Research: Grudge (Japanese)

                                  A persistent feeling of ill will or resentment resulting from a past insult or injury.

The Grudge describes a curse that is born when someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage or extreme sorrow. The curse is an entity created where the person died. Those who encounter this supernatural force die; and the curse is reborn repeatedly, passed from victim to victim in an endless, growing chain of horror. The following events are explained in their actual order; the original film is presented in a non-linear narrative.

The Saeki family lived happily in suburban Tokyo, but housewife Kayako Saeki fell in love with her college professor, Peter Kirk, obsessively writing about him in her diary. Her husband Takeo discovered the diary. Believing Kayako was having an affair, he became mentally disturbed and brutally murdered his wife. He then drowned his young son Toshio - who witnessed his mother's murder - in the bathtub, along with the pet cat. Takeo hid the bodies in the house before Kayako's ghost murdered him. Peter came to the Saeki house to speak to Kayako after receiving a letter from her, only to find her corpse. Shocked, he fled, killing himself the next day. The Saeki family rose again as ghosts due to the curse, notably Kayako, who appears as an onryō ghost.