In Depth Research: Yūrei - The Onryō

This post is important as it shows that I have looked deeper into my genre of film and have pursued a piece of information I found out and decided to learn more.

The ghost in my story will be based on a specific type of ghost. A type collectively known as "Yūrei".

Yūrei is the term used to describe Japanese Ghost as a whole. There are a variety of different types of Japanese Ghost and they all have different names. The one I will be looking at is called an Onryō Ghost.

The Definition of Onryō is: "A vengeful ghost who has come back from purgatory for a wrong done to them during their lifetime."

An Onryō Ghost can be male which is the case in Kabuki which is Classical Japanese Dance Drama's. However beside this all Onryō Ghost are primarily female. The back story of all female Onryō is that they suffered at the hands of their male lovers. This point linking perfectly with my media product's storyline.

The traditional appearance of an Onryō is:

- White (burial) kimono: the white being the colour of purity

- Wild and untamed long black hair: It was traditional for Japanese women to grow their hair to long lenghts only letting it down when they were buried.

- White and Indigo face make-up: this is traditionally called Aiguma. Giving them the complextion of someone of the undead with pale skin and sunken eyes.

Some example of Onryō Ghost are:

- Sadako Yamamura from 'The Ring'

- Drowned Women from the game "Fatal Frame 2"

- Kayako from "The Grudge"















From this post I have decided that I would take some of the things I have learned about Onryō and put them into my film. However I decided that I would make my film unique by twisting these common convections and doing some of these aspects in a more modern way.

I will use the traditional make-up of pale face and sunken dark eyes but my ghost will have blonde hair as to go againsts the origianl concept of having long unkept black hair. I will also go against this concept by keeping my ghost in the clothes she was killed in instead of tradtional burial clothing.