Twisted Sister
Amber Tamblyn follows in Big sister Sarah Michelle Gellar’s footsteps – and regrets it – in The Grudge 2.

For Amber Tamblyn, the young star of the Japanese-American horror sequel The Grudge 2, traveling to Tokyo to make the movie completed a circle. Tamblyn’s actor father, Russ Tamblyn, made the same trip to Tokyo’s famed Toho Studios in the 1960s to shoot the Japanese monster movie War of the Gargantuas. And the elder Tamblyn's 1963 horror movie The Haunting influenced the career of a young Japanese director named Takashi Shimizu, the man who went on to create the Grudge franchise.  

“Shimizu-san was a really big, huge fan of The Haunting, which my dad was in,” Tamblyn says in an interview between takes on the set of The Grudge 2 at Toho last April. “So when my dad came, he was sort of like [mimes fumbling nervously with her pockets]…doing all this with his pockets. It was really cute.”  

The Grudge 2 is the sequel to 2004’s hit ghost movie, which in turn was based on Shimizu’s Japanese language horror film Ju-On and its sequels. But The Grudge 2, a new English – language sequel from producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Taka Ichise, offers up an entirely new story. It opens Oct. 13. 

Tamblyn plays Aubrey, the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Karen from the first movie. Aubrey comes to Tokyo to investigate the mysterious events surrounding her sister’s disappearance. Gellar, the star of the first Grudge, has a cameo. 

Earlier this year, Russ Tamblyn visited Amber for a couple of weeks while she shot The Grudge 2. For Amber, it provided a surreal experience of worlds colliding.  

“He just loved it here,” Amber says of her father. “This is his fourth trip to Japan.  They were really excited [to meet him], because of War of the Gargantuas. It's like a huge film here. And ... I think they're filming, like, another Godzilla, so every once in a while I'll be sitting outside to get some sun at lunch, and, like, between the two buildings, the two studio buildings, I'll just see this like giant thing being, like, pulled by eight men, this giant, like, Godzilla going through between buildings."

Amber Tamblyn (TV's Joan of Arcadia) spent about two months in Japan shooting the film. She is joined it by Arielle Kebbel (Aquamarine), Jennifer Beals (The L Word) and newcomer Teresa Palmer (December boys), as well as Edison Chen, a Canadian-Chinese actor best known for his action roles in Hong Kong movies such as Internal Affairs. The Grudge 2 marks Chen’s English-language feature-film debut. 

Amber describes her character: "Aubrey [is] Karen's, Sarah Michelle Gellar's, younger sister. And she's sort of always been the underdog in the family and somebody who is not as ambitious or driven as her sister, as Karen's character. So she's sort of always felt like she's had to follow in her sister's footsteps. And even her mother sending her to Japan to figure out what happened to her ... sister—she wants her to figure out where she went and what happened and all this stuff about fire—I think she's even nervous about that, because it's the first time she's ever had to go experience something on her own. And it's something that scares her, because she doesn't know anything about it, and she's really alone in the whole scheme of things." 

At the center of the film, as in the previous installment, is the suburban Tokyo house that holds dark secrets and touches all who encounter it in disturbing ways. 

And Amber’s own experience of Japan?  “It's been amazing,” she says. “I'm actually extending my stay 15 days past wrap so that I can travel. I'd probably move here if I could.” 

As for Shimizu, who gained international fame for his eerie ghost stories, he says that he’s applying lessons learned shooting the first English-language version of his Japanese horror series back in 2004. Shimizu, who speaks little English, had to learn the American production style when working with stars Gellar and Jason Behr. Like the first Grudge, the sequel is shooting entirely in Tokyo with a Japanese crew and international cast. 

Very small things, but a lot of different things," Shimizu says through a translator. "And especially between the actors and [me], I think I'm more careful with them. Because last time, I just didn't know anything about this American actor system. ... The only system I knew was this Japanese system. And since I know what the American system is like now, I know how to really ... make it work with them." 

Another difference: When SCI FI Wire visited the set of the first Grudge, Shimizu had only recently learned to use the English word "Action!" to alert the actors that a scene had begun. In Japanese productions, a scene commences immediately once a slate is clapped. This time around, Shimizu regularly used the English terms "Ready! Action!" and "Cut!"— which his production team on occasion pronounced "Cut-toh," in the Japanese fashion. 

Shimizu still doesn’t know much English. While shooting a scene between Chen and Amber in a set that represented the apartment of Chen’s character, a Chinese photographer named Eason, Shimizu doesn’t even wear the usual headphones to listen to the actors’ English dialog. Instead he relies on his American co-producer Michael Kirk to monitor the dialog for him and to trust that his actors will know what they’re doing. 

But Tamblyn adds that Shimizu is refreshingly direct with her and the other American or international actors on the set. "It's really funny," she says. "It's definitely not, I would say, an experience for an actor that needs their ego catered to. Because there's no room to be careful with what you say around actors. Which I think is so amazing. Shimizu-san will come to me, and he'll say: 'That was good, but for some reason, the rehearsal was better.' And I love that. Because ... it's that simple to explain something to you. ... Whereas, in America, you'll have a director who ... will take 45 minutes to explain what they mean." 

On a beautiful spring day earlier this year – Tokyo’s famous cherry blossoms had blanketed the city in a cloud of petals – Chen and Tamblyn play out a key scene that marks their bonding. The camera slowly circles around a sofa where the pair site beside each other as Tamblyn reveals deep feelings concerning her sister. Tamblyn’s eyes begin to water as she speaks. Chen’s Eason touches her shoulder to comfort her, then goes into the kitchen to make some tea. Exhausted, Tamblyn slumps over, falls asleep. Eason puts down the teacups and heads into his darkroom. 

"Cut-toh," 

Between takes, the normally cheerful Tamblyn is again playful, even miming sticking her finger up her nose to the camera.  

Balancing out Tamblyn’s newcomer status is Japanese actress Takako Fuji, who like Shimizu, has worked on all of the Ju-On and Grudge film incarnations. Fuji again plays the role of the scary-as-hell ghost Kayako, the black-haired, white-faced spirit of vengeance. The Grudge 2 will mark either the fifth or sixth time that she has played the role, depending on who’s counting. 

Fuji is pleased that it takes less time to transform her from a well-dressed modern Tokyo woman into a raggedy ghost. “Actually, the [makeup] time is shortened now,” she says. “I am very happy about that.” 

As for the storyline of the Grudge 2, Shimizu says that it will answer some questions raised in the original movie, including the backstory of the fearsome spirit Kayako. “For The Grudge 2, I was going for this mystery that was never there in Grudge 1, and I think that’s going to fulfill the audience,” Shimizu says, adding: “There’s a secret about Kayako’s childhood life, so that’s part of the big mystery. And the other mystery is, this grudge will never stop, and it’s going to…spread. And how is it going to get spread?  That’s another mystery.” 

SCI FI Magazine got a glimpse of new sets that will figure into this backstory, including a rustic Japanese farmhouse that will be seen in flashbacks to Kayako’s childhood. 

“The other mystery is, what has happened to Karen [Gellar], who was the main lead actress in Grudge 1,” Shimizu says. So that’s another mystery that you’ll find out. “ 

Shimizu admits that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find ways to tell his ghost stories. “Yes, it is very difficult to keep it fresh, and you know, since I’ve been doing this so many times, I feel like I’m just repeating things over and over,” he says. “There isn’t really much to do there, meaning they’re so limited, and those scary depictions are always similar now. It’s really hard coming up with new ideas, and if I don’t find it fresh, audiences aren’t going to find it fresh either, so it is difficult.” 

Still, he says: The Grudge 1 was a complete remake of Ju-On 1, meaning the storyline was very similar. Basically, it’s the same. But Grudge 2 is actually different from Ju-On 2, and I don’t think I would have accepted this job if it was going to be [the] same storyline. And because it was a different story, you know, my motivation was a bit higher, and I actually enjoy doing this.”

 Cut-toh!

By Patrick Lee

Sci Fi Magazine October 2006