Country: USA
Year: 2004
Duration: 91'
An American remake of the Japanese horror film Ju-on, The
Grudge with the same Director and was produced by Sam Raimi. The film
tells the story of Karen, an American girl who lives in Tokyo. She come
into contact with a curse that possesses the house and transforms its
victims into homicidal furies.
"The biggest challenge was working inside the Hollywood Studio System,
and it was important that my troupe was mainly Japanese, so I could
create a situation similar to the one I had in Japan. On the other hand,
using American actors let me reflect on the differences between the
American and the Japanese systems. Japanese horror is more terrifying
than American horror: ours tries to arouse mental fear in the spectator,
whereas theirs simply provokes a surprise-effect. Since it was a remake,
there was no surprise, but since it's a Hollywood film, maybe it's more
correct to meet the present-day expectations of the American public."
(Shimizu Takashi)
Biography
film director
Takashi Shimizu
Shimizu Takashi (Maebashi, 1972). He studied at Eiga Bigakk?, Tokyo's school of cinema, where some of the most important exponents of contemporary Japanese cinema teach. One of these teachers, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, noticed Shimizu's talent and launched him as the director of various episodes of horror series like Gakk? no kaidan and Shin rei bideo. In 2001 he directed his first full-length film, Tomie: Re-birth, the third chapter of a saga based on the mangas of Ito Junji, which many believe to be the best of the entire series. Success arrived in 2002 with Ju-on, a horror film with artistic consultants of the caliber of Kurosawa and Takahashi Hiroshi. It is the remake of a homonymous, two-episode TV series, which Shimizu himself directed in 2000.
FILMOGRAFIA
Gakk? no kaidan G (TV, 1998), Ju-on (TV, 2000), Ju-on 2 (TV, 2000), Shin rei bideo VI: Honto ni atta kowai hanashi - kyôfu tarento taikendan (TV, 2000), Shin rei bideo V: Honto ni atta kowai hanashi - kyôfushin rei shashin-kan (TV, 2000), Tomie: Re-birth (2001), Ju-on: The Grudge (The Grudge, 2003), Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003).