chris pratt card trick explained

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The Silent Screams in the Ju-On Curse

For one of my monthly Let's Scare Jessica to Death challenges, I was dared to watch The Grudge (2004), the American remake of the 2002 film Ju-On: The Grudge with both directed by Takashi Shimizu. I remember finding The Grudge to be a decent film with some good jump scares, but not overall horrifying and even at points boring. So when I looked up its predecessor from Japan, Ju-On: The Grudge, I decided to spend my rainy Sunday afternoon watching it. By the time the end credits were rolling, I was wrapped so tightly in a blanket clutching my pillow, terrified, but also drawn into the story. Recently, a friend of the podcast mentioned that this film was actually the third in a franchise, and that there were two short films along with two full-length features based on those short films that are a part of the entire Ju-On series. I even watched the Netflix new series Ju-On: Origins which uses the same premise of the films, but also creates its own story.

What is similar about all these films and television series is the use of the supernatural presence of the “Onryo” to trigger fear into the audience's heart. In Japanese mythology, an “Onryo” is a “Reikon” (spirit) of a person whose death was either unnatural, traumatic or from someone who had not received their last rights. Often these spirits are born out of acts of corrosive jealousy or crimes of passion (O’Sullivan). The most famous Onryo story comes from the 1825 play by Yotsuya Kaidan, which is a multilayered revenge tale of disfigured Oiwa who is seeking vengeance against her samurai husband who murdered her. She is depicted as having a distorted face, long black hair, a white funeral gown and regularly seen glowing (O’Sullivan). These wrathful spirits are driven by the desire to seek vengeance for a perceived wrong and enact it on anyone or anything it encounters. Their acts of vengeance are like food and they prefer to let the subject(s) of their hatred suffer for long periods of time --- they are all about lifelong torment (Matsuyama). The Onryo’s power can influence the environment around them, often becoming not only a curse on the place but the people who come into contact with it. Their vengeance is like a contagious disease that is more devastating than that of a “regular ghost” and the only way to appease the Onryo is to grant it a level of justice (Matsuyama). However, how can one determine if that level of justice is enough for the horrific way in which someone died? For the trauma that is impacted on their loved ones and families? Can vengeance ever be satisfied? The answer is no, and this is what the film franchise Ju-On explores.

Japanese horror movies scare me as they tend to spend more time building atmosphere and often veer away from overusing jump scares, as well their plots tend to involve subtle supernatural elements that do not overwhelm the film. Yet, what I find to be the most chilling and captivating element of this franchise, is not necessarily the supernatural appearances of Toshi, Kayako, and The Women in White (our Onryo(s)), but the very tragic and disturbing events that led to their deaths and rebirths as vengeful spirits in the first place. The truly unsettling aspect is the narrative of violence towards women and children, and the silent suffering they endure in their homes, within a system that is unable to help them. When Takashi Shimizu created these films he was not only inspired by the “Onryo” vengeful ghost mythology, but also the rise of domestic abuse cases that were emerging out of Japan in the late 90s.

Before the 90s, violence against women in Japan was largely unrecognized by both its government and Japanese society at large (Fulcher). For centuries, domestic violence was seen as something private to the household (just like in the West), and this was the prerogative of the husband and none of the police or criminal systems business (Siripala). Even as Japan continued to modernize and lead the world in technological advancements, a majority of politicians were socially conservative and didn't see Japan dealing with the same issues as the West. In their eyes, Japanese men were not violent like Western men (Siripala). Household violence was treated as an invisible issue. As depicted in Ju-On with the use of shadow and dark lighting, domestic violence existed only in the shadows. So by bringing Kayako (Takako Fuji) and Toshi (Ryota Koyama) into the daylight, this can be seen as bringing to light the violence that is often inflicted on women and children in the home.

New year, new curse. Except, well, this curse isn’t exactly new. If you saw the The Grudge in 2004 or the Japanese original (Ju-On: The Grudge, released in 2002) then you’re probably familiar with The Grudge curse — and you might also remember being freaked out by showers and super long, black hair for awhile. The 2020 reboot of The Grudge is out now, and while the plot and characters may be different, the curse remains pretty much the same. Here’s a refresher in case you decided to block it out back in the early 2000s (and hey, we wouldn't blame you).

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chris pratt card trick explained