Ju-on: White Ghost

The Japanese short (1 hr) horror films Ju-On: White Ghost and Ju: On Black Ghost were released together on 27th June 2009, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the start of the Ju-On (Grudge) horror franchise. White Ghost was directed by Ryuta Miyake and Black Ghost by Mari Asato. Each film deals with the massacre of a family by what turns out to be supernatural means (the events of White Ghost are fleetingly referenced at the beginning of Black Ghost), but other than that they are unrelated. And be warned - they are in that trademark Ju-On non-linear style of storytelling, so piecing together what happens can be a challenge if you fancy it (or just look at the Wikipedia entries for each film - they summarise the events for both chronologically).

White Ghost is easily the better of the two. The story's actually pretty deep, and deals with (amongst other things) the sexual abuse of a child. It also has a fantastic and gory third act and one of the creepiest openings ever for a haunted house movie (the cake delivery).

Black Ghost starts off well but never really achieves the level of creepiness of White Ghost. It also doesn't help that some of the adult female characters look so similar (it does, however, have the stunning Kana Tsugihara in a small role near the beginning).

White Ghost and Black Ghost both have some well-shot and atmospheric scenes, but White Ghost utilises them better - and has a much better payoff.

White Ghost -- 8/10, Black Ghost -- 6/10.

Even tho "White ghost" does provide some very, but very tensioned moments, I found it hard to take it seriously. I mean, after watching it, it's rather difficult to say that this one is worthy of a grade over 6, cause let's face it, for a cheesy Asian fun, it does the job, but if you in for some real scares with a over the top plot and development, "White ghost" looks like a cartoon!

Again, don't get me wrong, dunno how, but when I saw it, it scared me out of my mind, cause the execution is very good, but if they were able to put it on screen like this, why didn't they try harder on the script part? Get a decent idea, make use of it, and put your name up there, with the rest of Asia's greater horrors! They did everything better than most such films, again, the plot is what killed it for me. Check it out and you'll see what I'm talking about!

Cheers!

Normally I am very fond of Japanese horror movies, and in overall then the "Ju-On" series have been adequate; the Japanese originals of course, not the abysmal Hollywood cash-in on the success of the Japanese movies.

However, this 2009 installment in the franchise was a swing and a miss.

First of all, the production level of the entire movie feels like something I could have done myself as an audience. It just lacks proper production value to be a proper movie.

The story was fragmented and a scrambled mess of a story, that made very little coherent sense.

The acting in the movie was adequate, although the actors and actresses had nothing to work with.

"Ju-on: Shiroi rôjo" had fair special effects, but they were far from being great mind you.

There was nothing scary about the movie at all, which made it a very dull and pointless experience to sit through. Especially if you compare it to the previous installments in the franchise.

This is definitely not a Japanese horror movie that you should rush out to invest your time or money in.

Format: Amazon Prime - Language: Japanese (English Subtitled)

Released: 2009

Director: Ryut Miyake

Starring: Hiroki Suzuki, Ichirota Miyakawa, Naysuki Kasa

Where to start? Well it's short, which is a blessing!

To be strictly fair to the film it does start out well enough, with the initial building up of tension that I have come to expect from Japanese horror films; then sadly, rather then building on the initial success, the whole thing falls apart.

Ju-On: White Ghost is the story of a house that was the location of a brutal mass murder. The film consists of a series of short segments, each one showcasing the history of a different character and setting out why they eventually come to their various unfortunate ends, as well as giving the background to the murders.

As a direct to DVD film it is very low budget and it shows, badly. Yet for all the appallingly bad and cringe-worthy acting there are occasional moments of great, outstanding performance; for all the unbelievably poor stories there are some strong, genuinely creepy tales.

At an hour long it is worth sitting though the rubbish mainly because when this film gets it right, even with the cringe fest that some of the actors put us through, it delivers some genuine scares. It just unfortunate that director, Ryuta Miyake, comes across as not having the slightest clue about how to make/direct a film.

Like this film this is really all I can think of to say on the matter, short and pretty much lacking in any direction.

I suppose it makes logical sense for the distributors here to combine both Ju-on: White Ghost and Black Ghost stories in 1 screening. After all, each is only 1 hour long, and narratively are somehow intertwined together quite loosely, with their production marking 10 years since Ju-on's cinematic premiere. Helmed by two different directors, we're given two direct-to-video productions, each with its own flavour and separate storyline dealing with the Ju-On Grudge curse, and frankly, with its limited production budget and consistent elements,

For those unfamiliar with the Ju-on mythos (like me), fret not, as the films are self- contained, so prior in-depth knowledge is not required to enjoy what's essentially one of the longer enduring J-horror franchises out there, which has been remade by Hollywood as always. For both tales, the story lines were done in non-linear fashion, which is supposed to make you work at piecing together its chronology, with an increased challenge in White Ghost being two separate timelines you have to make mental notes of.

Then there's the episodic cliffhanger that trails off each segment. On its own, the episodes within White Ghost and Black Ghost can be extremely short stories of their own, since each contains its own dedicated shock-scare moments, though White Ghost seemed to enjoy making it look so cheesy with its atmospheric jump scares, sudden appearances and the likes, and I admit it did get to me, especially with that old ugly woman with a penchant for holding onto a basketball (yes, all will be explained in due course) seem to have a fetish for charging towards her victim / screen.

Personally, between the two, I'd prefer White Ghost to Black Ghost, mainly because of the storyline which was more engaging and kept within its limits, save for a tangent in White Ghost for AV star Mihiro to appear in a needless scene that had most of her screen time being butchered for a screening here (no, my friend who has met her before, says there's nothing sexy about that segment, more of a violent treatment which was rather tame that the censors frowned upon). For Black Ghost, it went off into the hokeyness of a Japanese medium of sorts, probably to show off some snazzy looking CG-ed belly, and a tale that's less engaging.

For what it's worth, these stories did enough to pique my interest in the original Ju-on mythos, and I just might pick them up on DVD just to see how those got executed. For starters though, I have to get used to how "The Grudge" can be used as a plot device for ghouls to get created / passed on, as I felt White Ghost had it quite nailed down, and Black Ghost didn't exactly do a great job on that concept.