Having watched quite a number of movies under the Ju-On title, I was intrigued at the idea of the movie series being presented in drama form. And to be honest, I can't help having a mixed feeling about this series.

Like there were some parts of the story that I wish could be expanded longer and there were some parts I felt better off not being focused too much on. Like the whole sexual violence plot that was going on with Kiyomi's plot and how she ended up being hypersexual afterwards and the whole thing about her mum's story, which was never really properly laid out. And then there was Haruka's part of the story with the journalist guy who ended up writing lots of paranormal books based on the cursed house; in which it turned out that the guy did actually have his own connection towards the cursed house which tied into few other different couples who also ended up being consumed by the curse and everything ended up going full circle. All these different pieces of the plot, different people and families, while learning more on how their lives ended up being embroiled into the curse of the house; could have made to be quite an interesting story had it also used all of the storytelling mechanics that the past Ju-On movies had incorporated but unfortunately it didn't. Because of that, as in the lack of clear transition (in which all Ju-On movies had used) between all of the separate storylines, made the whole drama series to end up quite confusing. Since you ended up not being sure when the narrative was focusing on which character before moving the narrative towards the other.

And that was saying a lot, considering that this drama did contain elements from the original Ju-On, Girl in Black, Lady in White and many other plots from the other Ju-On series. Not to mention the very fact that the series almost completely removed the ghost element in the story while keeping the mystery and thriller atmosphere, as well as the roundabout narrative style.

It took me until episode 5 before I could start getting a clearer image of what's going on. Basically, Ju-On: The Cursed House aka Ju-On: Origin was basically trying to tell a Ju-On story while also deploying the same narrative style as The Haunting of the Hill House. If you liked the latter, then you'd be able to enjoy this drama. Or, if you're like me you'd end up feeling slightly disappointed as by the end of the drama, you'd feel as if the writer just gave up on the writing and resorted to borrowing the ending of Haunting of the Hill House to end their story. And honestly, I can't help feeling a slight disappointment towards this drama considering that the drama had been helmed by the two most prominent horror writers whose works include the past Ju-On movies as well as Ring.