Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Hiroki Suzuki, Ichirota Miyakawa, Akina Minami, Koji Seto,
Ai Kago, Yuno Nakazono, Hana Matsumoto | Written by Ryuta Miyake & Mari Asato
UK Certification 15 | UK RRP £15.99 | Runtime 121 minutes | Directed by Ryuta Miyake & Mari Asato
Ringing in a decade of The Grudge is this one-disc package that contains two 60-minute films that each centre on, as you can imagine from their respective titles, white and black ghosts. Forget about the 2004 remake with Sarah Michelle Gellar that started a tragic wave of American retellings of Asian stories, this is Ju-On—these two films are authentic—only it's just that they're not very good.
The visions of writer-directors Miyake (White Ghost) and Asato (Black Ghost) are very similar. So much so that you cannot tell them apart. Having seen one, you'd have thought the same director was at the helm of the second, but it is not the case. Their style includes keeping the camera steady for the most part, and only creeping in slow when there is movement. It's nice to actually be able to see what's going on and not have frantic camerawork in horror for a change, so you're able to appreciate the aesthetic of the scenes more, not to mention the clear and crisp cinematography that lends well to the psychological scares the films go for—both are cleanly-shot pieces, but as for those scares, they just don't work.
Fans of the Ju-On series will be happy to know that the two slices of horror stay true to the integral story of the franchise, where the mysterious Grudge harbours itself in people, only to curse those around it and leave a trail of bodies in its haunting wake. In White Ghost, a childhood friend of a little girl murdered in a family massacre at a house is haunted by the ghost, and so are all those who have ever had a connection to the residence. Black Ghost differs in that a young girl lives with her unborn twin inside her, which curses the girl's mother and her nurse at the hospital where she is being treated for is at first believed to be psychological problems, rather than physical.
You can tell right off the bat that these two films didn't get much of a budget, which is somewhat surprising considering how successful the series is internationally, but contrarily, how many decent films have had straight-to-DVD sequels in recent years that have skimmed on everything that made the original good? Too many to count. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into hiding the low budgets of the two films, probably an even amount distributed between the two from one round figure. The cameras used aren't the greatest and neither are the digital effects, but they're added sparingly. For example, in White Ghost there is a scene with a fire in a bathtub which you only get a glimpse at. It's enough to see that the flames look like they belong in a video game, but the director could have easily stooped for showing the fire in all its cheap computer-generated ingloriousness.
Ju-On fanatics may just appreciate these entries, which are probably set to be the first in a long line of 60-minute episodes telling their own cursed stories. I'd be interested in seeing more to see what the film-makers can come up with, but these two were certainly the opposite of entertaining.
EXTRAS ★ Single trailer highlighting both films, a weblink and fifteen other trailers for 4Digital Asia releases.