Ju-on: The curse of one who dies in the grip of powerful rage. It gathers and takes effect in the places that person was alive. Those who encounter it die, and a new curse is born.

In every Ju-On movie, the first thing you see is a white background, with these words, in Japanese, across the screen.

The basic story is about a man who brutally murders his family, and dies mysteriously
on the side of a road. Him, and his family, leave behind a vicious curse that kills all who come across it.

The Ju-On Chronology of movies:
Year 2000:
Ju-On, aka Ju-On: The Curse (V-cinema, straight to video)
Ju-on 2, aka Ju-On: The Curse 2 (V-cinema, straight to video)

2003:
Ju-on: The Grudge
Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (Unlike the first two, these two were actually shown in theaters)

2004:
The Grudge, A.K.A The Ju-on (The semi-American remake staring Sarah Michelle Gellar)

Coming 2006:
Ju-On: The Grudge 3 (Final Ju-On movie)
The Grudge 2 (American movie)

Part A: Storytelling

The movies are shown in segments. Similar to the American movie "Pulp Fiction", the segments aren't in a chronological order. There could be a segment, and the next one could take place four years later, and then the next segment could take place five years earlier. Due to this, Ju-On has an element of mystery to it, the story is never given to you all at once.

It's extremely fun to try and piece together the segments and see how the characters intertwine and where pieces of the story fit in. For example, in an early segment, you may see a character with a daughter who is about 7 years old. In a later segment, you may see the 7 year old, as a 15 year old.

The segment system works great because it not only creates a sense of mystery, but, it can enable the story to jump across time, and to various settings, like office buildings,
trains, and so on and so forth.

Part B: The Horror

The Ju-On movies are great in the sense it's just fun to watch how the victims die.
You never know what the movie is going to throw at you, you never know what the ghosts will come up with next.

It's also interesting to note, that you never really see any characters dying. The camera
usually changes scenes right before a character dies, for example, a character could turn
around, and be face to face with a ghost, and then the segment would end. All though that
sounds pretty lame on paper, it works great in the movie, and leaves a Hitchcock style sense of mystery.

Ju-On, is actually low budget horror, especially for the first two movies. But, the director
and crew knew how to work with what they had. The movies throw all kinds of horror elements at you, there's subtle horror, tension, shock horror, surprise horror. The crew behind these movies definitely know how to use tension and surprise to their advantage, and can make a simple scene like a character wandering up into an attic and being killed by a ghost exciting, tense, and terrifying.

Part C: American Remake

The 2004 movie "The Grudge", is an American remake of "Ju-On: The Grudge". All though it is  American, it actually takes place in Japan, and has a cast that's half Japanese. Fans of the classic Ju-On can appreciate the fact that they actually re-built the classic Ju-On house for the remake, and the Saeki family is there, Kayako, Toshio, all are present, with the same actors from Ju-On: The Grudge.
 
The show also reprises a lot of the classic deaths from Ju-On: The Curse, and Ju-On: The
Grudge. The Jaw less schoolgirl, the bed scene, the phone tricks, all present and accounted for. The Grudge also had segment scenes like the classic one.

I think it's worth mention that the Grudge, all though a remake of "Ju-On the Grudge", had some things lifted from "Ju-On: The Curse".

A sequel is planned in 2006 for "The Grudge", in the same year, "Ju-On: The Grudge 3" will be out in Japan.

Part D: Similarities to Ring

Last week I discussed the Ring movies, and how they influenced J-horror today, so I think it would be fun to point out some similar scenes\aspects, whether they are intentional or not,  I'll leave that up to the reader.

- Supernatural Murders.
- The Victims of the supernatural murders leaving behind ghosts.
- Not actually seeing the characters die (The opening scene in Ringu, where Tomoko turns around.
- The screen turns black and white and changes scenes, for example.
- Antagonist female ghost who wears white and has long black hair.
- A mystery element where characters try solve mysterious supernatural murders.
- Antagonist female ocasionally manifesting themselves a little girl (Ju-On 2, Ring 0)

Part E: Katasumi and 4444444444
In 1998 Kansai Telecasting Corporation wanted to make a feature length horror film, producer Kiyoshi Kurosawa picked Takashi Shimizu, director of the Ju-On saga, to direct two parts for the movie. He made two three minute segments, called Katasumi, and 4444444444.  The movie was called "Gakko no kaidan G, School Ghost Story G, aired on Kansai TV, in 1998. It was about 70 minutes, so, Shimizu only contributed about 6 minutes to the film.

Shimizu considers the segments to be "the foundations of Ju-On" and describes them as "almost like a true prequel of the story." It's worth noticing that Katasumi has actress "Takako Fuji", whom, plays Kayako Saeki in every Ju-On movie.

Both shorts are on the unrated director's cut of "The Grudge" (2004 american remake), the shorts were included as special features, and Katasumi was retitled "In a Corner"

Part F: My opinion

Ju-On is the best franchise of movies ever crated. The movies are shocking, terrifying, fun, unique, original, it's anything and everything. I'm eagerly waiting for Ju-On: The Grudge 3.

Rating: 5/5

Further Reading
It's worth noting that Ju-On: The Grudge is out on R1 dvd. As for the rest of the films, I do not know if there are plans to release the rest on DVD.

Ju-On Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju-on
Takashi Shimizu Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimizu

(This article was written by PronsAmuro)