Jujutsu Kaisen Zero: Curse of the Living

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Review

Star Cast: Megumi Ogata, Tomokazu Seki, Mikako Komatsu, Satsumi Matsuda, Koichi Yamadera, Yuichi Nakamura, and Kana Hanazawa
Directed by Sung Hoo Park
Screenplay by Hiroshi Seko
Original creator: Gege Akutami

 “Thereʼs no curse more twisted than love.” – Satoru Gojo

When some films excite you and make you talk about them with others, you tend to talk about them at length or try to not spoil their experience but give them a peek at what they are going to witness. I believe in giving a peek into something which I believe can only be experienced but can’t be told in words how much ever we try. At least within the limitations of my knowledge. So, for such films, I go for short takes. This is a short take on the Japanese Anime/ Manga movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

Whenever our life gets tough, we feel like we are carrying a curse. We find it tough to accept that we lost a competition, lost an opportunity, failed at understanding a person’s intention, and worst case, we lost someone. When we lose someone, we feel like we have to live for them or live their life too. A son suddenly finds out that his parents/loved ones left out for them their life’s savings or earnings or they left him responsibilities or nothing. Yes, if you lose them suddenly or if they die when you are a kid, you feel like they did not even give you memories. At times, surviving in that situation is easy compared to those who lose them suddenly. You may have to depend on someone else for everything which is tough but then if you don’t know someone as a kid or if you’ve not acquired memories/ made the connection as a kid with someone you won’t really feel their absence as an adult. All you feel is a manifestation of imagination. What if you have memories? What if they are the best days or worst days? What if your future depends on you trusting yourself to be able to survive that loss and trauma? Can you rise above this “curse” that you have cast upon yourself?

Moving on is the toughest thing to do. Nobody can just walk away from relationships or relations just like that. Personal issues just never disappear from your life and you keep carrying them on your shoulders. Jujutsu Kiasen 0 is a film about that. The movie talks about how many children (negative human emotions manifest as cursed energy and they replicate) are falling prey to curses. It tries to make them monsters you need to fight in physical form. But then the battle within you and with you by you is always mental. It requires you to face the fears, face the monsters, understand the compassionate hand risen towards you or forwarded towards you, then you need to believe that you have it in you to rise above the upset too. There will be people who will try to make you the monster you fear to be and then you might have to accept that and amend yourself. You have to make the curse into your strength by converting it into a skill. yes, living will be tough but your life will create an impact on the dead on future generations. The memories, the stories, and the moments will become inspiring stories for the future.

This anime series constructs characters Yuta Okkotsu and Rika Chan as juvenile lovers who find each other. Yuta is more lonely than others. For him, Rika Chan is a blessing and she asks his hand for marriage too. He never wants to stay apart from her. He comes from a very special bloodline that Gojo belongs too. He has the power to cast a curse using negative energy When an accident separates him from Rika Chan, he casts a curse on her unknowingly. Introducing him to the world of curses that are cast using the same negative energy, Gojo helps him defeat the negativity around him with positivity. How? What is negative energy? I don’t want to dwell on that here. Please watch the movie.

In a simple anime that seems like a children’s film, Japanese director Sunghoo Park brings so much to the screen. Written by Gege Akutami as anime and developed as a movie screenplay by Hiroshi Seko, even though it appears to be a simple plot line, it delivers the complex issues in all their complexity and shows the best options as solutions. Gojo being the master and funniest of all, we get to see the world that he belongs to even more. But the story doesn’t move away from Yuta, who has to learn to overpower his “curse”. Visually, the frames and anime just seem like we are watching a huge live-action film. Need to appreciate the anime creators and direction team for this. Music is exemplary too. Jujutsu Kaisen Zero is worth watch for every anime fan.