I have been thinking of watching Japanese horror movies. I can't decide which franchise I should begin watching, Ju-On or it's American remake, The Grudge. Should I watch one of them before the other? Is one of them scarier than the other? How easy is it to find the Ju-On movies in America?
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Ju-On has the better atmosphere, but The Grudge has a better budget for special effects.
So it depends on what you want out of a horror movie.
The question is… which Ju-On movie? there’s like 8 Japanese movies, 9 if you count Sadako vs Kayako (2016).
it's a film series, you ought to start with the first one and work along rather than skipping.
Exactly, Ju-On: The Curse (2000).
People often misconceive Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) to be the first but in reality its a sequel, so its the third, primarily a sequel to Ju-On: The Curse 2 (2000) as the ending storyline in that movie links into Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)’s narrative, I’m referring to the “Saori” segment at the very end of Ju-On: The Curse 2 (2000)
Funny enough Katasumi (1998) & 4444444444 (1998) also serve as missing chapters in Ju-On: The Curse (2000)’s narrative.
I haven't watched The Grudge 2 or 3, because I didn't really like the first one.
Honestly, I think The Grudge would have been better if they'd just moved it to America, instead of inserting all those white people into a Japanese setting...
I think if that’s the case, then remove Americans all together, bam problem solved.
I LOVE Ju-On. It's one of my favorite horror movies. But I was very unhappy with The Grudge. I saw it a long time ago, so I dont remember exactly why it offended me so bad. I don't like Sarah Michelle Gellar, so that probably didn't help
SACRILEGE
Ju-On: The Curse better than Ju-On: The Grudge lol
Ju-on is slower, but I think it works better and has a thicker atmosphere. Also, neither have great acting (minus Takako Fuji), but The Grudge highlights the acting much more, which doesn't work in its favor.
You can start with whichever you'd like, it's more or less the same story.
For me personally, I found the American Remake vastly superior. Took the original story, which is brilliant, and improved the effects, the score, and the atmosphere.
Plus, I thought it was a lovely way to take a film from Japanese culture, and give it an Americanized twist, while still retaining the Japanese culture (takes place in Japan, with many of the same actors).
Remakes of foreign movies that just came out to make american audiences feel better are a disgrace imo. Just watch the original
In what way shape or form does that make sense?
They took a movie from Japan, which is not in English, and instead of dubbing the film, they had the same director and many of the same Japanese actors make a version in English...for ENGLISH speaking people.
Thus allowing them to tell the amazing story for different cultures while still respecting the original.
Only Americans would go through these mental gymnastics to avoid the effort of using subtitles..... Do you only watch movies with English audio? The idea of taking an original work, and redoing it just so I dont use subs is insane. I watch plenty of foreign movies and it would be insane to expect all of them to be remade in my own language which isnt English.
Yes but you and your preferences alone do not equate to the mass of American audiences. While I do understand what you are saying, I wouldn’t diminish American audiences because they don’t feel like sitting through a film having to read subtitles versus listening to the actual film itself.
I’m American, and even I use subtitles when watching movies at home. All the time.
However, considering I’m literally partially deaf, and there’s even times I can’t even understand what’s being said when I’m in a theater, I still would have zero desire to watch a movie with subtitles in a theater.
More anti-American bullshit when a 30 second Google search shows movie remakes are common all over the world. Your trash take also excludes dubbing which is more popular in Japan for American movies than it is in America for the opposite. Breaking News: People have can make better connections when the script is in their language. Shocker, I know.
i use subtitles regardless but i take it as an opportunity to watch another grudge movie. i like it regardless. i was a bit confused when i didnt know it was just an american remake but its one of my favorite horrors. take it or leave it.
The original is trash, literally fell asleep. Doesn't matter how scary the plot is if you don't have any sort of budget to make it look that way it's incredibly boring
I think many people missed Ju-on: The Curse because it wasn’t released theatrically and because the titles of the movies are confusing. I consider it the ‘original’ one instead of Ju-on: The Grudge because it’s the first feature length movie in the series, and we slightly see the origin story here.
Ju-on: The Curse is by far the scariest movie in the entire Ju-on/The Grudge universe. It was shot on video, so it makes it seem like you are watching someone’s home movies. It looked damn gritty. Like even just the part when the school teacher had a vision of his hands bloodied looked damn scary because it felt like I was watching a snuff film.
It’s filled with amazing scares. The Kana scene in the staircase, the crawling scene with Kayako, of course. Honestly, I didn’t even finish watching it the first time because I was too scared.
For those who are complaining that the American version is much clearer in telling the story that the Japanese version, you wouldn’t think so if you compare it to this one instead of the theatrical one.
The theatrical Ju-on: The Grudge is pretty scary, too but nothing compared to this one. So, for me it’s Ju-on: The Curse > Ju-on: The Grudge > The Grudge. And by the way, the special effects? I thought they look better in Ju-on: The Grudge because they rely too much on CGI in the American version, which is noticeable. The Japanese one used very little, if any, so it’s seamless.
Just did this recently with my partner.
The original is always better, but what's fun about the remake is the same director with A bigger budget so the special effects are a lot better.
I recommended the originals first then the remakes (the story/characters just makes more sense in Japanese culture.) The remakes are still fun, but tend to have more plot holes.
Others to follow up with...Ringu/the Ring, Dark Water, Complex, Hausu.
I'm not familiar with Complex, but agreed on the others. (House is a fucking trip. I should rewatch it.)
The Complex is probably the weakest offering of Nakatas horror films, but it has its moments.
It can still be a challenge to track down Ju-on streaming. If you're willing to wait, you can find Ju-on and the spin-offs and prequels on DVD/Blu. I prefer the original Japanese. But Shimizu directed both Ju-on (2002) and The Grudge (the American remake). They are very similar. The sequels to the American Grudge are generally bad. All of them operate with a lot of weird editing, so be prepared to not understand exactly what's happening, especially in the Japanese version,s but that's part of the mystery to me. We did the whole thing chronologically here for the original Ju-on as a sort of study guide: http://www.legionpodcasts.com/hero-hero-ghost-show-episode-4-ju-on/
No offense but The Grudge was boring for me honestly. I was never creeped out in the remake but in the original i was creeped out
The fact it's even compared shows you how overated ju-on is.
You mean the grude is overated.
People compare every remake with the original, every time. L take
i was immediately interested when i realized its based on the story of the grudge which is what the name translates to. the grudge is one of my favorite horror movies because of the story and type of horror. the show is more of a slow take mostly for the story, but in the beginning it got really scared lol. the movie is meant to scare you more with a bit of story.