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Film: Ju-On: White Ghost (Ju-On: Shiroi rôjo)
Year: 2009
Director: Ryûta Miyake
Writer: Ryûta Miyake
Starring: Hiroki Suzuki, Ichirôta Miyakawa and Natsuki Kasa
Review:
This film starts showing us scenes from different places that will all be used as the story is unraveled. We start with a man hanging from a tree in a snowy, wooded area. There is a tape recording that records his last words. There is also a bag and before we cut away, hair starts to grow from it.
We then shift to a man dressed up as Santa Claus; he is played by Hiroki Suzuki. He comes to a house to deliver a cake. No one answers the door, but it opens. He comes inside, calling out to see if anyone is there. A woman responds that is tied up, but she will there in a minute. Suzuki wants to go and then calls out to her again. She tells him the same thing again. She does it again so he goes to the room she was in. There’s no one there. He sees a little girl with a book bag and a yellow hat and he follows upstairs. There he finds a decapitated body and bloody sheets. A woman with a scary face comes at him; she is played by Akiko Hoshino. She is holding a basketball.
We then shift to the next story. There is a father, who is played by Ichirôta Miyakawa. He is a taxi driver and taking his daughter to school. She is played by Natsuki Kasa. She states there is something sticky on her bag. He states it must have been from something from his ride that morning. He goes to clean it up and gets a call over the radio. The dispatcher states the police want to talk to him about his ride that morning. He looks in the mirror to see someone in the backseat. He looks back and they are gone, but there is a bag there now. He looks inside to see the head of a girl. It’s eyes open and then he is attacked from behind.
His daughter grows up to be Akina Minami. Her father is thought to be missing or dead and this happened seven years ago. Everyone thinks she has the power to see ghosts. Two friends, played by Markia Fukunaga and Chie Amemiya, ask her to help them get a Japanese version of an Ouija board to work. At first it doesn’t, but they contact a ghost that is named Mirai. That was the name of a little girl who was murdered seven years ago and Minami sees her standing by them. The other two do not. One of them is attacked while she is in the bathroom by Hoshino.
We then meet the family that is moving into a house. The father is stern with his eldest son, who is played by Tsuyoshi Muro. He keeps failing a law exam and his father is not happy. The youngest daughter is played Chinami Iwamoto. This girl’s name is Mirai. The grandmother for this family is Hoshino as well. As they look through the house, Muro sees something and goes into a room. There something grabs him from a mirror and we see that after he leaves, his reflection is still there.
The next story is the girlfriend of Suzuki picking him up from the police station. She is played by Mihiro. They go to celebrate Christmas, but Suzuki is still haunted and sees things. We then get the story of what is happening in the house since the family has moved in and we see that Kasa is best friends with Iwamoto. Muro hasn’t been the same since they moved in.
Everything is wrapped up by showing us people who investigated this case as well as seeing the massacre that ends up happening and causing the curse to start. Who committed these acts and who is the man who hung himself? Whose head was in the bag as well? Can this curse be broken before it claims more and continues to expand?
I first heard about this film while I was working at Family Video and saw it on the shelf. After seeing this, this isn’t a true sequel to the Japanese Ju-On films. This is introducing another curse after a family is murdered. It completely ignores the events in the previous films. I also read somewhere that this film takes place in the same house that this one is paired with, Black Ghost. I still like this film and what they did. I don’t mind that this one is completely new curse; they even have a cameo of the boy from the Ju-On films, this film he is played by Shûsei Uto. If they are going to do that I wish they would have just mentioned it. I love the giving the story out of order and giving us pieces through different stories and characters. I didn’t really like the ending though, as it doesn’t make sense to the rules of previous films.
From what I could tell, the acting in this film was good. I partially have issues is reading subtitles and trying to watch their acting. I thought Old Lady in White, who is uncredited played by Chikako Isomura, did well. I wasn’t a huge fan of the make-up on her though as it looked fake. I found Minami to be quite attractive. Muro did well in his role and I could see why he did what he did. The rest of the cast did well.
The effects in this film were good. CGI was used for the hair and I thought it actually looked real. The blood was a little watery, but I thought it looked good. That is something about this film as well that it is bloodier than the previous ones. The editing in this film is great. That is the biggest take away I have from the series is that they intricate stories that involve a lot of different characters and they give it out of order, but it makes sense in how it’s told. This film does that. Finally the score of the film is very good. It helps to build tension and has an eerie feel.
With that said, this film is a good addition to the series. I would have liked some continuity. It isn’t something that I needed a lot of, just a line or something to connect. I don’t mind a new curse being shown. I just wasn’t a fan of the ending though. The acting of the film was good. The effects were both practical and CGI, which I thought both were solid. The editing of the film is the highlight for sure. The score also helps the film. I would say that this film is slightly above average, but if you are into haunting, curse type films, this one is decent. I will warn you that this film is from Japan and I watched it with subtitles.
My Rating: 6 out of 10