After the release of the English-language Ring remake, the early 2000s saw a surge in popularity for Asian horror movies, both remakes and originals. The 2004 American version of Ju-on, The Grudge, was my first horror movie in theatres. I sat in between friends, my shoes on the seat, knees drawn up to my face, eyes just barely open. It made a pretty big impression on me.
Following that terrifying theatrical experience (and then a few more the same year), my fear turned into interest and amusement. I’ve seen hundreds of horror movies since, many of them Japanese. Looking back now, after having seen most of the Ju-on series multiple times, I find my teenage behaviour silly. But I remember the excitement and cherish the memory.
The Grudge is by no means a great movie, but it’s certainly not a bad one. In fact, now, I find a bit more depth in it. Before coming to Tokyo, I never saw beyond the pale-faced, black-haired deaths of any of the characters. However, aside from the obvious haunting, the movie actually touches on another kind of fear and anxiety—that of being a stranger in a strange land.
Both culture shock and communication difficulties are present in the Grudge. Only now am I able to appreciate that. Being a barely-travelled, monolingual Canadian in a very homogenous, largely monolingual country has proven to be even more challenging than I anticipated. I’m just thankful I don’t have to deal with a croaking curse on top of that.
Though filmed in Japan by the same Japanese creator and director, the cursed house from the American version was filmed on a soundstage. The original four Japanese movies, however, were filmed at a real house in the Kanto region. Even before coming here, I anticipated finding that house. Luckily, others had already done so and the address wasn’t too difficult to find online.
My horror-loving friend whom I met in Vancouver accompanied me to the city of Tokorozawa in Saitama this past August, before the trip to Aichi Prefecture. We found the house with little difficulty as it was less than a ten-minute walk from the train station. It was interesting to see that the house went from being a nice suburban home (though cursed in the franchise) to a fairly unkempt, unattractive heap, possibly that of an elderly hoarder.
It was disappointing to see far less lush greenery surrounding the house than was depicted in the films. The attractive brick gate separating the property from the alley had been covered in a poorly-done white plaster or something of that sort. The yard was overgrown and strewn with rusting chairs, broken gardening tools and decayed fencing. I suppose that in a way, it really did resemble some sort of abandoned, haunted house.
Not far from the house was another location used in some of the movies; a powder-blue pedestrian bridge crossing the train tracks. I remembered it well from the 2003 theatrical sequel, Ju-on 2. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to prepare any screenshots from the franchise beforehand, so we had nothing to reference when taking photos and we didn’t recreate the exact angles from the movie, but I think we got the general vibe.
2020 UPDATE: Unfortunately, the house is no longer standing as Tokorozawa seems to be undergoing major real estate development. I’m happy I got to visit at least once. R.I.P. the Saeki Family Home!