Rika Nishina (仁科 理佳 Nishina Rika) is the main protagonist of Ju-on: The Grudge, portrayed by Megumi Okina. She is a 23-year-old social worker sent to assist a lethargic elderly woman and consequently crosses paths with the grudge curse inhabiting her house.
Biography[]
Caretaker for the Saeki Residence[]
Rika comforting a disturbed Sachie
Rika was suddenly put in charge with caring for Sachie Tokunaga, a catatonic elderly lady. Reluctantly, Rika went and discovered the quiet suburban home, instantly having a bad feeling from the place.
She entered and found it in a state of disarray and her ward malnourished and soiled, with no one else home. While vacuuming, she found a family picture with the wife's face cut out. Upstairs she heard shuffling noises coming from the bedroom closet, which had been taped shut.
First Encounter with the Curse[]
Rika about to make a strange discovery.
Rika removed the tape and opened the door when she heard meowing sounds. Inside the closet she discovers a black cat and a young boy, whom she recognized from the photo. She called the welfare center to report the incident. As she hanged up, Rika was startled to see the boy staring down at her from the upstairs balcony.
Asking for his name, the boy answered "Toshio". A murmuring from Sachie's room attracted Rika's attention, and she found Sachie seemingly speaking alone. Rika attempted to calm Sachie and helped her lie down again, until Sachie's eyes opened wide in fear. A dark figure making a death rattle slowly descended upon Sachie and frightened Rika. A pair of eyes appeared within the figure, which open and stare directly at Rika, who then fainted.
Final Encounter with the Curse[]
In his ghostly form, Toshio manifested next to her. Rika and Sachie's dead body were later found by Hirohashi (her boss). Later at the hospital, a partly recovered, but still confused Rika was visited by her friend Mariko.
She was later interrogated by Detective Nakagawa and told him about the boy and the family photograph she found at the house. After being discharged, Nakagawa contacted her once again to make sure she was talking about the missing boy from the picture he had, to which Rika confirmed.
One night, she was haunted by a ghostly woman and the boy staring at her. Rika returned her work at the care center and assisted Saitô. Taking the old man for a walk, Rika was unaware that Saitô enjoyed his time playing peek-a-boo with an unseen child that pursued her everywhere.
Rika met Mariko for lunch and, whilst they talk, Rika felt something passing between her legs, only to find Toshio under the table. Rika then returned home only to experience more horrific events. While in the shower, she feels a hand on her head but there is no one inside but her. Afterwards, she decided to go to sleep.
In the middle of the night, she woke up and found herself surrounded by black cats in her bedroom, only to discover it was a nightmare. The morning after, Mariko called her and, as she went to pick up, Rika was briefly haunted by the ghostly boy.
Kayako's reflection appears
Mariko told Rika that she visited the house of one of her pupils who went missing from school. Hearing a meowing sound through the phone, Rika ran desperate to the house, but was unable to saver her as Mariko was grabbed and dragged by Kayako's ghost to the attic.
The ghost returned to Rika, who ran back to the lobby. As she walked by mirror, it reflected the ghost, attracting her attention.
Fate[]
Rika returns after she is taken by the curse.
Rika looked in the mirror and was surprised by a revealing vision of the curse's true purpose onto her. As she saw Kayako in her reflection, the ghost manifested from inside her and then crawled down the stairs.
As it reached Rika, she was horrified of seeing herself as the ghost, haunting every cursed victim including herself. With the vision gone, Takeo appeared upstairs and went downstairs to Rika. He approached her and stretched out his bloody hand to her face as she only screamed for her life. Takeo broke Rika's neck like he did with Kayako years before. Then he carried her to her room and placed her in plastic bag against the closet. Then he cut her throat with the stylet, killing her, causing her to croack and splattering her blood over the photographs of Kayako he torn, partially recreating her murder. Then he put her at the attic before disappearing. In the attic, Rika later awoke and rattled as a rancorous ghost.
Aftermath[]
Rika was at first reported missing before her (and possibly Mariko's) corpse was later found in the attic. A news report on her death was being aired when Izumi came home from school. It was stated that "no marks were found in her body".
Etymology[]
- The name Rika means "reason, logic" (理) (ri) and "good, beautiful" (佳) (ka).
- Rika's surname Nishina means "compassionate" (仁) (ni) and "department, section" (科) (shina).
Trivia[]
Megumi Okina with Yūya Ozeki filming Ju-on: The Grudge.
- Although it is not explored in the film, the estrangement the Saeki house awakens in Rika suggests she was gifted with sensitivity.
- Rika is accurately adapted to Karen Davis in The Grudge. Karen's fate, however, differs from Rika's but is assumed by her sister, Aubrey, in The Grudge 2.
- Rather than having the usual menacing and angry stare, Kayako's ghost is crying as it crawls down the staircase to Rika. In The Grudge 2, Aubrey spots Kayako's teary eye in the journal before having a similar fate under the curse.
- A deleted scene from Ju-on: The Grudge shows further of the Takeo's recreation of his murders, where he drags her to the attic by her hair and stabs her with a box cutter, the blood splashing on nearby photographs.
- Rika is portrayed by Megumi Okina, who would later portray a vengeful spirit like Kayako in Shutter.
- The scene in which Rika is haunted at the restaurant is referenced in Ju-on: The Final and The Grudge 2, when Madoka and Allison are haunted by Toshio and Mar at restaurant and classroom respectively.
- Rika is also compared action or solutionary of Renai Lambert in Insidious but she played to be Mother and also Rika is portrayed by Megumi Okina, who would later portray to be a mother in Howling Village (2019).
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