Ju-Rei: The Uncanny (2004)

2004
Directed by Koji Shiraishi
Starring Chinatsu Wakatsuki, Miku Ueno, Eriko Ichinohe and Ichiro Ogura

Oh, that wacky Japanese horror.  And I say that wit plenty of affection.  While some critics like to lambaste this particular subgenre for its supposed one-note storytelling (the nerve - disagreeing with me!), I don't think there's any country on Earth that does the horror with more variety than Japan.  You've got crazy zombie flicks, serial killer flicks, splatter flicks...and, of course, ghost movies, and definitely the BEST "angry ghost" flicks that I've ever seen in my life.

And then there's Ju-Rei: The Uncanny.

Several years ago when I first started to get serious about collecting horror movies, I tracked down my fair share of the "big" J-horror flicks.  Somewhere in there, this movie kept popping up on my Amazon searches, and the poster was most definitely alluring.  Angry little girl crawling right at 'ya?  I was all over that shit back in 2008.  To make a long story short, I thought the movie kind of sucked.  After re-watching it, I still feel that way.  However, this movie IS interesting for one very important reason.  That reason being Sadako vs. Kayako, pretty much my ultimate wet dream movie, actually due out in a few months and directed by a guy named Koji Shiraishi.  His debut film?  This movie.  Yeah.  That was some amazing writing skill how we came full circle there, wasn't it? 

Shiraishi has dome some amazing films since Ju-Rei.  Carved is a modern classic retelling of the "slit-mouthed woman" myth, while Grotesque and Occult are simply batshit crazy in the best way.  Here, though, you could definitely tell that this was a director who, while he definitely showed some promise, was still in the formative stages of putting together what would define his later stuff.  And since this movie pretty much cribs Ju-On with absolutely no shame whatsoever, from structure to camera work, I think it's safe to say that they found the perfect guy to do their Grudge-Ring crossover film.

When I say that this movie rips off Ju-On, I mean it.  Pretty much word for word, it IS another Grudge film.  American watchers might be unaware that Takashi Shimizu's original movies in the franchise followed a Quentin Tarantino-esque "chapter" format, with Kayako and Toshio offing fools left and right in some sort of ghostly time warp.  Let'd do the time warp again, people.  This one one-ups that concept by telling its story BACKWARDS, starting at Chapter 10 and working backwards toward the origin of the ghosts.  I will say that from a structure perspective, this is actually a little frustrating.  Since we already know the ending of the story before we get into the thick of the story, it's hard to get too invested into anything that happens. 

Also, the first thing we see in the movie is a bunch of teenagers on the street hip hop dancing.  Definitely not the thing you'd expect in a movie like this.

The story of this movie is criminally simple.  Badass ghosts killing people, usually once per chapter.  But there's something about this movie that's just a little...uncomfortable.  A few more words about how badly this movie wanted to be Ju-On: the ghost in this movie makes the LITERAL same "croaking" sound as Kayako, despite the fact that there was absolutely no reason for it.  See, Kayako croaks because she died as a result of having her throat sliced (or neck broken, if you're into the American versions).  We didn't need the sound effect here, other than, "well, people really loved Kayako, so let's have our ghost do the same thing."  And I'm positive that was exactly how the conversation went when the whole idea came to be.  In English, and everything.

I will say that it's not all bad in this movie.  It has a few moments, although they're VERY few and far between.  Just like Shimizu was doing around this time, Koji Shiraishi makes really good use of the periphery in his shots, showing things that you might actually miss the first time you see the movie (and I did).  There are two deaths that actually did unnerve me a little, one involving a girl who hides herself under a blanket as the ghost attacks her (another bit that was ripped off from Ju-On), but the movie's REAL money scene occurs when an old, blind woman encounters the ghost.  This scene was actually gut-wrenchingly tense, and fairly creative.  Amazing what happens when you put a little bit of thought into what you do.

Alright, summary time.  I know that I've mentioned Ju-On a LOT in this review.  Probably too much, for anyone who hasn't seen those films (and if you haven't...tsk tsk), but it's a conversation that really can't be avoided because this movie DESPERATELY wanted to be just like it to the point of copying it beat by beat.  Those movies also succeeded big time in two key areas: putting together the story's "puzzle," as it is, was SUCH a fun exercise the first time I watched those movies.  They also had genuinely likable characters that you actually DIDN'T want to see die gruesome deaths.  Neither is true here.  While the story does wrap up nicely by the time we get to the original deaths that create the curse, I wasn't really interested in it.  And note that I didn't mention a single character name or actor in this review.  Folks...there's a reason.

Because it has a few sparks of creativity here and there, I'll give the movie * 1/2 out of ****.  As a warm-up phase to what would become the career of Koji Shiraishi in the coming years (all culminating in what will no doubt be a kickass Ring/Grudge crossover), though, it's actually worth checking out for the history lesson.  And you can MST3K it with your friends.