Buffy to redo 'Ju-On' in Japan

[Taro Toporific]

Gellar holding a 'Grudge' against Raimi, Col Pics
Dec. 15, 2003 / hollywoodreporter.com
Sarah Michelle Gellar... will take on a more frightening role in her next starring gig as she is set to topline the horror remake "The Grudge." The project, being produced by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures and distributed domestically by Columbia Pictures, is an English-language version of the Japanese thriller "Ju-On."

[graline]

i think that should be good..i always enjoy some good sam raimi, and his nepotismic brother=^_^=

[Taro Toporific]

i think that should be good..i always enjoy some good sam raimi, and his nepotismic brother=^_^=

As most horror flicks, I got dragged along to see Japanese "Ju-On." I understood all the words but still left confused. Like Hideo Nakata's " Ring," "Ju-On" could use a little more 'explained' narrative so perhaps the remake isn't a bad idea.

[Mulboyne]

Yahoo has the trailer for Takashi Shimizu's remake of "Ju-on" starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Pic above shows both on set.

Unlike "Ring", this remake is still set in Japan

Trailer for The Grudge

[Taro Toporific]

Unlike "Ring", this remake is still set in Japan
Trailer for The Grudge

Made in Japan: great.

Filming looks wonderful.

Plot premise: ?????
"Sarah Michelle Gellar, an American nurse living in Tokyo, unknowingly uncovers the source of the curse ..."

Hmmm....a non-military, non-nun, ravishing, 27 year old, American nurse living in Tokyo who passed 1-kyu Japanese as well as nursing schools and license boards in both countries. Oh and she lives in her OWN single family home* in Sedagaya-ku just off Kampachi dori. Nahhhhhh.


*Don't let the IRS do a full audit on her.

[emperor]

Like Taro said - slightly unrealistic premise? (..maybe the character inherits a fortune and decides to blow it on a few months rent in Japan )

Ive seen a made-for-tv version from 2000 (that has Chiaki Kuriyama/Gogo Yubari in a minor role) but i believe another version came out in 2003.
Anyone see both of them?

The trailer looks quite nice; I think ill give this one the benefit of the doubt..

[Caustic Saint]

There have been 4 Ju-on movies. Ju-on, Ju-on 2, Ju-on: The Grudge and Ju-on: The Grudge 2.

I've only seen the 3rd one. It's got some good creepy moments in it, but I feel I'm missing out on something by not knowing the backstory that was laid out in the first two. I'll try and rent them all once I'm in Japan to give the series a proper run-through. I wonder how they're going to handle things with the English version, since they're starting with the 3rd one? They're going to have to explain what's up with the house at some point. I guess maybe they'll give that bit of the story a brief coat, then go back and do a prequel if there's enough interest.

[Taro Toporific]

i think that should be good..

THE GRUDGE opening and here a bunch of stills Buffy Does Japan.

[Taro Toporific]

Mapother Happy to Harbor a 'Grudge'
Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:41 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=6523211

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - William Mapother is happy to have made it through the week.
Well, actually to have made it through Tuesday night's premiere of "The Grudge," the Sarah Michelle Gellar horror opening domestically on Friday....
With "Grudge," he will attempt to convince audiences that he is Matthew Williams, a man who has been hired by a Japanese corporation to do some financial work, bringing him, his wife and his mother to Tokyo. They set up residence at a house where they soon find they are not alone....
....And while he adjusted to the Japanese living conditions in front of cameras for his role in the Columbia Pictures release, Mapother and his co-stars were also getting used to the surroundings offscreen.
"We didn't have to dig that deep to find disorientation. What my character was going through when he first arrived was very similar to what I was experiencing"

[Mulboyne]

[Samurai_Jerk]

I went to see The Grudge last night. Without giving too much away I'll say that very early in the movie Bill Pullman takes a dive from his balcony into the street. As the gawkers start to gather mumbling and wispering too each other I'm thinking somebody's got to say gaijin if this scene is going to have any realism at all. Then I heard an obasan say, "gaijinsan janai?."

[puargs]

HAHAHAHA, I heard that and laughed at it, too! All my friends said, "Did you just hear that?"

[Guile]

I didn't know it had anything to do with Japan until my brother came back from it last night. I thought the trailers looked Ring(u)ish.

[Mulboyne]

Sarah Michelle Gellar appeared on the BBC "Jonathan Ross" chatshow to promote "The Grudge" in the UK. Ross is an anime/manga freak Japanophile so they discussed toilets.
Seems SMG went to the sumo "in the nosebleed seats" in Japan and needed the bathroom after sinking a couple of beers. She could only find Japanese-style toilets which she didn't much fancy so she used the handicapped bathroom instead. Looking for the light switch, she pressed a button but, as she discovered soon afterwards when two security guards broke in on her, it was for "emergency help". That was sorted out but she then couldn't find the flush. She solved the problem by using her phone to take a picture of the buttons and emailing her interpreter to get instructions.

The remake hasn't got great reviews but it has done some good business in the US. The budget is mentioned on IMDB as USD 10 million (which does seem low) and the first weekend brought in nearly USD 40 million. Even if it crashes from here, that's a nice return.
The "Shall We Dance?" remake is doing the opposite: a 40 million budget but only taking in just half that over the first two weekends.

[Taro Toporific]

SShe could only find Japanese-style toilets which she didn't much fancy so she used the handicapped bathroom instead. Looking for the light switch, she pressed a button but, as she discovered soon afterwards when two security guards broke in on her, it was for "emergency help". That was sorted out but she then couldn't find the flush..

Been there, done that, have the called "guard-o man" more than once.

Without my glasses on, I can't read the difference between the RED-lettered flush button and the RED-bordered emergency help button.

This isn't a just f'ed gaijin problem. Many handicapped bathrooms in Japan ---maybe 60%--- have handmade, paper warning signs in Japanese taped over the emergency button. Duh.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Today: Gellar holds a grudge

Directed by Takashi Shimizu, who also directed the original Japanese version, "The Juon" is the latest Hollywood remake of a Japanese horror film, which producer Sam Raimi praises highly. So much so that he insisted Shimizu be given the job and not an American director. However, this caused some problems, and not of the language type...Takahashi (he's 32) recalls. "I had a good conversation with Sam Raimi and we were both on the same level. He wanted me to keep the ambiguity of the Japanese horror movie in the film, but after we started editing, the studio bosses said the opposite. They wanted the typical American pattern where everything is cut and dried, so we had a bit of conflict."
Fortunately, audiences in Japan will get to see the director's cut, while U.S. audiences will have to wait until it is released on DVD in June. "I generally find Japanese horror scarier than American ones. Maybe it is because we find those things that are different or unfamiliar to be scary," says Gellar. She had a ball in Japan, visiting Kyoto, Hakone, Ueno and the sumo. "I probably got to see more of suburban Japan than most foreigners who live here," she says. "We had a purification ceremony before we started and that was an intense experience."

[Taro Toporific]

"I probably got to see more of suburban Japan than most foreigners who live here," she says. "We had a purification ceremony before we started and that was an intense experience."

I've been at that "intense experience" from time to time. I swear the old Shito priest fell asleep in during his own droning.

[Mulboyne]

SCI-FI Wire: Grudge 2 Stars Got Japanese

Amber Tamblyn and Arielle Kebbel, who co-star in the upcoming horror sequel film The Grudge 2, told reporters that shooting the film on location in Tokyo under Japanese director Takashi Shimizu and his local crew presented unique challenges. "What wasn't a challenge?" Tamblyn said in a news conference..."I was really fabulously surprised to find out that you're supposed to take your shoes off when you go inside the houses for respect, so you don't track dirt in, [but] that they would smoke inside the houses and on the sets. It's the irony of the Japanese culture, which I appreciate very much. I really had a great time just sort of experiencing a completely different lifestyle, a completely different way of doing things."
...Kebbel said that her own culture shock started with the language. "The language barrier ... has a bearing on the time, because everything takes twice as long," she said. "But I think also, depending on your mindset when you go up there, that can also be one of the greatest gifts about working over there, because ... nothing is like it is here. For me it was interesting going over there, ... even though you know we do what we do here, which is make movies, and you show up on set every day whether it's on location or in a studio, and you're kind of used to a routine. You get out, you change, you go to hair and makeup, you get your food, you rehearse, whatever, and over there, their tradition is completely different. So I think for me in the beginning that was kind of a difficult change, because I wanted to embrace as much as possible, but it required change on my part to learn and accept those things."

[Samurai_Jerk]

[Greji]

"......"I probably got to see more of suburban Japan than most foreigners who live here,"....."

Yah, right. I'd like to take her out to one of the good places and give her a shot at an appearance on the "manaita." We'd soon see if that's intense enough for her.

[matsuki]

7500?? I'm still at 6500 but Shimuzu has a few years on me so I'm sure I'll catch up!

[Coligny]

After the torture of going thrue a "Lost" marathon last month... I'd rather stay away from further airplane comedies... (It was like if BSG 79 started as bad as the BSG 80'... but continued downhill from there for 6 seasons... there's not a lot of TV shows where you feel from the first episode that the writers have no clue where they are going)