over the weekend we went out to see the new harry potter film and finally watched a netflix disc we've been holding onto forever, "ju-on", the original japanese version of "the grudge".

"harry potter and the goblet of fire"
having never read a harry potter book, my comments are limited to the filmography thus far and the current film's narrative. there was something lacking with this edition of harry potter. the way the story was going, it felt like it took place a little over a month. when the film was ending, the kids were like, "well another year of school is over, what will next year bring?" i thought that was just weak and lame. when did the year go by? i know each film is like a year at school but this film really didn't feel like it covered much of a timeline. i'm sure they probably had to cut out a lot from the book but there could have been more hints as to the timeframe. but the film didn't completely fall short. each harry potter film reveals more details into the who, what, where, why of the harry potter legacy, of the death of his parents and the entire voldemort fiasco.

"ju-on"
i've been wanting to see this one as i saw the american version of "the grudge" in theaters in new zealand. i have read that there are people unhappy with the translation of the title. at the beginning of the film, there is a little definition/description of the word juon. it is translated in the subtitles but i think it's more important to read the japanese portion in order to understand and be able to more accurately translate the title. the two kanjis separately mean "curse" and "grudge". naturally, both kanji also have slightly different meanings contextually. reading the description from the film, they say that juon is a type of curse, hence i offer the alternate title of "the begrudged curse". onto the film--it was a little disappointing. the film is broken into chapters, each dealing with a different character. this is exciting at first as one pieces the fragments but towards the end it becomes repetitive. perhaps it was 1-2 chapters too long. some bits were very effective with their minimalist creepyism but overall it just didn't have enough scare factor to it. maybe i felt this way because i was already familiar with the story.