Ju-rei: Gekijô-ban - Kuro-ju-rei (2004) User Reviews

Ju Rei: The Unscary

[kasserine · 5/10 · 13 September 2006]

If you're unacquainted with Japanese horror films, and JU REI: THE UNCANNY is your first outing, you may actually enjoy it and find it worthwhile. If not, then, unfortunately, there is not much to recommend. JU REI: THE UNCANNY so faithfully covers all the bases of the genre that there is nothing that isn't predictable and stale.

The film has all the slow moving, crawling, from out of nowhere ghoulish figures that have been presented much better in films like JU ON, and, of course, RINGU. So, any viewer whose seen those film, and especially viewers who are fans of the genre will, most likely be bored with JU REI.

My impression is that JU REI is part of the Japanese V-Cinema industry. I don't know this for a fact; it's just my impression. This industry is the same one that gave Takashi Maaike such a following, amongst others. Of course, V-Cinema is a perfectly respectable industry in Japan. Put simply, films made for V-Cinema go direct to video and do not get released to theaters. Whereas, in the United States, direct to video might imply poor quality or a failure, in Japan it is a respected medium However, JU REI has more of the US style direct to video feel then the higher quality Japanese V-Cinema one. And, that, of course, is not a compliment. It feels like the filmmakers were trying to cash in on the popularity of RINGU and JU ON and came up with a rather formulaic, by the numbers horror flick. It also appears to me to be shot on digital video, also a hallmark of the low budget, quick buck American direct to video market. And while the film seems to have been competently shot and acted, it really has no sense of identity.

JU REI clocks in at a mere 77 minutes and is organized in 10 chapters. The film opens with chapter 10 and works it's way back to the 1st chapter and then a prelude. In chapter 10 we see some Japanese schoolgirls dancing to a boom box in an alleyway late at night. Suffice it to say that things don't go so well from there. Bad for them and bad for us since it's the first indication that JU REI is on the low rent side of things. By this I mean, their demise is pretty silly and consists of arms reaching up from out of frame and grabbing them. The film then cuts to the next chapter. We learn, as the film works it's way to the prelude sequence, that there is a mysterious hooded figure that curses people by contact. These cursed individuals will then, ultimately, forward the curse to the next victim. So, connecting the chapters are the victims in the earlier chapters killing/cursing the victims in the subsequent later chapters. Sort of a perverse "pay it forward" set up.

I don't have a problem with this scenario even given that is so typical of Japanese horror; it's the execution that brings it down. As I mentioned, the film is decently acted and competently shot, it's just not inventive in any way and lacks tension in most of the chapters. The ghoulish victims aren't very menacing and each chapter ends just as the victim is being cursed/killed.

I will say, however, there were two shorts moments in JU REI that were quite compelling. One in which, a young schoolboy is waiting at school to be picked up by his mother. In the sequence, the boy thinks his mother is waiting for him at the top of a staircase, and goes towards the figure. Well, it wasn't mom. This small moment worked very well and actually, disturbed me a little. The second moment was a scene in which an elderly woman is confined to a bed in a nursing home. The poor woman is trapped and terrified as one of the mysterious figures slowly comes to get her. The moment was drawn out and worked quite well. Both scenes were similar in the sense that two relatively helpless characters, a child and an elderly woman, were menaced and, ultimately, consumed by this evil. It was rather unnerving. Unfortunately, these two moments only took about four minutes of screen time and were definitely the exception as far as genuine scares go.

So, like a lot of American direct to video films, and unlike many of their Japanese counterparts, JU REI fails to deliver and only manages a few creepy moments. Asian horror fans might find some aspects of the film interesting, considering it is such a pastiche of more successful films, but viewers new to the genre would be better served starting off with RINGU or any number of other Japanese films in this genre.

No Originality

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 12 April 2005]

• There is a curse affecting all who come into contact with it. It's spread like a horrible disease that only requires contact with an affected person. If you have the curse, you can expect to die a terrible, horrific death. The problem is that you may not know you've been cursed until it's too late and you see the black figure coming to get you.

• If you are a fan of horror and the very brief description sounds familiar, don't be surprised. Ju-rei exhibits very little in the way of originality. It's the best parts of Ju-on or The Grudge repeated over and over. The ghosts look the same, sound the same, move the same, and have the same motivations. Furthermore, within the movie there is also little originality. The movie is divided into ten chapters. Once you've seen two or three of the chapters, you can pretty well guess what's going to happen next. One chapter is almost the same as the next chapter. There nothing much to make one chapter distinguishable from the others. While I found the first couple of chapters fairly frightening, the repetitive nature of the movie really hurts any scares in the later chapters.

• The story is told backwards from chapter 10 to chapter 1. At first this seemed to be an interesting, unique way of telling a story. Trying to figure out who was who and how they came into contact with the curse was part of the fun of playing along. But, after a few chapters, it really didn't seem to matter much. Again, the lack of originality really hurt the movie.

• Another problem I had with the movie was the beginning and ending. Or, to put it in a better way, the lack of a beginning and the lack of an ending. The movie presents no resolution to the events in the movie. It just ends. Likewise, the movie does not present a clear starting point. It's as if the curse has always been there and we are just viewing part of it's progress. I felt very unsatisfied.

Frequently told horror story becomes dull after a creepy start

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 13 August 2005]

I'm going to tell you right now this review will have spoilers, such as they are, from the outset. If you don't want to know then stop reading now.

You've been warned.

Told in "reverse order" Ju-Rei tells the tale of a series of ghostly murders in reverse. Its a linear version of the classic tale "Le Ronde" where we see the story by following a different character from scene to scene until we end up back at the start. That doesn't quite happen, but the premise is the same, we follow the story backwards through the ghosts, who are alive in the "next" story. Its a clever idea but one that doesn't really work since by the third "chapter" you've figured out whats going on and all suspense is lost. It might have worked if there had been some variation, but there is none until the final prologue where the story is told in a slightly different way. Before that however its the same basic story of a lone person at night investigating weird noises that ultimately lead them into the hands of the ghosts told multiple times.

Actually the movie isn't that bad, its creepy for the first two or three stories as we wait for something to happen, but nothing does, or nothing different does. Its the total lack of variation that makes this hard to sit through. Worse, not only does the movie repeat itself, it repeats other, better, movies. The ghosts are almost the exact same sort of ghosts as in Ju-on(The Grudge) down to the black eyes and weird croaking sounds. How can one not see them and moan out load "Rip off!" In the end I can't recommend this to anyone wanting a really good, really scary movie. Sure the film starts off strong but by the third variation, about 15 minutes in, it all collapses down on itself. No one should be asked to pay money for a movie thats effectively over in one fifth of its running time. Of course if you ever run across this on cable or some other way where you don't have to pay for it, I'd try it if you want to see a somewhat interesting misfire, otherwise avoid it.

Derivative Asian horror.

[captain_bungle · 3/10 · 13 April 2005]

Ghostly women with pale faces and long, dark hair? Check. Said ladies making vaguely comical cackling noises? Check. Creepy set-pieces leading to a confrontation with creepy long-haired, cackling, jittery ghost-women? Absolutely. Scary? Well...no.

Anyone familiar with Japanese horror, and the Ju-on series in particular, will notice some similarities in the above description, and this isn't a brilliant coincidence. Ju-rei takes all of the best bits from Ju-on, and a few other films such as the out-of-focus spectres from Kairo, some of the sound design from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre etc. and utilises them to almost zero effect. Every scare misses the mark because they have been done so much better so many times before. It's almost as if you are watching a parody of Japanese horror films - the way everything is constructed suggests a meeting with the filmmakers could have gone thus: 'Okay, so the girl hides under the covers but instead of having her come UNDER the sheet, she's waiting ON TOP OF IT!...and we'll use stock sound effect number 24b from the Ju-on catalogue of cackling.' As for the production values; there aren't any. Amateurishly shot on video with a total disregard for framing and lighting, most of Ju-rei looks too dark (in one case, a shot is obviously brightened up in post) and the quality of the transfer (on Pathfinder DVD) is poor, to say the least.

I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody interested in Asian horror. It's dull, repetitive, derivative and completely unrewarding on any level. Avoid.

Crock Pot J-Horror

[SexyBeastMaster · 3/10 · 3 March 2005]

Just like a million ranch-house mommies think they can make food in their crock-pot that rivals that of real-life restaurants, Ju-Rie is an amateur, contrived thing that attempts to distill all the winning points of the films that obviously inspired it. Distill is a generous word, on second thought - this movie blatantly steals every device it uses from other successful J-Horror flicks, then proceeds to use those devices in shameful, uninspired ways. It's the movie equivalent of mugging someone and spending your stolen gains on cheap Mexican candy.

Still, it's got a moment or two. They make use (I won't say EXCELLENT use) of the placement of creepy images in the periphery of a shot. so that you may or may not even notice them on any given viewing (a technique that's truly chilling used by skilled directors), which is nice at times. And really, if you want a non-scary breakdown of J-Horror formula points, this thing watches like an instruction manual.

Three out of ten.

I did want to catch up on some sleep...

[SyoKennex · 4/10 · 18 January 2020]

This is a hard review to write and I'm trying to be nice but... this film was just boring. It has a very interesting premise and the actors are mostly solid enough to bring it around but it just... fell flat. I found myself bored, focused more on editing data than I was on the film, I couldn't focus on it, and almost fell asleep once or twice. The incorporation of the Grudge like sounds seemed much like a grab at trying to keep the audience listening - maybe it was inspired somewhat by the "Ju-on" films, maybe it was the same sound editor, but either way, it also fell flat. I really did try to like this but the only nice thing to really say is, "hey, this didn't 100% suck and come in at 1/10".

I'm a really big fan of Shiriashi Koji, and it pains me a little to be writing a mostly negative review for him, however, this is a nice look into where he started and how he developed and adapted when it comes up to films released after this.

More of an insight into a director rather than a horror film, "Ju-Rei" just left me wanting more and wishing I'd picked something else.

Creepy, but kind of vague.

[Aaron1375 · 7/10 · 21 March 2005]

This movie is different in that it plays out backwards. We start at chapter ten and work our way to a prologue. As you watch it, you begin to see how all the people are interconnected. However, I wasn't really impressed with chapter one or the prologue. This movie seems to be racing towards some sort of dark secret, I could not wait to find out what it was, but in the end it never really revealed anything. I am still not sure what the urban myth was, it was a bit vague, and I never understood why the wife at the end did what she did. I am also unclear where the wife and her daughter were killed. Still though it was creepy enough to overcome this flaws. If you watch this movie, however, keep in mind it is very low budget. The effects are not going to awe you and the film is not very high quality. Still worthy of a look see if you like Japanese horror.

Seen it *all* before

[Danny_G13 · 4/10 · 21 May 2005]

Chronically unoriginal and derivative Japanese horror could practically be guilty of plagiarism.

Ju-Rei (The Uncanny) is yet another in the conveyor belt of Oriental horror movies which lept on the Ring bandwagon of 1998. The vast majority of them have benefited from the fact that Eastern horror is still a relative unknown here in the west, and the tricks used in Asian film-making are still fairly new here too.

Indeed, fairly similar films like Dark Water and The Grudge have been blessed by the fact that they're still something of a novelty in this part of the word, because otherwise we'd see right through them much in the same way that teen slasher after teen slasher from Hollywood gets tiresome and repetitive.

However, there comes a time when even *novelty* becomes contrived, and Ju-Rei is a superb illustration of this.

The Uncanny (God knows what the name means) is a ghost story (Surprise surprise) where a shadowy female figure (*feigned shock*) appears and people die as a result (Where have we seen *that* before?).

So, no prizes for a fresh and interesting story line. However, the one direction the plot has taken to elevate it above its peers is the story's told in reverse. We start at Chapter 10, then work our way back to 1. Sure, Memento did this already, but nonetheless it's new for Japanese horror, to my knowledge.

The direction, though, lets this film down big time. Sure, the plot and narrative are totally unoriginal, but this could be countered by decent direction. Unfortunately, the mechanics of the movie are simply dire. Too often scenes' camera work is forcing the viewer, as opposed to the viewer feeling free. Good direction is subtle and when a scare or chill is threatening, it doesn't force you into submission. This should be a voluntary response, meaning you'll get more out of the upcoming shock. Add to this the number of times where something is laboured at a snail's pace, or a camera shot is held for a stupidly long period of time and you begin to get the feeling this one's being directed by an amateur.

Indeed, the budget appears to be substantially low, with some pretty poor attempts at acting compounding it. Being an English speaker I cannot obviously detect the subtlety of Japanese, but I can tell that the portrayals are universally struggled and decidedly unnatural.

As for the shocks, well there is one moment which I actually failed to see coming, so I got a little kick out of it, but otherwise this movie was a blatant copy of everything else which has been before.

This was a Japanese horror by the numbers.

Avoidable.

Not as bad as its reputation suggests.

[ebossert · 7/10 · 17 October 2015]

This is basically a compilation of killings by murderous spirits with enigmatic motives, which means that the entire film consists of horror sequences. The storytelling structure begins with the last segment (#10) and progresses backwards (to #1 and Prologue), but the stories and characters have little to no development so the setup seems like a gimmick.

The score and sound effects are excellent and are the strongest positive of this movie, even using some chanting at times. The use of blurred images for ghosts is also effective. In some cases the entities will appear very subtly in the background, which is an impressive technique. The segments themselves range from mediocre to very good – Chapter 5 being the best with a really cool staircase scene. Atmosphere is dark and thick throughout. Yes, the onryo ghost girl is used at times (as well as the croaking noises from The Grudge), but this much maligned debut film from director Koji Shiraishi is better than its reputation suggests.

The same story over and over again.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 5/10 · 17 May 2012]

Seriously, this movie features an incredibly flawed concept, that is besides is also being incredibly simple and formulaic. Basically all this movie does it telling the same story over and over again, in 10 different chapters, involving different characters.

This is basically what happens in every chapter; person hears a noise, person checks it out, person sees a ghost, person dies. Really, this is what happens every time! And was every story supposed to be related? I don't know, or perhaps I should rather say; I just couldn't care about it and the movie didn't make enough effort to make this clear enough. It for some odd reason also gets told in refers order. So the movie starts at chapter 10 and ends at 1, with a prologue and an epilogue to it as well. Why? Just because they could I guess, since this approach doesn't really add anything to the overall movie.

From a movie featuring different chapters, with different stories and characters in them, you would expect some more variety but 3 chapters in makes you realize that this movie is going to do absolutely nothing original and will keep on repeating itself, till it's finally over. Guess everybody can make a movie that way. It doesn't require any originality or true effort.

Besides, every chapter is just a few minutes short. How is its tension supposed to get buildup that way? How are we supposed to care for characters we only see a few minutes? It all fails at it because of the reason that most chapters are such incredibly short ones. One is even about 30 seconds long, which perhaps was the weirdest moment of the movie.

And because of it that the movie is basically the same thing over and over again, it totally looses its power. It ruins the tension and almost completely destroys its horror because you already know what is going to happen in each chapter. Perhaps lovers of Japanese horror can still mildly enjoy it. I mean, it's some very typical stuff all and in all honesty it's not the worst thing you could watch.

Totally lacks originality and keeps on repeating itself! There are still far more worse movies to watch out there but there is no reason either why you should ever go watch this one.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Entertaining But Severely Mishandled

[MisterPibbs · 6/10 · 24 November 2005]

*****************Slight Spoilers****************

Ju-Rei: You said review to come. Just a few facts about this movie. It isn't exactly unique and can get boring at times but one thing about this movie that is different is that it plays backwards from chapter 16 recceding to chapter 1. It's not the best shot movie and it seems low budget so don't expect fantastic special effects but it was quite a interesting movie. It starts out with 4 girls practicing their dance moves and as one of the girls begins to leave a dark mysterious figure appears infront of her and all of the other girls run away. The whole movie is about some Myth or legend that explains about a dark figure that comes and gets you and anyone that comes in contact with the person that has encountered that dark figure will also meet the dark demise. They don't explain the whole story behind the myth but it was a slightly entertaining film that was rather mishandled.

3 out of 5 Stars - Not For everyone but entertaining enough to attract some.

Just bad

[nina-364-807593 · 3/10 · 16 August 2021]

Even for 2004 the special effects are 20 to 30 years behind. The "scary" noise gets annoying after a while. The hauntings aren't scary, the plot is minimal, the dialog and acting are bland and generic.

This was the most boring and plain horror movie I've seen that wasn't trying to be a deep art house type movie. This doesn't even qualify for b movie status.