isn't creative about coming up with new ways to say the same thing). If you'll recall from the original film, we were shown the origin story of Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji, once again marvelous in the role, although more sporadically used here) and her son Toshio, two VERY pissed-off ghosts who harbor all sorts of ill will for anyone who enters their home. An entire family was butchered in that film, which ended with a new family moving into the ol' Saeki abode in Nerima.

This movie focuses on that family, along with several police officers involved in the case, the psychic from the previous movie who accompanied her realtor brother along to the sale of the home to this film's family, and, amazingly enough, several others. As you should know by now, "Ju-On" films are far less about their coherent story than they are about their creation of mood and an almost impenetrable sense of dread; the first movie established the template that all of these people we meet are already screwed. The genius is in (a) the buildup, and (b) the payoff, which series creator Takashi Shimizu knows how to give like perhaps no other horror director I've seen. His jump scares aren't the lazy variety "loud noise" sound scare stinger; instead we are SHOWN horrific, creepy, crawly things when we least expect to see them, and are startled not by a movie theater or surround sound system, but by our optic nerves, and what we perceive as a threat. Since these movies still boast Kayako and Toshio, two of the best threats in horror film history, there's still some good nightmare-inducing moments to be hand here, albeit less frequently than its predecessor.

With that, we're going to try something different - small chapter-by-chapter reactions. Both because they should be entertaining and economical, and secondly because I'm already stumped as to how to continue ladling words on this series.

Tatsuya: Unfortunately, this is a segment that was deleted from the original movie for a very good reason. Namely, it's long, boring, and just not very scary. Tatsuya was a minor character from the original film (the AFOREMENTIONED realtor who accompanies his psychic sister to the Saeki home), and as such, already has the curse. Unfortunately, his sister is much worse for wear. Both Tatsuya and his sister meet their end in this segment, but with the exception of Toshio's cameo, it's just not very interesting.



Kamio: This is the "police procedural" segment of this film, as all the mounting death has begun to scare the bejesus out of the original investigators of the Saeki murders. Again, not a terribly original, scary, or interesting chapter, and just like the Tatsuya segment, it's LONG.



Nobuyuki: Now we're talking - this is the (AFOREMENTIONED) single most memorable sequence in the two direct-to-video films. Nobuyuki is Tatsuya's son, now pensive and withdrawn at school since the death of his father. His classmates are in the process of mocking him when he sees the ghostly form of Kayako outside the school window...and literally ten seconds later, his whole world turns upside down. This segment is less than two minutes long, but it devastates. It also gives us Kayako running after her victim on her hands and knees; it is indeed quite awesome what Fuji can accomplish with her body.

Saori: Again, very brief, but effective. The two families from these original films now dead and gone, some teenagers have taken it upon themselves - perhaps via a dare - to enter the house. And then the screaming starts...

All in all, not a bad batch of stories. What drags the rating down is the fact that the slow-burning entries just really don't burn all that much; meanwhile, the VERY BRIEF segments stick out in your mind long after hitting the EJECT button on your DVD player.

So closes the non-theatrical portion of the Japanese "Ju-On" series. Despite the second film's shortcomings, both in the scare factor and in runtime, it's easy to see why these things gained such a large fan following. The first Japanese theatrical film, which would be released about three years after this particular film aired on TV, boasted a built-in audience that had hotly anticipated seeing Kayako, Toshio, and the trademark creepiness of Shimizu's writing and directing style for years. Also, this film is pre-packaged with the first film in a "two-movies-on-one-DVD" combo pack (or at least that's what I personally own), so you won't be going out of your way to watch the new stories in this one. It's already there.