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Ju-on: The Grudge

Ju-on: The Grudge, written and directed by Takashi Shimizu, is the third film in the Ju-on series and its first theatrical release. The film is based on a Japanese haunted house legend and was released in Japan on January 25, 2003.

An evil curse named Ju-on lingers upon a house in a Tokyo suburb where a husband had murdered his wife and child years ago. The powerful grudge is manifested whenever someone dies in a fit of rage which then passes on to those who enter the haunted location.

The first few scenes show what the curse is, and the murder of Kayako Saeki by her husband Takeo. After, the story is shown through six sequences, all with a loose relation to each other.

Sequence 1

At a Social Welfare Center, Nishina Rika (Okina Megumi), a volunteer social worker, is given the task of caring for the catatonic Tokunaga Sachie by her superior Hirohashi. It is normally Takahashi-san's case, but he cannot be contacted. As she is walking to the house in the quiet suburban-like Nerima ward, she stops, hesitant to enter the gates. No one answers the front door, which is strangely unlocked. Discovering the house in a state of disorder, Rika eventually finds Sachie malnourished and soiled, with none of the other occupants of the home present. While vacuuming the floor, she finds a picture seemingly of the Tokunagas with the face of the wife cut out. Walking upstairs, she starts hearing shuffling noises in the closet of the back room. The closet is taped, and when she removes the tape and opens the door, Rika finds a cat and its owner, a boy, supposedly the Tokunagas' son. Downstairs, she calls the Welfare Center inquiring why they haven't mentioned a child, no less one taped in a closet. The phone of the house rings, and the caller leaves a message; it's Hitomi, Sachie's daughter. Rika realizes that this is the child from the photo, and as she walk up to check on him, she is frightened by his presence, he staring down at her from behind the railings. Toshio, he is called. Rika is then distracted by Sachie's murmuring, when she keeps repeating that she told Kazumi. Laying her down on her mattress, Rika is startled by the presence of a shade coming to claim Sachie, now frightened. The shade stares at Rika, and she faints.

Sequemce 2

The sequence opens with the aforementioned Tokunaga couple. At night, the wife Kazumi is awoken by the noise of someone running around and causing a racket and the subsequent mess the next morning.

Sequence 3

Tokunaga Hitomi is leaving her call that the house receives near the end of the first sequence. While she is walking down the hallway, she stops twice to look around upon hearing shuffling noises behind her. Making a brief stop in the bathroom, Hitomi sees a person walk into the next stall from her own. At that precise moment her cell phone rings, apparently a call from Katsuya. When she answers it, her brother seems to be joking by making a croaking noise, and promptly hangs up. Banging from the next-door occupant alerts Hitomi to apologize. As she is leaving the bathroom, the chuffling person seems to be making the same croaking noise. From underneath that stall a teddy bear decoration from Hitomi's purse is flung. She tries to reach for it, but is greeted by the shuffling person (who hasn't even washed her hands!) in such a frightening manner that she runs out of the bathroom.

Sequence 4

Hirohashi is coming to check on Rika and her current progress with Sachie.

Sequence 5

Izumi and her two friends, Chiharu and Miyuki, are walking to school, discussing their teacher Sekine-san and his horrible English, when Izumi spots a MISSING poster of Saori and gang. When inquired for her hesitation, Izumi says nothing's wrong. At school, there has been a school event where all are trying to find a picture of him/herself, and Izumi can't find one of herself. Chiharu and Miyuki pester Sekine-san about this , thus he will try to find the negatives and develop them, although Izumi is not particularly troubled by this. Walking home, she spots another poster about the three missing girls, and she is much more visibly frightened. Upon entering her apartment, the radio announces that the body of one Nishina Rika has been found in an empty house in the Nerima ward, and the camera closes up on a specific photo on the family shrine that Izumi's mother is staring at: her father. This implies that Toyama Yuji has died sometime between the last sequence and this. Izumi enters her room, and is noticeably being driven into depression and insanity, as she closes her curtains and clutches her pillow tightly. Some time later, Chiharu and Miyuki take the newly developed photos from Sekine-san and visit Izumi. Slightly disturbed by her catatonic mother, they go to their friend's room where a graying Izumi frightfully jumps into bed and puts up her hood. Miyuki tries to open the curtains, against Izumi's cries. Her windows are found to be taped with newspapers. She tells them about her foray at the haunted house with Saori and gang and how she ran out, and now they have disappeared and are out to get her. When leaving Izumi's apartment, her mother tells the two girls that her husband had gone through the same behavior before he died. The girls then remember the photos, and seeing them realize that every picture of Izumi and the three missing girls displays them with black blotches around their eyes and a shadowy wraith near them. They throw the pictures away and run. Back at Izumi's home, she opens the door to the family room and sees her father, recalling that she saw him at that house. Of course, this reunion is broken short when Izumi wakes up. She notices that a scrap of newspaper is on her bed and she opens her curtain to replace it. Suddenly through the gaps, she sees Saori and gang, and screams. Running and falling out of her room, they are now following her. She tries to shore up the doors, but to no effect. As she backs up against the family shrine, two white hands clasp her head. Behind her the face of Kayako is briefly seen before it disappears, dragging Izumi kicking and screaming into the shrine. The three dead schoolgirls view the shrine, which amongst the ornaments now have the shadowy faces of Toyama Yuji and Toyama Izumi.

Sequence 6

Time has passed, and Rika is now more or less in an unroubled state. She receives a call from her friend Mariko, and sets up a date to meet. Behind her through the glass window, an old man is seemingly playing peekaboo behind her back either with her or with himself, although the latter can be canned as he waves away one of the other workers waving at him. When Rika notices this, she finds it rather disturbing. Subsequent shots of Toshio's reflection next to the old man reveals the identity of his playmate.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ju-on: The Grudge".

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