After graduating, he was given the opportunity to direct a short film for Kansai TV's horror omnibus "Gakkou no Kaidan G" 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. The short films would end up being
Katasumi and 4444444444, later serving as forerunners to the
franchise. Shortly afterwards, Shimizu made his directorial debut with the supernatural horror,
Ju-On: The Curse (2000), starring
Takashi Matsuyama,
Takako Fuji,
Yūrei Yanagi and
Chiaki Kuriyama in lead roles, followed by its sequel,
Ju-On: The Curse 2. Despite the films releasing in
direct-to-video formats, they were met with critical acclaim. The critical success of the films hence led to theatrical sequels,
Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), and
Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003). The two films were met with critical and commercial success, eventually popularizing J-Horror internationally which led to Western remakes, in the form of
The Grudge (2004) and
The Grudge 2 (2006), as Shimizu returned to direct and write them. However, the English remakes were met with a widespread mixed reception, albeit their commercial success. The
studio quickly greenlit a
sequel, as Shimizu was offered to direct, but chose to produce instead, prompting a replacement in form of
Toby Wilkins. The film was met with overwhelmingly negative reception, despite commercial success in both its direct-to-video and theatrical releases. Following the negative reception, Shimizu returned to Japanese cinema, and has continued focusing his work there. ==Filmography==