This screening was at the Nuart, which caters to a younger crowd than the Egyptian. The actual presentation of Ju On was frustrating, because the theater used a tv-sized projector display to screen most of the pre-show material, because Lion's Gate and/or Klockworx decided to start the festivities with a recording of a short film Shimizu directed before Ju On. (Plus during one of the better scenes in the movie, a fly was actually on the projector!) The short was creepty, and had some good tension, if not a satisfactory conclusion. On the other hand, I considered Ju On to be more satisfying than the short, not to mention more suspenseful than Ringu, probably because of its sympathetic leads, who also conveniently happened to be more attractive than those in the latter j-horror flick.
After the film ended, Shimizu came out on stage, and introduced himself in English. I started by asking him what it was like working with Gellar on the remake. (Apparently, some audience members groaned at my question.) He jokingly bad-mouthed her and then complimented her hard work put into the film. (He also joked that the spirit was modelled after his ex-gf.) When asked by someone else about the casting of two of the Japanese actors for the remake, Shimizu said that he didn't feel he could make an American woman scary, which is why he suggested the actress for Kayako, to which the studio agreed.
Other things Shimizu mentioned were that he filmed in a suburb of Tokyo he couldn't give the location to, because people kept visiting the haunted house, as well as that he and his cast worked well together on the set. (One cast member asked, "Is it normal to have this much fun?") Further intrigued by the setting, I inquired if it was necessary for one to have a better understanding of Japanese ghost stories to better appreciate Ju On, and he replied that while Japanese audiences did relate a little better, they were still equally confused by the film.
Shimizu considers himself a prankster. He would often disappear and then sneak up on his siblings, and those types of jokes often went into the film, as well as on the film set. In fact, he hopes to do some comedy in the near future, but he's currently been typecast as a horror director. As I left, I noticed that he was signing autographs, making me wish I had picked up one of the Ju On posters in the hall earlier. But overall, it was a pleasant event.
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