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Ju Rei:Uncanny Actor: Chinatsu Wakatsuki Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 80 minutes Studio: Pathfinder Home Ente Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-10-26 Buy from Amazon |
"It wasnt that bad!" This movie wasnt that bad like everyone is saying. Granted its no scary, make you cry for mommy movie, it does provide a few momments that made me jump. I say watch this movie and if you dont like it, you can always sell it to a anime kid for twice as much. "Much better than I'd expected" While I'm a big fan of (what has become known as) the current J-Horror film explosion, I've also found myself becoming somewhat jaded by the similarity of many of these films. The ghostly face, the scary noises, the crawling-on-the-floor. And yet... Somehow this film works. Borrowing elements from many other well-known/successful recent Japanese horror films, JU REI: THE UNCANNY blends subtle scares and teasing atmospherics into a genuine creepfest. Yes, it is filmed on DV (and thus has a look that can be dismissed as 'cheap') - however once the story grabs-hold, you won't even notice. My favourite aspect of this film is the slow, creepy tempo... the director (editor) has wisely decided to let many scenes slowly unravel, holding onto shots for much longer than is expected, increasing the scares through the tension this stylistic-device creates. Viewers who lack patience, who demand MTV-styled editing, and who demand linear storylines may wish to stay-away from this film - they may not find the rewards their short attention-spans demand. Recommended. "Click, Click, Click" Nothing special here. This is close to your average run-of-the-mill Japanese horror flick. The clicking, the Japanese girls with make-up on, which is in almost all of the Japanese horror films I've seen (RINGU, The Gruge, this movie, the list goes on). This movie was obviously low-budget, as the quality is very poor; this movie looks like it was made with a 1980's camcorder, but it looks slightly more realistic. They, however, failed miserably to explain some key parts in the story. When the credits rolled, rather than being scared, I was questioning the cheery music (this is a "horror film", for crying out loud, why happy, cheery music?) and a lot about the film, such as why the ghosts were so angry. They just plumb drug out everything (such as the grandmother) to where it was not scary in the least. Sure, I was a bit creeped out in a few parts, such as the mother and the son in the flickering light in the school, the clicking and retching sounds, etc., but really, this movie blows. Also, the description on the back of the DVD case was something along these lines: "A group of high school girls discover the truth to an urban legend and one by one, they meet their death at the hands of a black hooded figure. Who is the mysterious hooded figure, and will the girls be able to escape death?" That isn't exactly accurate, but close enough for my next complaint. The description states that the ghosts are "black hooded figures". Correct me if I'm wrong, but I did not see ANY hood on ANY of these "ghosts". In conclusion, this movie blows. It is referred to "the scariest movie from Japan!", but so far from it. It's low quality, as well as low budget, it starts on Chapter 10 and ends on the Prologue (there's probably some cultural reason behind this, so beats me), and everything is drug out like 10 freakin' minutes. Don't waste your money. "So terrible!" Now usually, when some people say a movie is terrible, it can be a matter of opinion...after Ring Virus (korean Ringu remake)got some bad reviews I thought I'd see for myself and although some disturbing changes, this is not the case here. Wow. This movie takes place backwards. You see the end first, then chapters are revealed in reverse and you realize "oh, the characters KNOW each other in some way!" I thought at first it was random characters random encounters with this weird ghost like mini stories and I almost turned it off.. Anyways, there are no surprises, everything is drawn out so long that you know what's next- just not the order! Most pathetic was the ghost and noises. Trying to remain neutral, but sounded just like The Grudge! When the show the ghost- she is crawling through the theater like she died right after watching The Grudge or The Grudge 2 of course. By chapter 1, I didn't care anymore why what was happening was happening!! Avoid this. I reccommend instead: *The Grudge (Japanese OR American remake) *The Eye (The Eye 10 (#3) was just released in theaters!) *Ringu *Ringu 2 *Phone *Rasen (ringu sequel) *Ringu 0 Birthday (sad) *Ring Virus *One Missed Call (2 is out in Japan now!) "A complete waste of money!!!!" I've been in a Japanese horror fix lately watching some of the greats like Ringu and Ju~on, but after watching JuRei:Uncanny I was extremely let down. Oh the movie has a few parts that will make you jump and its great how the movie doesn't depend on huge effects to get its point across like other horror films, but thats all it had. The story line is just not there. I know that Japanese horror can be irratic and jumpy and usually is a good thing but JuRei:Uncanny is so jumpy that it makes no sence. The plot gose backwards and for awhile ties together nicely but by the middle of the movie it just loses its contnuity. My advice is if you want a good horror movie you might want to pass this one up. |