Ikiryo

Synopsis

The Hook: Ikiryo presents a never-before-seen premise: a ghost, the Ikiryo from ancient Japanese folklore, travels from a living person, not someone dead. The unique hook flows through the antagonist, an elderly female shaman, Madame Miko, who summons the Ikiryo using an ancient Japanese ritual that releases a ghost of vengeance for scorned wives to avenge their cheating husbands. Our protagonist, a young female detective, Leslie Taylor, must stop the shaman, or she will be the next host.

The Synopsis: Ikiryo is set in present-day Derbyshire County, United Kingdom. Our protagonist, Detective Leslie Taylor, is a single, independent British-Asian female in her early 30s who was recently promoted to the youngest detective in the Derbyshire Criminal Investigation Department. Eager to prove her abilities in her new role, Taylor is assigned the Ikiryo murder with her senior partner, the veteran, slightly overweight, near-retirement Detective Sargent Edwin "Coop" Cooper, who views this as his last chance to redeem his reputation before leaving the force. ? The story starts with the first murder in a Derbyshire Hotel room. The victim is a middle-aged man killed with a spike through a straw doll into his chest. There are no fingerprints or DNA besides those of the victim and his mistress. The room displays no signs of a forced entry, and it would take a sledgehammer to drive this spike into his chest. The victim's wife is in San Tropez and couldn't have committed this act, despite the mistress's insistence that it was the victim's wife in ghost form. ? Taylor is a hardcore video gamer and has been into anime since grade school, and she will use her online Japanese teenage friend, Yuta, to help her solve this murder. Yuta tells her it is an Ikiryo, a ghost of a living person summoned to kill someone who has deceived you. Cooper uses his old partner, now Detective Inspector Harry "Rusty" Wood, to help him with this case. Rusty shares that they had something similar when he first came onto the force. They couldn't find the murderer, so instead, they framed a Haitian man and called it voodoo. ? Then there is a second Ikiryo murder of a cheating husband at a swingers club. The detectives found a link that both widows were in touch with Madame Miko Anmyodo on the days leading up to the murders. Madame Miko, our antagonist, is an old Japanese female fortune teller, shaman, and spiritual advisor bent on exacting revenge for her daughter's unjust death. Coop, determined to bring closure to the case and his career, decides that Taylor should go undercover and meet Madame Miko with Rusty's son, police officer Oliver "Woody" Wood. Madame Miko's Psychic room stirs up upsetting memories as the location is where, years ago, Rusty accidentally killed a Geisha. ? Madame Miko expects and wants this undercover visit from Taylor and Woody. At this meeting, she predicts Woody will face a tragic death and that Taylor is the chosen one in the lineage of Empress Jito. Miko explains that Taylor will become a shaman through her mother, the proof being the tattoo on Taylor's inner thigh. ? Unknown to the police is that the Geisha girl that Rusty killed many years ago was Madame Miko's daughter. Madame Miko uses the meeting with Taylor and Woody to get the needed hair samples for use in the Ikiryo process. Madame Miko then summons her Ikiryo and kills Woody in retribution for his father's murder of her daughter. ? Taylor and Cooper are at their lowest point after Woody's death. Still, it causes Taylor to realize that Yuta was the informer who gave both personal and police business information to Madame Miko. Yuta tries to convince Taylor that he thought she would merely scare Woody, not kill him, as his motivation was loyalty to both Taylor and Madame Miko, but ultimately misguided. To prove his friendship, Yuta tells Taylor that Madame Miko will use Taylor's body as a vessel for her spirit so that she can live on through her. ? The two then plan to counter Madame Miko by summoning Taylor's Ikiryo to kill Madame Miko before she can enter Taylor's body, as she will use the DNA evidence she collected from Madame Miko for the Ikiryo ritual. The climax is a race against time to see which living ghost of vengeance or Ikiryo will succeed first. ? Taylor's Ikiryo hovers over Madame Miko's body while Miko's Ikiryo hovers over Taylor's. Which Ikiryo kills first? Is it Taylor's, which means Madame Miko is dead, or is it Madame Miko's, and she has taken over Taylor's body? In the last scene, we are still determining who won. Detective Sargent Cooper breaks down the door to save Taylor in the smoke-filled apartment. When Coop sees Taylor walk out of the smoke, he looks into her eyes and says their code phrase, "Fall Down Seven Times." The screen goes black, but we then hear Taylor finish the code phrase that her father taught her, "Get Up Eight Times!" Thus proving that Taylor survived.