Takako Fuji (藤貴子 Fuji Takako, born July 27, 1972, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese actress widely known for her portrayal of the spiteful ghost of Kayako Saeki in the Ju-on and The Grudge film series. Fuji has strong ties to theatre and is also a voice actress.
Biography[]
A native of Tokyo, Honshū Island, Japan who was born there in 1972,[1] Fuji studied acting at the Aoyama Gakuin University, and subsequently joined the Ein Theatrical Company. Her work was usually on-stage or in voice-over studios, but occasionally she would also appear in films. Her most famous role to this date is that of Kayako Saeki, the vengeful ghost in the Ju-on series, which she subsequently played in The Grudge series later on as well. She first played Kayako in the 1998 short movie Katasumi, part of the Gakkô no kaidan G collection. She then reprised her role in the direct-to-video film Ju-on: The Curse and its sequel, Ju-on: The Curse 2.
When director Takashi Shimizu decided to direct two additional installments for a broader theatrical release, which he called (Ju-on: The Grudge and Ju-on: The Grudge 2), Fuji played the character of Kayako twice more. When the films were subsequently remade for an American audience as The Grudge Fuji played the role yet again. She reprised the role for the last time in The Grudge 2. Fuji did not play Kayako in The Grudge 3, the third installment of The Grudge series, and is replaced by Aiko Horiuchi and the 2014 Ju-on film Beginning of the End, where Misaki Saicho portrays.
Fuji has stated in interviews that she had grown a bit tired of the role and that sometimes it was hard for her to keep herself motivated, since she had played the role 7 distinct times by then.[2] Fuji admitted, however, that she would continue playing the role of Kayako as long as director Takashi Shimizu desired to hire her again for. Fuji also stated, in other interviews, that sometimes she pretended to be Kayako Saeki in front of her friends at parties. She also confessed that she fully understood from where Kayako's anger derived. As of early April 2011, no reliable English translation of the explanation Fuji gave for the source of Kayako Saeki's anger was known to have been made public in the United States.
Fuji-san revealed on Twitter that she provided voice work on The Grudge,[3] dubbing the characters of Fiona Landers (again the antagonist vengeful ghost) and Faith Matheson.[4] Previously, Fuji-san had declined a possible involvement with the Japanese-language dubbing of the movie when asked by a fan.
Personal life[]
Fuji-san's specialties are dancing, modern ballet, and is fluent in both Japanese and English. She is also a well-trained contortionist, which helped her to play Kayako. She has been married once, to co-member of the Ein Theatrical Group Watanabe Joji, from January 2000 until October 2005. Fuji stated that the first time after playing Kayako, she saw a pale woman leaving her house at night, and that she does believe in ghosts.[5]
Filmography[]
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Katasumi and 4444444444 (1998)
Ju-on: The Curse (2000)
Ju-on: The Curse 2 (2000)
Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)
Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2003)
The Grudge (2004)
The Samurai I Loved (2004)
Reincarnation (2005)
The iDol (2006)
The Grudge 2 (2006)
The Cat's Whiskers (2007)
Naruto: Shippuden (2010)
Little Higher That Yesterday
Gallery[]
References[]
External links[]
- Takako Fuji at the Internet Movie Database