
In June 2014, “Ju On 3 – The Beginning of the End”, the classic J-horror franchise was released. The characters of Kayako and Toshio were being reset and new episodes were being added, and this contributed to the success of the movie. In the same year, the sequel to the movie was decided in August. As the continuation to “The Beginning of the End”, the main cast such as Sasaki Nozomi, was decided promptly, in order to continue the flow from the previous movie. As the title of the movie “Ju On 4 – The Final Curse” literally means the end, the story revolves around ending the curse which started from “The Beginning of the End”. The director, Ochiai Masayuki, also started recruiting staff and preparation to have the movie ready for its release in 2015. Similar to the previous movies, the main focus of the movie involves the curse of the “Saeki House” where people are being cursed upon entering the house. However, the movie this time round hopes to bring the ultimate horror for the audience. Writing of the script for “The Final Curse” started by looking and changing the basic settings of the story. Whilst not removing any representative images of “Ju On”, they looked at how to bring new factors of horror into the movie. And the conclusion is, the curse was spread from within the house to outside the house.
The movie begins with the cursed house being torn down. Even without stepping into the house, Kayako and Toshio still haunt and appear to the people who are related to the house. “Once you are cursed, there is no way that you will be able to escape from the curse.” This Ju On horror factor continues in the movie. Following this horror, including the appearance of a young girl who acts as the curse medium, the world of “Ju On” is successfully created where you will never know when or where you will be cursed or possessed. The lead actress Mai is the sister of Yui who is the form teacher of Toshio’s class in “The Beginning of the End”. In order to solve the mystery and find out her whereabouts, Mai met with Kayako and Toshio. Taira Airi plays the role of Mai, and she is an active actress in movies and dramas, as well as variety shows like “Hiru nan desu!”. The heroine of a horror movie needs to exhibit many kinds of horror expressions, and most of them are actually quite fearful of the horror genre. Citing an example of Sasaki Nozomi, who plays Yui, she is actually fearful of horror movies and has never watched any horror previously. The “standards of a horror movie heroine” is continued in this movie, and due to this fear factor in the actresses, they are able to express the horror well, as well as exhibiting a sense of realness in their acting. All these contribute to elevation of the atmosphere of the movie. Worthy to mention, Sasaki Nozomi, whose role of Yui is being possessed by Toshio, not only expressed fear in this movie, but also needed to exhibit a state of illusion and sadness in her acting. This is a new side of the character that the audience will be able to see in the movie.
Since “The Beginning of the End”, Kayako is played by Saisho Misaki, who not only acts in movies and dramas, but is also a voice actress. First appearing as Kayako in the previous movie, she played the role of Toshio’s mother before giving birth, but in this movie, she has to act as the scary spirit. Coming out from the walls, twisting her body and creeping between posts, she performed incredibly for many unimaginable scenes. Similar to the reboot version of Ju On and the prequel, the child actor, Kobayashi Kai, who has appeared in various dramas and commercials, plays the roles of both Yamaga Toshio and Saeki Toshio. In this movie, Toshio’s presence not only exudes a sense of mystery, but he also represents a deeper meaning along with the young girls who want to end their lives. Another strength of this film “Ju-On 4 – The Final Curse” is the presence of the actors that are currently on the rise in Japan. A number of names such as Airi Taira, Renn Kiriyama, Nonoka Ono, Nozomi Sasaki, Misaki Saisho, to Kobayashi are participated in this film. For those of you who are willing to watch, the film is now available at various locations of Blitzmegaplex and Platinum Cineplex with a total duration of 91 minutes. For more information please visit Moxienation as the official film distributor in Indonesia.