It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the new wave of Asian horror - beginning with the 1998 classic Ringu and culminating, though with no end in sight, with the American non-remake sequel of a remake, The Ring Two (obviously classier than plain, old 'The Ring 2') - so tonight I watched The Grudge which is a remake of a remake of a movie called Ju-on. Confusingly, the original remake (there's an oxymoron for you) was called Ju-on: The Grudge, and that movie's working title was actually Ju-on 3, while Ju-on: The Grudge 2 was originally called Ju-on 4. What makes it even more confusing is that the original (stick with me) Ju-on 2 is also called Ju-on: The Curse 2. Curse or grudge, people - make up your minds! I could go on, and the fact that they're now making Ju-on: The Grudge 3 (which shouldn't be confused with The Grudge 2, which is probably also in pre-production) means that the filmmakers are probably just as confused as you and I. It also means that this is a pretty damn popular franchise.

And franchise it is. The Japanese - and, lately, Koreans - are making scarier movies than us, but they're just as likely to resort to the same old clichés over and over and over again. Those clichés are still better than ours (black cats jumping out of cupboards notwithstanding), but I'm getting a little weary of black haired women walking funny. And so it goes in The Grudge (working title: Untitled 'Ju-on: The Grudge' Remake - couldn't they have come up with something a little more original than that?), which has J-horror clichés aplenty, and which is basically a Greatest Hit collection of scary moments from Ju-ons past. In other words, if you've seen any of them (I've only watched the original remakes; you do the math on that one), there will be few surprises. It's still scary, in parts, but the story doesn't make much sense anymore. I mean, it never did, but at least in Japanese it makes more sense that it doesn't make sense. If you know what I mean. J-horror (and K-horror, and HK-horror, natch) fans are a forgiving lot.

Is it worth seeing? Yeah, sure. At home, alone, on the couch; you'll jump a few times. In a theatre, the scares are more pedestrian. It's a lesser effort than the past two remakes (sigh), so catch those instead if you can, but it's nice to see a remake of a Japanese horror movie set in Japan. Even if everyone speaks English, which I know for a fact that no one does.

A few weeks ago, I watched Kairo, which made even less sense (if that's even possible), but which, for some illogical reason, was more interesting. It evolved from a plain-Jane (or plain-Yoko) evil-spirit-with-a-grudge (not capitalised) flick into an end-of-the-world-filled-with-crazy-shit flick with an awesome ending. Which was fun. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you've watched every other Asian horror movie of the past seven years, but for those of us who have, it's worth a peek. You can buy it here.
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