Kayako Saeki

Kayako Kawamata Saeki (佐伯伽 椰子) is a fictional character from the Japanese horror film series Ju-on.

Overview
Created by director Takashi Shimizu, she can be considered in some way, the main character in the sequels. She represents a popular villain in Japanese culture, the vengeful ghost (onryō). Typical for her long dark hair covering her face, strange movements, and rattling sound coming from her throat, her debut (performed to perfection by Takako Fuji, except for the 3rd US film) was in Shimizu's short film, Katasumi. . Throughout the Ju-on series she lived in her home in Nerima, Japan. She is one of the initiators of the Ju-On curse, that curse is created when someone dies between an intense rage and anger. These emotions continue where the person dies and annihilate anyone who comes in contact with them.

Kayako's most recent appearance in the American series was in The Grudge 3 (2009), and in Ju-on: The Final Curse (2015) by the Japanese series. Kayako's image can be considered a new icon of horror movies, appearing in 9 films, (with 1 more to be released soon) 2 series and 1 short film.

Noroi: The Curse
According to the story of The Grudge 2, outside of Japan, Kayako spent her childhood with her mother who was an exorcist; she nevertheless used it to "eat" or "guard" the diabolical spirits of the patients. This led the girl not only to be marked for the rest of her life, but to be introverted and shy enough to attract the attention of all of her classmates and later from college.

Kayako married Takeo Saeki and was the mother of a little boy named Toshio (佐伯 俊雄). While she was going to college, she meets Shunsuke Kobayashi. She fell deeply in love with him, becoming obsessed to extreme limits. Ella Kayako began to write her episodes in her intimate diary of hers, getting to glue nails, hair, etc.

One day Takeo found the journal and started reading it. When she returned to the house that day, he violently attacked her on the floor above her, pushing her against the wall. Toshio was drawing in her bedroom and heard the noise, hiding in her closet. Kayako tried to run away from her while Takeo chased after her, but he pushed her down. As a consequence, she sprained her ankle, tripped, and crawled down the stairs of the house. Having struggled to reach her front door, she noticed Takeo walking slowly behind her, watching her suffer in pain. Then, he held her by her head, suddenly fracturing her neck, carrying her into her bedroom and putting her in a garbage bag. Kayako was still alive, but she was paralyzed due to Takeo's fracture. Later, he takes her up to the attic and closes the door.

After this, Takeo murdered Toshio by drowning him along with his cat, Mar. Seeing what he had done, Takeo, desperate, hangs himself in his room, although one of the Japanese versions shows that he was drowned by Kayako's own hair.

From that day on, anyone who passes the Saeki house will be killed by the ghosts of Kayako, Toshio, or Takeo. The cat usually appears to warn any intruder of his impending fate. The curse means that it will repeat itself in an endless cycle. Seeing in every Ju-on and The Grudge movie Kayako crawling down the stairs (except for The Grudge 2, where we see her in a deleted scene or for the end), means that the curse is spreading more and more, too. we can see that at the end of the movie Aubrey a woman who tries to stop the curse but is killed by Takeo because of this she becomes Kayako. In The Grudge 3 she is also not seen crawling up and down the stairs. Although she is usually heard emitting her famous rattle, from time to time Kayako emits a moan in her place; she has even been heard speaking, albeit for a short time, in the first Ju-on movie. It is said that Kayako is actually a Yurei, a Japanese spirit of revenge, always represented by a woman.