Ringu: Onryō

Ring (リング Ringu^?) is a 1998 Japanese horror film by Hideo Nakata, adapted from the novel Ring by Kōji Suzuki, which in turn draws on the Japanese folk tale Banchō Sarayashiki. The film stars Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Rikiya Ōtaka as members of a divorced family. The film was later remade in the US as The Ring (2002).

The film is the highest grossing horror film in Japan at 12 billion yen ($137.7 million) and is also considered the most frightening horror film in Japan according to a survey of Oricon.^[2]

Onryō (怨霊) is a mythological spirit from Japanese folklore who is able to return to the physical world in order to seek vengeance.
 
While male onryō can be found, mainly in kabuki, the majority are women. Powerless in the physical world, they often suffer at the capricious whims of their male lovers. In death they become strong.

While the origin of onryō is uncertain, it can be traced back to the 8th Century and was based on the idea that powerful and enraged souls of the dead could exert influence on the land of the living.
The traditional Japanese spirit world consists of three layers: heaven, the world of living and the world of the dead. Regardless of who the person was before death, all spirits go to Yomi when they died, even the kami (deities). While it is impossible for the dead to come back to the world of the living anymore according to Japanese mythology, powerful dead spirits could influence the living either out of good will or malice. Kojiki (711-2), the oldest Japanese book which narrates Japanese history beginning from its creation mythology, tells that when the goddess Izanami died she was able to cast a curse from Yomi on the land of livin.