Movies: November 2004 Archives

While I was doing some research on the 'net about Juon, I found this site and learned that there are really 4 different versions. Well 5 really if you count the recently released American version. I guess the director need to keep working on his vision before it was prefected.

What I like about the Japanese version is that there isn't the gore found in American horror films or cheesey CGI. All of the terror is left to the viewer's imagination and this is what I feel makes this movies so scary....

aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh............

Click to Enlarge

Have you seen this boy? If you have, I am sorry to tell you that you are not long for this world. Ya see there is this jealous ghost out there that will kill anyone that has seen him.
Last night I watched Ju-on, the Japanese thriller that has finally hit these shores.. I watched the original Japanese version in Japanese with English subtitles. I was at Best Buy, earlier, and I couldn't resist picking it up. The story revolves around a jealous ghost of a husband and the ghosts of his family members that what to escape their captor, but can't and their interaction with the outside world of visitors, which is why if you have seen Toshio's ghost, say your prayers..

“JU-ON: a curse born of a grudge held by someone who dies in the grip of powerful anger. It gathers in the places frequented by that person in life, working its spell on those who come into contact with it and thus creating itself anew.”

Over all I give this movie a B+/A. Not gorey at all, but sure is scary.

A Snipet Review:

A bluing hand brushes your naked skin as you stand beneath the shower. A glimpse of something in the corner of your eye - is it only a reflection in the window pane, or something more tangible? A nightmare in which your bed swarms with black cats as you lie there half-sleeping. A teenage schoolgirl blocks the windows of her room with shreds of newspaper to shield her from the hollow-eyed apparitions that stare in from the darkness outside. In the heart of a deserted house sealed up in duct tape, an old woman gazes blindly into space, her face frozen by fear into an inscrutable mask. Skulking deep in the shadows of the attic crawlspace, caught in a limbo between light and darkness, something evil is stirring.

Here are some links so you don't have to take my word for it:

• Yahoo Movies
  
• Subwaycinema
  
• Midnighteye
  

Picture from the movie:

Stay tuned for Ju-on 2.....

Yuko and I just finished watching a documentary called, Tokyo Girls. It details the lives of the hostess girls and what their lives are really like. It also brought a nice view of the concrete city to our tree stricken life here in Minnesota.

What is funny, is that some of the clubs shown in Osaka are just around the corner from where Yuko and I got married... Maybe I should check it out and bring back photos when Yuko and I and Daichi make a trip in late Febuary....

I personally thought the video gave the viewers (me) a glimpse into the life of the rich Japanese business man who has more money than they really know what to spend it on, but don't know what love is. Some of the customers really turn out to be mob bosses seeking friendship and maybe love in the ladies who are out to chase their money.... Man you see the cars these guys drive.

Take a candid journey into the world of four young Canadian women who work as well paid hostesses in exclusive Japanese nightclubs when the National Film

Lured by adventure and easy money, these modern-day geisha find themselves caught up in the mizu shobai - the complex "floating water world" of Tokyo clubs and bars. Drawn by fast money, some women become consumed by the lavish lifestyle and forget why they came. One hostess calls it "losing the plot."

"I couldn't believe that they were paying me to drink and party and just sit around and talk to people. I thought it was fabulous." Jamie was making a thousand dollars a night when she started working in a hostess club in Japan. Little did she realize that she would eventually flee for safety to a remote Thai Island.

Hilary is a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub to pay off her student debts. Nancy came to Japan to study butoh - a contemporary dance form. Dhana was offered a million dollars to marry one of her clients.

With a pulsating visual style, Tokyo Girls captures the raw energy of urban Japan and its fascination with the new. Shot in Canada, Osaka and Tokyo, this is a riveting inside look at the impact of the "economy geisha."

Tokyo Girls was directed by Penelope Buitenhaus and produced by Gillian Darling Kovanic for the National Film Board.