Ju-on: Black Ghost

01/17/2018 07:55

Film: Ju-On: Black Ghost (Ju-On: Kuroi shôjo)

Year: 2009

Director: Mari Asato

Writer: Mari Asato

Starring: Kôji Seto, Kuniteru Shigeyama and Kana Tsugihara

 

Review:

This film starts showing us a girl, played by Hana Matsumoto, collapse at school and go into a fit. A boy sees this happen and runs off to tell someone. We then see the interior of a house where a massacre of a family happened.

It then shifts to a young man walking from his apartment; he is played by Kôji Seto. He passes by a woman, played by Ai Kago. He has a crush on her, but she completely ignores him. Later that night, he hears something hitting against his wall from her apartment and a moan. He tells his friends about it and they make jokes that he is in love and crushed because he was listening to her making rough love. He crosses her path again and then checks in on her in her apartment, something attacks him and pulls him in.

We then see where she works, as a nurse in a hospital. They are running tests on Matsumoto to see what is wrong with her. A scan of her brain came back with nothing, but Kago is told by a doctor, played by Shinji Nomura. It appears he found something else on another test. Her mother is there and hoping for news, she is played by Maria Takagi. We then learn that Kago wants to give up the case, because she keeps seeing things in Matsumoto room.

Another story we get is Matsumoto’s father, played by Masanobu Katsumura. He is in a taxi with a coworker and comes on to her. She is played by Yuno Nakazono and turns him down. The spirit terrorizes her as well.

Matsumoto comes home with her mother and they find Katsumura is at home. He wants to take his daughter to dinner. Takagi tells him that she was in the hospital and they can’t tonight. Matsumoto then screams and making a weird clicking sound before falling on her face. Katsumura goes to check on her. She grabs his wrist and tells him he will kill a woman with that hand. She is then taken to a psychiatrist where she goes into a fit during the session.

How did this curse start? What does it have to do with Matsumoto? How did it contribute to the massacre we learn about in the beginning? Will Katsumura actually kill someone like he is told? What happened to Seto?

This film, much like Ju-On: White Ghost, I saw on the shelf while working at Family Video. I like the concept of this film. Much like the other one though, I would have liked continuity of bringing up the curse from the previous films especially since they have the boy character back, he is played by Shûsei Uto in this one. This film is intriguing to me though, because of the curse being different from White Ghost as well as the other films. I don’t want to spoil the twist so I won’t reveal it here. I also liked what gets unleashed at the end, making it more powerful as well.

The acting, much like I say when watching films with subtitles on, it is hard for me judge how good they are doing since I am not as familiar with their culture and needing to read to keep up with what is going on. I thought from what I saw they did good though. I really liked Kago. I thought she was really good looking and showed a lot of fear, same with Takagi. Matsumoto was pretty solid as well for her age.

The effects in this one were mostly practical. I know there was CGI with Matsumoto in the hospital, which I thought looked good. There is some blood as well, which was practical as well. Much like White Ghost though, it was a little bit too watery, but I won’t hold that against the film too much. The editing is the highlight of this film, much like the rest of the series. The story is told out of order, but gives pieces as you go. This one is more confusing to me than White Ghost though. The score of the film was good as well. The choices have a creepy feel and help to build tension of the scenes.

Now with that said, this film isn’t as good as the first two in the series, but I like that they did something different. I am big on continuity so I wish they would have referenced the previous curse, even in passing, especially when showing Uto in the film. I like what is causing this curse as it is interesting. The acting of the film looked good to me. The editing of the film is a little confusing in this installment, but still the highlight of the films in this series. The effects looked good and the score was solid. This is an above average haunted, curse film. I will warn you that this film is from Japan and I had to watch it with subtitles, so keep that in mind coming in.

 

My Rating: 6 out of 10