Ju-Rei: The Uncanny

Ju-Rei: The Uncanny

Release Date - 2004

Country of Origin - Japan

Directed by Kōji Shiraishi

Starring - Kanako Momota, Ayaka Sasaki, Akari Hayami

It just wouldn’t be Hell-O-Ween if I didn’t review a horror movie from good old Japan. And the film we’ll be taking a look at today doesn’t disappoint. Now considering last year the Japanese films I reviewed were more in the what the fuck and fake snuff/gore genres, I decided to review a film more akin to what Japan is mostly know for when it comes to horror films: supernatural ghost stories. Ghost stories are the bread and butter when it comes to Japanese horror, or J-Horror as it is usually called. The ghost story is an integral part of Japanese culture and dates back far into the Edo period. While J-Horror does and can do other things, the ghost story is what it’s become universally known for.

With that there definitely come a lot of films that are very similar to plot, this being even further enhanced by the box office success of Ring (リング Ringu) from 1998. Since then there have been thousands of new ghost stories, though none have come as close to the success of the Ring series as Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On series. Sometimes plots are “borrowed” and even bits of a name can be borrowed. This leads us to today’s film: Ju-Rei: The Uncanny. This is the second entry into the Ju-Rei series, a series of a low budget horror films that replicate the formula of the Ju-On (呪怨 Juon) series (i.e. a few short vignettes that all connect to tell one story). To be honest I haven’t seen any of the other films in the series, so I can’t really go into too much detail about them. Although from what I heard some of them are rather goofy and comedic, and that this film is the best out of the whole shebang and even the best and scariest from the production company (Broadway Production’s) who made the film. Whether or not that is true I can’t say considering as I said, I haven’t seen any other Ju-Rei films, nor have I seen any other films from Broadway Production’s. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dig into the film and see if it’s scary and good on it’s own merit.

The film was actually directed by Kōji Shiraishi, a man who’s dabbled quite a bit in the horror genre. His most known works in the genre include The Curse (ノロイ Noroi), Carved (口裂け女, Kuchisake-onna, Slit-Mouthed Woman), and Grotesque (グロテスク Gurotesuku). The man obviously knows what he’s doing when it comes to horror, so it’s safe to assume that this film is in good hands. With that out of the way though, let’s jump right on into Ju-Rei.

The story of Ju-Rei is as I mentioned in a similar to vain of the Ju-On series. People go about their everyday lives, ghosts appears and began to do some ghostly shenanigans. All the stories connect and thus through various vignettes creates one big story. That’s all I should really say detail wise about the story. The scares of the film are built around catching the viewing off guard with jump moments, so I feel talking in too much depth about the story and scenes will give aware the scares (and boy are they good). I will say though that while it utilizes the same story format, Ju-Rei actually does something very interesting with the whole vignette angle as it plays the 10 chapters (plus a prologue) backwards. As the film goes on you slowly uncover the mystery of the ghosts and why the people being attacked are, well, being attacked. It’s a nice little twist and it works wonderfully. The story itself is actually well crafted too, it’s tight and compacted making for an easy to follow story that doesn’t over explain anything or leave anything of importance out. It’s also packed to the brim with a sense of dread and eeriness, both of which help create the ghostly and black atmosphere of the film. The scare moments are very scary and some even got me, your usually unscarable reviewer to jump in his seat. It is a pretty typical story though, so for those who have seen any of the Ring, Ju-On, or various other Japanese ghost movies there isn’t really anything new here. But while it is virtually the same old thing, the film uses the old tricks and nuances and crafts them in a way that is very interesting and will have you the viewer on the edge of your seat, gripping at the armrests.


When it comes to the characters of the film, all of them portrayed very nicely and their presence in the film is warranted, even for those who don’t stick around for too long. There isn’t a lot or even any character development though goes for the characters individually. You learn of their relationships with some of the characters, but that’s about all you’ll really ever find out about them. Because of that they’re rather dry and unimpressive. But even with that the acting and portrayal of them is pretty nice. All of the actor’s do a good job and while, like the characters, the performances can come off as being dry and not that inspiring, they’re good enough to keep the characters from being nothing more then pieces of wood just sitting there.

Moving onto the technical side of things (starting with the cinematography as usually), the film is pretty nice. The whole thing seems to be shot on a digital camera, something which is quite evident by the way the film looks (by that I mean that everybody and everything seems like its right in front of you, like how it would be on tape or a digital camcorder). The film itself is also fairly grainy and has a greenish murkiness to it. While this does mean it’s lacking in quality, it actually helps add to the grim atmosphere that the story is setting. As far as the actual shots go, they’re nice. A complaint I do have though is that some shots are lingered on for far too long and make that scene seem particularly slow. That aside though, the majority of the shots are quite good and while the film is lacking in quality, its lack of quality just helps build the tension.

This brings us to the last bit of the technical side of the film: audio/music. I’ll be straight with you all; the audio quality isn’t that great. The volume of the speech seems especially low. On the volume level I constantly have on my TV it’s always easy to hear what’s going on, some films are a bit lower, but you can still hear them fine for the most part. Ju-Rei though is a bit more difficult to hear. Though considering you’ll be watching this film with subtitles I guess you could argue it doesn’t really matter if you actually hear what they’re saying or not. However the sounds effects are quite audible and the main one (a noise similar to the one Kayako of the Ju-On series makes) is pretty bone chilling. The other bit of sound that is clear as day is the music, and it’s perfect. It doesn’t appear all that often, but when it does it lets you know that something’s about to go down. The entire soundtrack is mostly droning with some choir like chanting, this combo being another layer on the black grim atmosphere of the film. So while the quality of the speech is fairly poor, the quality of the sound effects is great as is that of the music which as, I stated is pure perfection (can I get a CD of this so I can use it to scare the crap out of people when it’s late at night?).

So that basically concludes the review. I know, it’s another short one. But to be fair it’s a case of the less I say, the better it is you’ll probably get sucked into the film and thus scared. But all of that nonsense aside how does Ju-Rei: The Uncanny fair? Well I’d say it fairs very well. Its story while nothing new is beyond interesting, and the way it takes a time tested formula and twists it is intriguing and engrossing. The mystery of what started all of this ghost fun is something which slowly unfolds to the audience, and thus the backwards story telling mechanic works fantastically. If you played the film in a normal fashion I don’t think it would work all that well because you’d know from the get go about what’s going to happen and what the trouble with the ghosts is all about. But because it’s told backwards it makes it all the more mysterious and thus effective. The characters are nice, but aren’t that memorable or impressive, though for what they are, they’re acted rather nicely. The quality of the film in how the film looks and the audio isn’t the best, in the case of how the film looks though it works to the movie’s advantage in building the dread, whereas with the audio it makes it difficult to hear everything the characters are saying. Though the parts that are clear (the sound effects and music) more than make up for it in my opinion. Overall it’s a very well thought out and put together film.

How does it stand though in the sea of hundreds of other ghost stories that is virtually the same plot? I think it stands out very well. It isn’t the best the genre has to offer, and to be honest there’s definitely better options out there. However it’s able to stand on it’s own two feet well enough to be noticed and while you won’t always remember it, I think you’d remember it for at least a good while after you’ve seen it.

In the end, Ju-Rei: The Uncanny is a film in a sea of dozens of other similar films that manages to stick out enough to be noticed and not easily forgotten. It isn’t the best out there, but it’s not the worst. If you’re looking for a Japanese ghost story but don’t want to jump into the huge pond of the Ring and Ju-On series, and you don’t want to go back and watch the older films from the 60s and 70s, then Ju-Rei: The Uncanny is a movie I highly suggest you watch.

  

A

Hell-O-Ween 2 is almost over. But before it ends, there’s one more film we’ll be taking a look at. A film I’m quite giddy to review. Why? Because I get to tear into one of the worst horror movies I have ever had the displeasure of seeing. Until then stay sick my ghastly friends.