General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (呪怨2)

Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (呪怨2, Ju-on 2) is a 2003 Japanese horror film directed and written by Takashi Shimizu, the second theatrical entry in the Ju-on series about a curse that kills anyone who enters a haunted Tokyo house.¹ It premiered in Japan on August 23, 2003, runs 92 minutes, and stars Noriko Sakai as the actress Kyoko Harase, whose television crew investigates the cursed house and then dies one by one.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Release	August 23, 2003 (Japan), 92 minutes, 35 mm color, DTS sound¹^•³
Director and writer	Takashi Shimizu, who also directed and wrote the preceding Ju-on films¹
Lead cast	Noriko Sakai (Kyoko Harase), Chiharu Niiyama (Tomoka Miura), Kei Horie (Noritaka Yamashita), Yui Ichikawa (Chiharu)¹^•⁴
Producer	Takashige Ichise¹
Production companies	Pioneer LDC, Nikkatsu, Oz Company, Xanadeux, Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo Theatres⁵
Critical scores	55% Tomatometer from 69 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 33 (generally unfavorable) on Metacritic⁴^•⁶
Franchise position	Fourth Ju-on film, after the 2000 V-cinema films and the 2002–2003 theatrical Grudge films⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Kyoko Harase, an actress nicknamed the "horror queen," takes part in a television psychic-special program that reports on the cursed house.²^•⁹ Driving home from the shoot with her fiancé Masashi Ishikura, their car runs over a cat on the Metropolitan Expressway; Masashi drives off without dealing with the body, and in the next moment he realizes something horrifying has boarded the car before it crashes.² Masashi is left comatose, and Kyoko, though not badly injured, miscarries the child she was carrying.¹²

After the taping, the people connected to the program begin dying or disappearing, beginning with the show's makeup artist Megumi, who vanishes with a scream on the night of the shoot; the broadcaster halts production and covers up the events, and the program's original planner Keisuke returns to the cursed house to find the cause.¹³ The curse spreads without stopping through the reporters, directors, and staff, and the film builds to a climax in which the world of the film becomes a hell.⁹^•¹⁴

Place in the series

The Ju-on franchise began as two direct-to-video films, Ju-on: The Curse and Ju-on: The Curse 2, released in 2000 as the origin of the series, with Shimizu directing and writing under the supervision of Takahashi Yō, the screenwriter of Ring.⁸ The theatrical Ju-on: The Grudge followed in 2002 and became a hit in Japan and South Korea, and Ju-on: The Grudge 2 continued that storyline as the second theatrical chapter.²^•⁹ By the time of this film's release, a Hollywood remake produced by Sam Raimi was already in progress, and Shimizu had been set to direct it, his Hollywood debut.²

The title is also a source of confusion. The 2006 American sequel The Grudge 2 is a separate film, also directed by Shimizu, in which Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) travels to Tokyo after her sister Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is hospitalized; it was released theatrically in the United States on October 13, 2006.¹⁰^•¹¹ A 2000 V-cinema film also carries the Japanese title 呪怨2.⁸

Reception

Critical response was mixed to negative. Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 55% Tomatometer from 69 reviews and a 69% Popcornmeter score from more than 25,000 audience ratings; its critics consensus states that the film grows more repetitive as it goes on, and as a result the scares lessen.⁴ Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 33, labeled generally unfavorable, based on 16 critic reviews: 11 mixed and 5 negative, with none positive.⁶

Reviewers singled out Shimizu's signature method. Scott Brown of Entertainment Weekly described the film as loosely aligned scenes of half-formed characters facing Shimizu's "croaking, implacable" housewife-ghost, and called the film a second-generation copy of the first, faded but with moments that linger.⁶ The L.A. Weekly review credited Shimizu, who directed the original series, with generating gore-free unease through sound effects and scary faces, citing a staged scene with a body under the sheets and a man in a shower, while judging the ghost itself a predictable, one-trick figure.⁶ A Variety review by Jay Weissberg remarked on how long the franchise, like the curse itself, could continue to be reborn.⁴

Production

Shimizu directed from his own screenplay, with Takashige Ichise producing, Tokuaki Kikumura as cinematographer, and Shiro Sato composing the music.¹^•³ The film was produced by a consortium of Pioneer LDC, Nikkatsu, Oz Company, Xanadeux, Kadokawa Shoten, and Tokyo Theatres, and distributed theatrically in Japan by Xanadeux and Tokyo Theatres.⁵^•³ It was shot in color on 35 mm with a 1:1.85 aspect ratio and DTS sound, and carried a general-audience rating in Japan.³ Noriko Sakai, a singer and actress, made her first lead film role with this picture.²

Availability

In Japan the film is currently streaming on Hulu and U-NEXT, and can be rented on Amazon Video, FOD, and the Apple TV Store; streaming listings give a 95-minute runtime and a PG-12 age rating.¹⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Horror and slasher series film entries › 2000s releases

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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