Several years prior to the main plot, Takeo Saeki murders his wife Kayako after discovering she is in love with another man, also killing the family cat Mar and possibly his son Toshio. The murders create a curse that revives the family as onryÅ, with Kayako’s ghost murdering Takeo. Whoever enters the house in Nerima, Tokyo, is eventually consumed by the curse, which spreads to the place they die in and in turn consumes anyone who goes there.
This film is the third installment of the Ju-on series. The film was preceded by two low budget films from 2000 (Ju-on (2000) and Ju-on: The Curse 2 (2000)), whose storylines are continued in this sequel. It took 2 hours to apply the white makeup to Takako Fuji and Yuya Ozeki in order for them to play their ghostly incarnations of their characters. Kayako and Toshio are based on the Japanese legend of the Onryo, a vengeful spirit that unlike western ghosts, can physically manifest to attack and kill victims whereas our ghosts are just energy and can't physically appear. They manifest when they are killed in a state of deep rage as explained by the opening title card.
