Tempted by the '60s-style cheap-horror-movie poster drawn by Rockin Jellybean (an artist also active in the Japanese garage-band scene), I went to catch a late-night screening of Hakyousuru Kuchibiru in Tokyo. The late-night Shinjuku movie theater seemed to reproduce the atmosphere of a good old-fashioned horrorshow but at the same time was enveloped with cynical laughter. The audience seemed to be a gathering of horror experts. Not going against the tide of expectation, the movie was good horror which left a deliciously lingering aftertaste. Hakyousuru Kuchibiru contrasts well with Ju-on, which I later saw. These two movies would sit really well together as double-feature. With her scream-queen looks combined with the essence of a pop idol, the young actress Hitomi Miwa is the point in common between these two films. Among Japanese horror fans, she's becoming a fad in herself.

I watched Juon, which was never released in the theaters, but only on video, after hearing that it was "really really scary!" - which increased my expectations. True to word, though, it had a sense of the repulsive (showing exactly what people do not want to see) in addition to director Takashi Shimizu’s excellent sense of timing. Lacking the visual quality of an actual film, the "V-Cinema" format is meant to be seen on television at home. This aspect only added to the documentary-style camerawork. This further exacerbated the gap between the normal and the supernatural.

The story is set at a normal quiet home in a residential area. The mysterious events that happen to each family that moves into the home do not flow in chronological order: each story is treated as a separate piece. This presentation of narrative flow provides a very unique story progression.

Initially, each short story has no apparent relation to the other stories, but the connection can be found in the very middle of the movie. As a result, the audience is successfully drawn deeper into the story. I’ve heard a rumor that a real ghost was actually filmed in five different scenes. This film really is a film where such rumors seem to proliferate. There are just so many scenes in which you can’t help but cry out "What’s that mean!?" or "What was that that just appeared on the screen!?" There’s not even a moment to catch your breath.

The rumor that many of the mysteries are solved in Juon 2 is not true. The story does in fact end, but half of the movie is a review of the scenes from the first movie that were so scary you might prefer to forget them. It was a little overbearing and repetitive. I worked myself up thinking "What’s going on? This is more like Ju-on 1.5 than Juon 2. Wait a minute… maybe they are doing this on purpose to set up a surprise ending!?" But despite my anticipation, the movie ended with a fairly predictable conclusion. However, the overall quality of the film was very high, and I found myself caught up in the story. In spite of myself I had nightmares the next day.

On both Hakkyousuru Kuchibiru and Juon, many members of the production staff were people from the staff of Ring. Particularly noteworthy is the directorial talent of newcomer Takashi Shimizu. Also, the work of editor Hiroshi Takahashi (screenwriter for Jyurei, Ring, Rasen, Ring 2, and Hakkyousuru Kuchibiru) met up with expectations. -I.Evers (in March 2000) 
 
 

* Discussion on the JUON movies 2003

* Juon was shown theatrically one time at Box Higashi Nakano on March 18, 2000, as a midnight show to commemorate the sale of Video Juon 2.)

* Interview of Takashi Shimizu about Movie Juon 2002

* HORROR MAP: HAKKYO SURU KUCHIBIRU
* HORROR MAP: JUON
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

JP-MOVIES.COM
The Best Japanese XXX movie theater