YMMV / Ju-on

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is the child at the end of the fourth movie Kayako reincarnated, or Kyoko's original offspring possessed by the former while still in the womb?
  • Is Kayako a sentient being or just an apparition caused by the curse? If the former - does she kill because of a grudge against living that she's dead and they're not, or because she relishes on the fear/suffering of others, or is she merely controlled by the curse?
• Awesome Music: The soundtrack of every movie, although special mention goes to the third movie's soundtrack.
  • These soundtrack previews for the first four films are good examples.
• Broken Base:
  • There are some who aren't at all keen on the Continuity Reboot and the changes to Kayako and Takeo's personalities, or Sadako vs. Kayako, feeling that the latter film turned both this franchise and The Ring franchise into jokes.
  • The post-Grudge 2 films. Are they still entertaining and creepy, or do they offer little to nothing? This is especially apparent with The Beginning of the End.
  • The post-Grudge 2 films really annoyed fans and viewers with how highly overpowered Toshio was made, pretty much making the original horrifying thread of Kayako less scary considering people have to be more worried about the meowing eight year old.
• Complete Monster:
  • Takeo Saeki, before being taken by the horrific curse, murders his wife Kayeko by snapping her neck, leaving her alive, but paralyzed in extreme agony for a lengthy period before he finally kills her with a knife. Takeo then proceeds to calmly murder his son Toshio, and even Toshio's cat, before he attacks the wife of the man he suspected Kayako was having an affair with before cutting out her unborn child from her stomach and mocks the father over what he's done.
  • Black Ghost & White Ghost: The Black Ghost is a malevolent spirit housing Fukie Yokota's body, spawned from the spiritual grudge of Fukie's stillborn twin. Desiring murderous revenge on the world, the spirit attempts to forcibly take control of Fukie, causing her no shortage of pain as she descends into madness. When her mother Kiwako Yokota contacts her sister Mariko, a veteran exorcist, she attempts to purge the wicked spirit but accidentally expels Fukie's soul instead thanks to its manipulations. The overtaken Fukie subsequently finds Mariko's house at night and murders her child and husband in front of her before beating her to death. When a despondent Kiwako jumps off a roof with Fukie's body hoping it takes the spirit with her, her suicide only unleashes it upon the world to possess others, starting with her husband. Years later in White Ghost, the spirit's evil lives on at the site of Mariko's family massacre. When the Isobe family moves into Mariko's home, the spirit possesses the eldest son into murdering his entire family and performing a ritual to spread a curse before hanging himself, making it ultimately responsible for all the tragedies in both films.
• Cry for the Devil: Poor, poor Kayako. Yes, she's the villain. Yes, she causes harm and suffering to those around her, and yes, she's a vicious onryo..but then you see her back story and all you can do is feel nothing but sympathy and pity for the woman. It's heartbreaking.
• Epileptic Trees: Oh boy. Where to start? With how convoluted the plot is with how the curse specifically works or whether or not it causes the apocalypse in 2: The Grudge, it makes you wonder more and more if Kayako and her family are much more powerful than imagined.
• Funny Moments:
  • The scene in White Ghost where Toshio meows at a barking dog toy.
  • Izumi barricading a sliding door with a chair. Made unintentionally funnier by the fact that her dead classmates bang on the door a few times before they seem to figure it out, then they just nonchalantly open the door, move the chair out of the way and keep coming after her.
• Moe: Kayako herself - albeit before her death.
• Moral Event Horizon: Takeo crosses this when he murders both his wife, son, and son's cat in a jealous, paranoid rage.
• Narm:
  • Several moments in The Curse 2, which is one of the main reasons why it isn't looked upon as favourably as the other entries in the series.
  • The novel, too, mostly due to the awkward writing style (either that, or the awkward translation).
  • The wig slowly inching along the floor in The Grudge 2 is often regarded as this, although the scene as a whole is saved when Kayako finally emerges from it in all her horrifying glory.
  • The post-Grudge 2 films tend to be this for some due to the weird fact Toshio is made the true villain of the series. That's right: The meowing eight year old is the true antagonist of the franchise.
• Nightmare Retardant: Some view the fourth movie's "wig scene" as this, however, most agree that the climax of that scene is utterly, utterly terrifying (it is one of Kayako's more frightening appearances to date).
  • The scene with a football turning into Toshio's head on the floor in the fourth film.
  • Kayako pursuing Nobuyuki in the second film. The fact that her crawling in this scene is in stark contrast with her usual Marionette Motion is a big factor.
• Paranoia Fuel: Kayako or Toshio can appear from any place at any time. Even from the most inconceivable of places such as body parts!
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Ju-On: The Grudge, released for the Nintendo Wii and separate from the films' canon, was heavily panned by critics for its difficult controls, confusing gameplay, and relatively short length. That said, most gamers are willing to admit that the game itself still manages to be genuinely scary thanks to the atmosphere.
• Sequel Displacement: While casual audiences might at least be aware that The Grudge is a remake of Ju-On: The Grudge, it is less well-known that the "original" film was actually the third in a series, preceded by Ju-On: The Curse and Ju-On: The Curse 2. This is largely because Ju-On: The Grudge received a theatrical release (as opposed to going Direct to Video like its two predecessors) and was the basis of the much better-known American remake.
• Sequelitis: The Curse 2 is often looked down upon, although it does have its share of genuinely creepy moments. The two movies that came afterwards were much more well-received.
• Signature Scene: Kayako crawling down the stairs in both The Curse and The Grudge.
  • The Curse: Kanna's mother returning home to find her now-ghostly daughter covered in blood and missing her lower jaw.
  • The Grudge: Hitomi being claimed by the curse when Kayako emerges from her bedcovers and drags her into nowhere.
  • The Grudge: Izumi being stalked by her dead schoolmates and eventually being pulled into the shrine by Kayako.
  • The Grudge 2: Kayako emerging from Kyoko's womb.
• Special Effect Failure: Being low-budget features (especially the first two), it's natural that a few of these turn up, but one example is the faces of Toyama and Izumi appearing at the back of the shrine in the third film - it is jarringly obvious that they've been sloppily cut out and pasted on the back of the shrine.
  • Also from the third film, it is quite obvious which of the cats in Rika's nightmare are real cats and which ones are fake.
  • The fourth film features a football suddenly turning into Toshio's head, in a blatantly obvious Chroma Key sequence.
  • Kanna's missing lower jaw from the first film is created via the use of very obvious (and cheap) CGI, although given how frightening the scene is, most fans are willing to overlook it.
• Squick: Several moments - the mutilated, sticky remains of Toshio's cat Mar in the first movie, the remains of the rabbits in the Katasumi short and Kanna's unfortunate demise are all notable examples, however, the moments that really turn up the squick factor are the scenes with Masami's foetus in the first movie, and the birth scene at the end of the fourth movie.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The rebooted films to some fans, largely due to the fact that they're more about Toshio than Kayako and the latter rarely showing up in the film.
• The Woobie: Izumi. Also, Chiharu, by the time of the fourth movie.

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