Rei Kurosawa

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Rei Kurosawa


"Yuu... I want to see Yuu again."
Japanese黒澤 怜
くろさわ れい
Age23
FamilyYuu Asou (fiancé)
Hisoka Kurosawa (unknown)
Marital statusFormerly engaged
ResidenceRei Kurosawa's House
OccupationFreelance photographer
StatusAlive
GamesFatal Frame III
Fatal Frame V (mentioned)
Other AppearancesZero Shisei no Koe Comic Anthology
NotesRei's notebook
Themed Menu ItemRei and Reika's cheesecake and butterfly beach set[1]
Japanese Voice ActorJunko Minagawa
English Voice ActorKimberly Brooks

Rei Kurosawa is the primary protagonist of Fatal Frame III.

Past

Rei is a photographer. Prior to the events of the game, Rei lived with her fiancé, Yuu Asou, and his friend's sister, Miku Hinasaki, in their residence. After the events of Fatal Frame, Miku had no family left and she came to live with Rei and Yuu after Mafuyu's disappearance. Miku became Rei's close friend and her assistant and the three lived together peacefully.

Rei's car accident
Rei's car accident

In July 1988, Rei and Yuu were involved in a car accident while Rei was driving. She survived, but Yuu was killed, and Rei blamed herself for his death. Slowly she shut herself away from the outside world, only leaving her house on photography assignments. She stopped photographing people and only took pictures of landscapes and architecture. One of Yuu's friends, Kei Amakura, continued to send letters addressed to Yuu, but Rei could not bring herself to tell him the truth.

Fatal Frame III

"If I see Yuu, I... I don't know... Am I supposed to be alive?"
―Rei Kurosawa src

While on assignment photographing the ruins of a supposedly haunted location, the Kuze Shrine, Rei catches a glimpse of a familiar face around the corner. The person standing there is her dead fiancé, Yuu. Rei chases after him, and finds herself in a strange daydream. In the daydream she follows Yuu through a huge, snowy manor, encounters a menacing tattooed woman, and has a vision of herself lying on a stone floor, a tattoo spreading over her body as four girls prepare to drive stakes through her hands and feet. When the tattoos reach her eyes, the daydream ends.

Back at home, Rei develops the photos, and discovers that Yuu does indeed appear in one of them.

That night, she dreams of the same mansion she saw in her daydream. Searching for a way out, she meets a distraught woman who only sits mumbling to herself, and will not respond to any of Rei's questions. At that moment, the tattooed woman from her daydream appears, and chases Rei down the hallway. The woman's hand makes contact with Rei's shoulder and she becomes afflicted with the Tattooed Curse.

Rei continues to explore the manor in her dreams, catching occasional glimpses of Yuu that lead her deeper into the house, and the tattoo spreads more every time she wakes up. Soon after, she learns that both Miku and Kei Amakura are suffering from the same curse, and she begins to see their dreams as well as her own.

Little by little, the three of them uncover the history of the manor, and of the tattooed woman, Reika Kuze, whose pain and rage are the source of the manor's curse. As she explores further, Rei questions whether she is really supposed to be alive, or whether it would be better to follow Yuu deeper into the manor, past the point from which she will never be able to return.

A few nights after, Miku succumbs to the curse, falling into a deep sleep from which she cannot be woken. Rei, who has been relying on Miku's support, is close to giving up entirely, but Kei arrives at the house, with possible information on how to lift the curse. He hopes that by impaling Reika, he will be able to subdue her pain and lay her to rest. His plan fails, and Rei is left alone again, but Kei leaves behind a notebook containing one last hope: that there is a place, deep within the manor, where the priestess might be "sent off" to the other shore.

With no other choice, Rei descends to the Chamber of Thorns in her dream and battles Reika using the Camera Obscura. Beyond the Chamber, she finds an ocean beneath a dark sky. There she sends Reika off in a boat, and the spirits are released to cross over.

Among them, Rei spots Yuu, and begs to be allowed to go with him. Rei tells him the only reason she survived was because he was with her. Despite Rei's pleas, Yuu tells her that she has to go on living, so a part of him can continue on with her; he then absorbs her tattoos and carries them with him to the other side.

Rei wakes up in her bedroom with the sun shining through her curtains, and this time, the tattoo is gone. Rei is suddenly overwhelmed over what has happened, including Yuu crossing over, and begins to cry.

After the credits, Rei and Miku are watching the sunset on a beach. Miku says she now understands why they were allowed to live on, and Rei agrees: "I'll go on living... even with the pain."

Alternate Ending

If the player has completed the Echo Stone Earring Sidequest and Kei has survived, the ending will show additional scenes, including Miku waking up with Rei hugging her, Rei and Miku developing photographs together, and Kei bringing his niece to meet them.

Fatal Frame V

Rei is briefly mentioned, though not by name, in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. The original Japanese text of Missing Person: Miku Hinasaki mentions that Miku had previously worked as a photographer's assistant, and the photographer was the one who provided the photo used to try and track Miku after she went missing. This indicates that Rei was still alive and in contact with Miku at least a year or two after Fatal Frame III.

Misc. Info

  • Though Rei's last name is Kurosawa, she is not related to the Kurosawa family of Minakami village. She is, however, a descendant of the shrine maidens who protected the Black Lake at Mount Hikami.
  • Like the twins in Fatal Frame II, who are identified with Twin Shrine Maidens, Rei symbolically takes on the role of the priestess, which can be seen in many ways during the game. She sees Kei's and Miku's dreams after they tell her about them, and on many occasions hears voices and whispers that lead her to important places and help her to understand the stories of the people trapped in the Manor (like the priestess, who could hear the "voices" of the tattoos to understand the pain of the worshippers).
  • Rei and Yuu met each other in college.[2]
  • Rei mentions in-game she used to do photography work for fashion magazines.
  • Rei mentions that her favorite color is blue, also indicated by her clothing.
  • Originally, Rei's costume was going to be a skirt and shirt ensemble, but this was changed because the creators liked the pant design better. This previous design is one of Rei's unlockable costumes.
  • Rei's name is a play off of the Japanese title of the game, 零, which is also pronounced rei. When Yuu and Rei's names are put together they spell "yuurei", Japanese for "ghost".
  • Rei Kurosawa was voted IGN's Video game Babe of the Day on August 19th, 2005.[3]
  • Rei Kurosawa's shower scene made #5 in the top 7 video game shower scenes by GamesRadar.[4]
  • Rei's actions in appeasing Reika are compared to Glancing, an ability used by the shrine maidens she descends from, in the Fatal Frame V guidebook.

References

See Also

Characters and Ghosts
Player Characters
Rei Kurosawa - Miku Hinasaki - Kei Amakura
Major Characters/Ghosts
Reika Kuze - Amane Kuze - Kaname Ototsuki - Yoshino Takigawa - Yuu Asou - Yashuu Kuze - Akito Kashiwagi - Kyouka Kuze - Hisame Kuze - Shigure Kuze - Minamo Kuze - Mio Amakura - Mayu Amakura - Mafuyu Hinasaki
Minor Characters/Ghosts
Ruri - Dr. Kunihiko Asou - Tengai Narumi - Naoya - Masumi Makimura - Miyako Sudo - Ozawa - Serizawa - Musubi Osaka - Tsuzuri Osaka - Makie Kuzuhara - Kozue Kuzuhara - Kiriko Asanuma - Shizu Amakura - Engravers - Men in White - Kizuna Himuro - The Kusabi - Stroller Grandma - Black Shadow - Engraved Men
Terms
Amakura Family - Asou Family - Boat of Passing - Camera Obscura - Crimson Butterfly - Echo Stone Earrings - Final Impalement - Handmaidens - Handmaiden's Song - Himuro Family - Impalement Ritual - Impaling the Sin - Indigo ink - Ink of the soul - Igushi Doll - Kushimi Doll - Kuze Code - Kuze Family - Lost Patients - Miasma - Outsiders - Piercing of the Soul - Red ink - Rite of Commandment - Sacrificial Pillars - Snake & Holly Tattoo - Spirit Tree - Spirited Aways - Tattooed Curse - Tattooed Priestess - The Rift - The Tearing - The Unleashing - Worshippers
Locations
Rei's House
Altar Room - Bathroom - Darkroom - Doorway - Kitchen - Living Room - Miku's Room - Rei's Room - Yuu's Room
Manor of Sleep
Abyss - Abyss of the Horizon - Bell Hallway - Blind Room - Book Storeroom - Chamber of Thorns - Doll Altars - Enclosed Room - Engraving Shrine - Futon Room - Grave Courtyard - Hall with Tatami - Hanging Prison - Hearth Room - House of Sleep - Kimono Room - Kuze Shrine - Last Passage - Library - Partitioned Room - Projection Room - Rift Shrine - Room with Blind - Shrine of Sleep - Spirit Tree Garden - Stained Corridor - Stairs Hallway - Tattoo Altar - Well Room - Wooden Figure Room
Himuro Mansion area
Confinement Room - Foyer - Great Hall - Preserve Room - Rope Hallway - Rope Palace
Minakami Village area
Confinement Room - Great Hall - Hearth Room - Kimono Room - Rope Temple - Twins' Room
Other
Kukaiji Temple - Minakami Dam - Myojin Village - Katsuragi Hospital
Gameplay
Camera Obscura - Save points - Films - Flashlight - Lenses - Functions - Special Abilities - Spirit list - Health items
Music
Tsukiko Amano - Koe - Handmaiden's Song
More Pages
Hours - Items - Notes - Photographs - Costumes - Endings - Rei's Notebook - Zero Shisei no Koe Comic Anthology