Japanese Horror Director Surprised By Success

In an interview with Utusan Malaysia Online, Takashi Shimizu talks about his shock at the amazing success of his "Ju-On" series of horror movies.

"The reaction was huge. I was really surprised. My original expectation was that some horror film fans or maybe high-school girls would come see my movie and then its popularity would quietly die down," Shimizu said in an interview.

Initial expectations for the film were so low that a distributor only found two cinemas in Tokyo and Osaka - Japan's second city - prepared to screen it, but three months after the opening, "Ju-On" was playing in more than 100 theatres. Released in 2002, the film earned 500 million yen (US$4.7 million) in box-office revenues in Japan, attracting 400,000 movie-goers, while its sequel "Ju-On II" racked up a whopping 1.1 billion yen as more than one million people went to see it in 2003.

The film "Ju-On" (The Grudge) begins with the murder of 30-something housewife Kayako by her jealous husband, who discovered her secret love for a college classmate after reading her diary. Clad in a white kimono, a traditional Japanese outfit for the dead, Kayako returns as a vengeful ghost and starts randomly killing complete strangers by literally scaring them to death.

"From ancient times, and historically speaking, Japanese women have always been told to stay inside the house and walk one step behind their husband," the director said, pointing out that 'Okusan', a Japanese word for a wife, literally means 'inside person'.

"Women had been long confined by their husbands and society and their anger and frustration had been bottled up inside. I am drawn to their deep grudge and female tenacity," he said.

America's ghost culture appears to be the opposite of Japan's, said the director who claims to have watched more than 1,000 Japanese and foreign horror films. "For me, American zombies and serial murderers are so dry. They don't reflect deep ill-feelings. But in Japanese horror, just watching a ghost scares me because I can feel its tenacious grudge," he said.

Source: Utusan Malaysia Online