| Ju-on: The Grudge 2 | |
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The film poster |
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| Directed by | Takashi Shimizu |
| Produced by | Taka Ichise |
| Written by | Takashi Shimizu |
| Starring | Noriko Sakai Chiharu Niiyama Kei Horie Yui Ichikawa Shingo Katsurayama Emi Yamamoto |
| Music by | Shiro Sato |
| Editing by | Nobuyuki Takahashi |
| Release date(s) | August 23, 2003 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (呪怨2) is a 2003 Japanese horror film and the fourth in the Ju-on series written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. The film was released in Japan on August 23, 2003.
Ju-on: The Grudge 2 is the fourth in a series of Ju-on horror films, written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. The series follows the curse due to the grudge held by a woman who was murdered by her husband in her house. The curse falls on any who enters the house where these events took place. Everyone connected with the house since then has met a terrible fate.
The baseline story in this movie follows a popular horror TV variety show called Heart-Stopping Backgrounds. The show director hears about the cursed house and how everyone connected to that house over a period has met with mysterious death, and decides to feature it on the show. To attract a larger audience for the episode he plans to rope in a popular horror movie actress, Kyoko, and shoots the episode in the house with the TV crew. While not starting off with these scenes, it all follows the story of a cast and crew of a TV show that filmed in the house and leads ultimately to their demise. This story follows the same non-linear path as its predecessor does. Events will weave in and out at different points and will overlap here and there where characters are running into each other.
As always, the whole film is divided into six vignettes.
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Harase Kyoko, a horror movie actress, and her fiancé, Masashi, are driving home late one night; Kyoko is pregnant with the couple's child. After they strike a cat with their car, Kyoko sees a child with small pale legs running towards the animal's body. On resuming driving, she notices that the child, Toshio Saeki, is under the steering wheel. He causes the couple's car to crash. When Kyoko regains consciousness, she notices that Masashi is unconscious and that she is bleeding from her womb...
At the hospital, Kyoko loses her unborn child; Masashi remains in a coma. Kyoko sees Toshio, who touches her stomach and disappears. She comes to suspect that Toshio may be a brother who died in childhood. When Kyoko returns home, she asks her mother about him, only to be told that she is an only child. Upon hearing this, Kyoko believes Toshio to be the spirit of her unborn baby.
Some time later, Kyoko shoots a film starring as a teacher in a haunted school. Chiharu—one of the characters from the previous film—is present as an extra acting as one of Kyoko's students. Chiharu stares at Kyoko's stomach, which frightens her and causes her to act off-script. Chiharu collapses to the floor, much to the worry and confusion of the cast and crew.
Kyoko visits a clinic, where she learns that the baby is actually alive and in fine condition. When a disbelieving Kyoko returns to her home, she decides against telling her mother of the development. After falling asleep, Kyoko wakes up to encounter Toshio once more, still believing that the boy is her unborn baby. When Toshio disappears, Kyoko finds her mother dead beneath the kitchen table.
Miura Tomoka is the ambitious host of popular TV horror/documentary show called Heart-Stopping Backgrounds. As she rehearses a script, she hears thumping noises on her apartment wall; she also briefly sees the script as being covered in blood spatter and strange doodles – the same as Kayako Saeki's journal.
Later, in her dressing room, Tomoka meets her friend Megumi, the show's hairstylist. The two discuss an upcoming special episode, in which Kyoko will appear as a guest. They are approached by Keisuke, the show's director, who tells them that the episode will be shot at a famous haunted house in Nerima, and will briefly focus on the house's history.
When Tomoka returns to her apartment, she sees what she assumes to be the figure of her boyfriend, Noritaka, hovering from the ceiling. When the figure disappears, Noritaka arrives. Tomoka anxiously waits for the thumping noises to start again. Noritaka initially dismisses Tomoka's concerns, but then hears the sounds himself. Tomoka notices that the time is 12:27 AM – the same time as Kyoko's car accident.
As Tomoka drives to Kyoko's film shoot, she receives a voicemail from Noritaka; his message is interrupted by an eerie death rattle noise. Noritaka visits Tomoka's apartment again, discovering her cowering in fear. At that moment, he receives a phone call from Tomoka, who says that she is on her way back home from the shoot. Noritaka, frightened, is then attacked by Kayako's spirit.
When Tomoka returns home, she is horrified to discover Noritaka hanging by a thick length of black hair. Toshio appears and causes Noritaka's body to swing, making his feet hit the wall – explaining the previous thumping sounds. Kayako also appears, strangling Tomoka and hanging her next to Noritaka. Tomoka's death takes place at 12:27 AM.
Megumi, who is a hairstylist for the crew, is styling up Kyoko's hair for the shoot. They are soon joined by Keisuke, the director of the TV program. Keisuke explains to Kyoko the scene to be shot. Kyoko asks if murders were really committed at this house and Keisuke explains the history of the house to her. Before the shoot begins, Megumi notices a strange, dark wet mark on the ground, which unsettles her. The shooting starts with Tomoka giving her commentary that she had been practicing as the host of the show. Later she introduces Kyoko as the special guest. During the shoot, their Recording Staff Sooma is startled by a bizarre noise, supposedly coming from Kyoko's microphone. This interrupts the shoot for the day.
A little later on, the crew are sitting outside in the house's garden having lunch. Everyone is discussing about the bizarre noise incident. Kyoko and Megumi are talking a short distance away from the group. Kyoko notices the vast amount of lucky charms that Megumi has attached to her phone, in particular a Safe Birth Amulet for Safe Delivery (Omamori). Megumi, who senses Kyoko is pregnant, allows her to keep it. Later, Keisuke comes to talk to them and annoys Megumi by asking her whether she didn't sense anything unusual, as he was disappointed the house wasn't scary. Megumi walks off and so Keisuke follows her.
Kyoko is then left alone. Unseen by her and the rest of the crew, a sort of flashback/haunting occurs at the dining table in the room right behind where Kyoko is sitting. It shows Kayako and Toshio in happier times. Kyoko spills her drink while stretching her arms, which catches Toshio's attention, who suddenly appears standing behind her. While Kyoko is unaware of this, Megumi senses something and looks towards Kyoko but sees nothing, then she is distracted by a question from Watanabe, the Cameraman.
A short while later, Megumi and Kyoko are in the same room they were in earlier, when they both notice the wet stain on the ground again, and both think it's creepy. After the shoot is finished, they show Tomoka calling Noritaka that she has just finished shooting at the location, and asks him where he is, when the line gets cut. Megumi remembers that she has left her purse on the table and goes back to the room to take it, just when Keisuke was about to lock the house and leave. In the meanwhile, while waiting for Megumi to come back down, Keisuke rummages through the stuff in a neighbouring room and finds a cut-up photo of Kayako's family. Then, he finds Kayako's diary, which when he opens to look in, he is scared and he throws it away. When Megumi is about to leave the room she looks at the floor stain and is shocked to see that the stain appears to become bigger and develop bizarre scratch marks around it, as though someone was digging their fingernails into the floor. She runs out of the house in fear.
Later, the crew return to the studio – Megumi goes to the dressing room, sets up wigs on wooden stands, and proceeds to comb the hair on the wigs. Keisuke starts to view the footage they shot that day. Keisuke falls asleep while viewing the footage, so he fails to see the supernatural goings-on that have been captured on film. The strange video shots include the strange sound heard by the crew member, Kyoko's appearance transforming to that of Kayako and Toshio slowly walking towards the camera. As he wakes up, Kayako can be seen standing in the shadows behind him before he leaves the room.
In the make-up room, a strange dark shape appears and then disappears in the mirror behind Megumi, causing the curtains to flutter. Megumi looks back, but sees nothing near the curtain. She senses something is not quite right, and gets up to investigate. As she does, one of the wigs falls to the floor of its own accord. Puzzled, she picks up the wig and starts to tidy it. Sensing something once again, she continues her investigation, still holding the wig. At first glance she notices nobody behind the curtain and proceeds to close the curtain. But she stops when she sees something.
To her shock, she sees the same strange wet mark on the floor in the studio, as was in the room at that house. The wig suddenly develops a life of its own and twists in Megumi's hand. She drops it onto the floor, where it begins to move towards her. Terrified, Megumi backs onto the damp patch, clawing at the floor in fear. Her clawing reminds her of the scratch marks she saw near the dark patch when she left the room at that house. A flashback then occurs, showing the origin of the wet patch – it was formed when the dying Kayako was dumped in her body bag, bleeding, twitching and clawing at the floor. Back to the present day, where Megumi suddenly starts to bleed from various parts of her body, causing bloodstains on her clothes. As she backs away, the wig eventually forms a blood-soaked Kayako, who rises from the ground and kills a screaming Megumi.
The scene starts with Kyoko staring at the Safe Birth Amulet that Megumi gave her. She looks at her mother's shrine and then stretches her legs to sleep, when her feet seem to hit something. She looks under the covers but finds nobody. Then as she lies down underneath the dinner table she senses the presence of her mother sleeping. She gets up and sees her mother sleeping under the table perpendicular to her. As she proceeds to touch her, she disappears.
The next day, Kyoko is visiting Masashi. As she gets up to help Masashi's mother get rid of old flowers, her Safe Birth Amulet drops. As she proceeds to pick it up, Masashi's hand suddenly grabs her hand to stop her. Kyoko and his mother call out to him thinking he has awakened from his coma, but he doesn't respond. Later, Masashi's mother takes him to the terrace for some fresh air and Kyoko follows. As the mother leaves the two alone, Kyoko asks Masashi what she should do about their baby, as she doesn't know what to do. She takes his hand and presses it against her stomach. Masashi then starts having a seizure of sorts and moves his hand away, which scares Kyoko. Director Keisuke comes to meet Kyoko at the terrace.
Keisuke and Kyoko are talking in the hospital lounge. Keisuke mentions that after shooting at that location that Kyoko was in the traffic accident with Masashi. Keisuke mentions how the shooting that day was ominous, as Tomoka hung herself with her lover after that; with the police finding their bodies 2 days later, and Megumi vanishing from their TV Station without a trace. He mentions how he heard Megumi screaming in the make-up room and how when he went there, he didn't find her. Kyoko is shocked and confused. Keisuke adds that on top of these 2 mysteries, they have lost contact with the Cameraman Watanabe and Sound Staff Sooma. Keisuke feels that whoever was present at that shooting was affected one after another. Kyoko agrees as she mentions that her mother too died mysteriously that night.
Keisuke drops Kyoko off at her house in his car. Kyoko apologizes and says that she no longer wants to be involved in this show, and leaves the car. As she goes to open her door, she notices Megumi's ghost standing there and is shocked. Keisuke notices Kyoko and gets out of his car, and also sees Megumi. Megumi opens the door of Kyoko's house and goes in. They both wonder why Megumi is at Kyoko's house. Keisuke tries to open the door, but it's locked. Kyoko opens the door, as they wonder how Megumi opened it. They both look for Megumi in the house, but she isn't there. Keisuke notices Megumi getting up and walking behind the screen-door in the room with the dining table. She tries to give Kayako's diary to him as he calls out to her. He turns on the lights – and she is suddenly standing mere inches away from him. Keisuke falls back in shock and Megumi disappears, resulting in Kayako's diary falling to the floor. Kyoko walks in and is shocked to see Keisuke on the floor staring at the diary. Keisuke tells her that Megumi gave him the book. As Kyoko lifts the diary, she sees the same stain on the floor under the diary that she saw at that room in that house. As Kyoko flips through its pages, Keisuke mentions how he saw the same diary at that house. Kyoko asks him what is happening and why it's at her house.
Keisuke takes Kyoko to the station, and shows her his research binder on the Nerima house for the shoot. She sees newspaper scraps, and Keisuke directs her to the name on the diary. It's that of Kayako, who was murdered by her husband. Keisuke tells Kyoko that there must be some reason why she narrowly escaped death in that incident, and that he would go to that house to investigate further. Kyoko notices the picture of Toshio in one of the scraps and remembers about the pale boy she had seen. Later, it shows Kyoko having dozed off on the dining table in exhaustion. The stain on the floor near the table has gotten bigger.
Keisuke is still at the station, and is taking photocopies of Kayako's diary. He sits down next to the copier and starts making some notes, looking at the diary and his photocopy. Suddenly, the copying machine starts running all on its own and rolls out black pages at first. Then as Keisuke looks on in fear and confusion, a face starts emerging in the copies – the face of Kayako Saeki, and the copier starts making an eerie death rattle noise. Keisuke immediately shuts off the copier, gathers all his stuff and proceeds to leave the copy room. He stops when he senses an eerie presence. It shows Kayako staring at Keisuke's back from the window. He then rushes out of the room.
Kyoko is still sleeping on the table. They show the top of someone's head in the middle of the stain on the floor. Then Megumi slowly starts climbing out from the stain and reaches out for Kyoko. In the meanwhile, they show Kyoko's mother waking up from under the table and waking up Kyoko before Megumi can touch her. Kyoko suddenly wakes up and looks at her mother's shrine. She then remembers of Mashashi grabbing her hand when she was going to pick up the amulet that day.
The next day, Kyoko visits the house at Nerima. Kayako's ghost stares out at her from the window on the upper floor. She tries to open the front door, which is locked. So she walks around and enters in through the back door. She suddenly hears a girl (Chiharu) screaming out in fear and despair to her friend Hiromi to open the door, as she can't get out. Kyoko walks to the front door, from where the sounds are coming to find out what is going on. There she sees Chiharu in a school-uniform banging against the door, and screaming that the door won't open, and for Hiromi to let her out. Chiharu looks back at the staircase, sees something and screams loudly and becomes more desperate to get out. Kyoko starts feeling a pain in her stomach. She looks down and screams as she sees something moving about in her stomach. At the same time, she sees Kayako crawling down the staircase. Kayako, reaching the bottom of the staircase, turns and looks at Kyoko, who screams and passes out.
[Chiharu is the friend of Izumi Toyama from the first Ju-on: The Grudge movie. Chiharu and Miyuki are the friends of Izumi, who visit to give her the trip pictures in the movie. After Izumi, it looks like Kayako is after her friends.]
Chiharu has a nightmare, in which she walks the streets and enters into the house at Nerima. She is in her school uniform on the upper floor of the house. As she walks towards the staircase and looks down, Kayako's door to her room opens. Chiharu walks in and sees a stain on the floor. She then walks towards the closet when she suddenly hears a thud from the ceiling. She then hears something moving in the ceiling. She walks back in fear as the pale Toshio looks at her from the room entrance. The sound of a large object, source of the noises above, falls into the closet and Chiharu runs out of the room in fear. At the same time, Toshio runs away and Chiharu is scared further by hearing his footsteps. As she runs down the stairs she falls... and wakes up in her bedroom, her face covered in sweat.
Later in the day, after school, Hiromi invites Chiharu to join her in acting as an extra in a movie. As they walk Chiharu suddenly finds herself on the staircase of the house. She walks down the stairs and looks up at Kayako's room door. It opens and something seems to come out. Chiharu runs towards the door and tries to open it, but it won't open. Then Kayako comes down the staircase making the eerie death rattle noise. She tries to bang the door screaming "Help Me"... and she wakes up in the casting van. Hiromi tells her that they are up next for the shoot. Chiharu apologizes and says she had a bad dream.
During the shoot, she rushes into the room with other actors as part of the scene. She sees something and screams out of script. The actress playing the part of the ghost gets annoyed at her. Chiharu keeps staring at Kyoko in fear. Kyoko is unable to understand why Chiharu is staring at her. Chiharu sees the pale Toshio touching Kyoko's stomach and staring up at Kyoko's face. She closes her eyes and finds herself in front of the door again. This time she hears Hiromi knocking on the door from the other side. She then starts banging on the door asking Hiromi to let her out. She hears the eerie sound and looks back to see Kayako further down the stairs. Chiharu begins banging the door even more fervently, asking Hiromi to help her out. Suddenly the door opens until it's stopped by a security-chain and Hiromi is on the other side. Chiharu reaches out to Hiromi, while she asks her to take off the security-chain so that she can open the door and let her out. All this while, someone is looking at them while walking up to the gate of the house (Keisuke). Then, Chiharu tugs off Hiromi's chain (instead of taking the security-chain off)... and wakes up again in the casting van. Hiromi and shooting crew is relieved that Chiharu is fine after passing out on the set after the scene. Hiromi asks her what happened. Chiharu tells Hiromi to help her and that she can't go to that house. Chiharu opens her palm and finds Hiromi's chain in her hand like she had tugged it off her in the dream; however, Hiromi is still wearing her chain. Hiromi asks her why she has been acting strange and to tell her what is going on. Chiharu tells Hiromi never to go or enter that house. Hiromi doesn't understand what Chiharu is talking about and asks her to calm down.
Chiharu runs away and locks herself in a restroom. She tells Hiromi not to come near her. Hiromi starts knocking on the door, worried for Chiharu, asking Chiharu to talk to her and stop fooling around. Chiharu tries to shut her ears and finds herself back in the house with Hiromi banging on the door from outside. Then the background keeps alternating between the restroom and the house. She finds herself in the restroom and looks up towards the ceiling. She screams as she sees Kayako looking down at her. Something happens to her, and she unlocks the restroom door and runs outside. While running she trips and knocks a soccer ball out of the hand of a kid playing there. The ball then suddenly changes into Toshio's head which stares at her. Chiharu screams in fear and runs away. Suddenly she hears Hiromi screaming and looks back. She sees the pale Toshio looking at her body collapsed on the road as Hiromi runs towards it. Hiromi tries to wake up Chiharu's body. Chiharu runs towards Hiromi, places a hand on her shoulder and tells her to stop. Hiromi senses someone touching her. She looks around, but sees nobody. Chiharu, who is holding Hiromi's shoulder, realizes that she must be a ghost and ascends towards the sky as she sees Hiromi struggling with her body, trying to wake her up. As her spirit ascends, they show Kayako grappling her body.
Suddenly, Chiharu wakes up in the house and Hiromi is shouting to her as she tries to pull open the door. As both try to open the door, Kayako suddenly appears and grabs Chiharu and takes her away into the house. Hiromi is startled and backs away and the doors slams shut. Suddenly Hiromi finds herself holding Chiharu's body in her arms. She sees Chiharu holding a chain exactly like the one on her neck in her hands, just like she had snatched it off at that house in the dream.
Director Keisuke is walking towards the house at Nerima. He hears the voice of 2 girls calling out to each other (Chiharu and Hiromi) from the house, and walks quickly up to the house's gate. There he sees Hiromi being startled and backing away from door and the door slamming shut. Hiromi then runs away in fear. Keisuke is confused by what happens and runs towards the front door. He then stops and slowly tries to open the door, but finds it locked. He uses the keys he has to open the door and finds Kyoko collapsed in the hallway. He finds the Safe Birth Amulet lying on the floor.
Keisuke takes Kyoko to the hospital, where she starts having labor pains. He presses the Safe Birth Amulet into Kyoko's hands before she is taken into the operating room. In the operating room, Kyoko is having low blood pressure and a low pulse, so the doctors predict a high chance of miscarriage. As they prepare to perform a Caesarian, her contractions begin and the baby starts coming out. At the same time, Masashi who is on the rooftop of the hospital starts shivering vigorously as though something is killing him. The baby is finally born, but the lights in the operating room start flashing erratically and all the doctors/nurses seem to be taken aback by the sight of the baby, not to mention the incredibly aggressive screaming sounds the baby is making. The doctors/nurses all drop to the ground, cling to the walls and start screaming in fear. Kyoko wonders what is happening and sees the pale-boy Toshio looking at the baby and repeating "Mother! Mother! Mother!". Shocked by Toshio, Kyoko faints and the screaming doctors/nurses die. Next, they show the hospital rooftop, where Masashi's wheelchair is lying on the ground. Masashi seems to have jumped off the roof as you can see his coat lying on the pipe before the protective grill.
Keisuke enters the operating room and finds the lights off. While approaching Kyoko, he trips and is shocked to see the doctors/nurses lying dead on the floor. Suddenly he hears a baby's wailing noises, and as he looks for the baby he is taken aback. The baby's crying slowly changes to Kayako's death rattle. As he falls to the floor, he sees Kyoko give birth to a full sized, and very bloody and battered looking Kayako, with blood dribbling from her mouth. Kayako then falls off of the bed and drags herself toward Keisuke and kills him, the camera zooming into her wide murderous eyes.
Kyoko finally wakes up in the operating room. She hears her baby's wailing noises and sees the noise coming from a blood-stained cloth covered object on the floor. She gets off her stretcher, lifts the wailing baby in the cloth, and clasps it with love. Kayako Saeki has been reborn as Kyoko's girl. Kyoko seems to be in a hypnotic state as if Kayako still has influence on her.
Years later, a boy is shown running up an overbridge on the road with a soccer ball in his hand. On the other side, Kyoko and her daughter are walking up the stairs. The boy notices that Kyoko's face is sullen and expressionless. The girl's face is hidden by her hair and she is holding Kayako's diary in her hand. The boy feels something unusual and looks back at them as he passes by. At that time, a train passes under the bridge. The girl lets go of Kyoko's hand, turns around, drops the diary, and stands at the edge of the bridge, looking at the passing train through the grills. Kyoko walks back and picks up the diary and turns around, as the boy looks on. The girl runs towards her, Kyoko extends her hand out for her daughter to hold, and, instead, the girl pushes Kyoko down the stairs. The boy is shocked. The girl turns around and stares at the boy, her eyes glaring at him through her hair. The boy gets frightened and runs away down the stairs at the other end.
Kyoko is lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. She is bleeding from her head as it hit the post of the stairs when she fell down. The girl walks down the stairs and takes the diary out of Kyoko's hands. She then turns back and looks back at Kyoko, glaring at her through her hair. Kyoko regains consciousness and stretches her arm out, holding her scarf, smiling and gesturing her daughter to embrace her. The girl continues staring at her. Then Kyoko, slowly losing strength, finally dies. The girl (Kayako) walks away with her diary in her arm.
Ju-on: The Grudge 3 most likely won't be made according to the audio commentary from the "Ju-on: The Grudge 2" DVD. Director, Shimizu, stated "I want to move on and try other things, and then, maybe, when people stop remembering me for Ju-on, I may come back and make Ju-on 3 for Japanese audiences. So... at this point in time, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a release of Ju-on 3."
In June 2009, two sequel films named Shiroi Rōjo and Kuroi Shōjo were released in Japan, though having no participation from Shimizu.
Ju-On: The Grudge 2 was received with a MPAA rating of R for violence and disturbing images.
The DVD was released on January 18, 2005.
The DVD for the movie was released before The Grudge 2 hit theaters and is now available for Regions 1, 2, and 4.
The PAL version is a 2-disc affair, featuring many extras, such as trailers, premiere footage, the making of, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, deleted/extended scenes, an audio commentary, and a DVD-ROM game (a flash version of this game is also available).
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