Katasumi and 4444444444
| Katasumi / 4444444444 | |
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| Directed by | Takashi Shimizu |
| Produced by | Yasuyuki Uemura |
| Written by | Takashi Shimizu |
| Starring |
Katasumi: Ayako Omura, Kanna Kashima, Takako Fuji 4444444444: Kazushi Andô, Daiki Sawada |
| Music by | Gary Ashiya, Hitomi Shimizu |
| Cinematography | Takahide Shibanushi |
| Distributed by | Kansai Telecasting Corporation (Japan, TV) |
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Release date
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| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Katasumi (In a Corner) and 4444444444 (Ten Fours) are two 1998 short Japanese horror films both directed by Takashi Shimizu, serving as prequels to the Ju-on series.
Takashi Shimizu first became involved with the Ju-on saga when writer and director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who was teaching a filmmaking class that Shimizu, then working as an assistant director, attended, was impressed by a three-minute short film Shimizu had written and directed.
When Kurosawa learned that a producer he knew had just commissioned a feature length horror film for Kansai Telecasting Corporation, he recommended Shimizu for the job of directing one or more sections of the film. To complete this task, Shimizu wrote several scripts, each roughly thirty minutes in length, only to be asked to make two brief three minute segments (Katasumi and 4444444444), as the television movie was intended to be an anthology of short films. After being edited together, the collection of four shorts (one of which was helmed by Kurosawa) was titled Gakkô no kaidan G, which roughly translates to School Ghost Story G ("G" supposedly standing for "Great"). It was first broadcast on Kansai TV on September 27, 1998, and ran for around 70 minutes, meaning that Shimizu contributed to just under 10 percent of the finished product.
While it is often claimed that the subsequent feature length video films Ju-on: The Curse and Ju-on: The Curse 2 are remakes of Katasumi and 4444444444, the two segments "are actually the foundations of Ju-on", according to Shimizu, and act "almost like the true prequel of the story."Katasumi, in particular, is notable for marking the first appearance of actress Takako Fuji (at this point anonymous) as Kayako Saeki, a role that she would reprise for every Ju-on production thereafter, up to The Grudge 2.
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