The onryō is the protagonist of her own story

In J-horror, the ghost has a backstory that indicts someone. Sadako was murdered and dumped in a well. Kayako was killed by her husband. Mitsuko drowned in neglect. They are all wronged — by male violence, parental failure, social betrayal — and the film expects you to feel that, even as they kill. The protagonist facing the onryō is often a working-class independent woman (Reiko in Ringu, Yoshimi in Dark Water) whose struggle mirrors the ghost's. The genre points fingers at patriarchy.

The Final Girl is the mirror image. She's "good" — chaste, sober, resourceful — and survives because she's good. The threat is a male monster who punishes those who violate patriarchal norms. The genre rewards conformity. There's no sympathy for the killer; he's an obstacle.

In J-horror the ghost is the protagonist of her own story. In Western horror she's a problem to be solved. That structural difference carries an entire political argument.

[!TIP] Useful line: "In J-horror the ghost is the protagonist of her own story. In Western horror she's a problem to be solved."

Source claim: The onryō's justified rage encodes a feminist critique of patriarchy, while the Final Girl's virtuous survival rewards conformity to it — two cultures' opposite answers to what scares them about women.