Sadako 3D

Being a big fan of the Japanese originals as well as the American remakes, I'm always in for more of this franchise it seems. That being said, I'll be the first to admit that this movie is extremely far removed from its source material. Both the books and the movies. It is just completely bonkers, in a way that only a Japanese movie can be, being such a bizarre mix of a seriously attempted plot and obviously ridiculous things, that you constantly keep wondering what you're actually looking at. If you're in the right mood, that can be very entertaining.

This movie is many things. Silly, bizarre, creative, over the top, but never boring. It takes the basic concept of Sadako and that's about it. Yes, there is a cursed video, but gone is the 7 days requirement and all the suspense it brings. Gone is her backstory as well. This Sadako doesn't follow many rules, and has as many faces and forms as all the other movies in the franchise combined. Some of them were so crazy I just had to respect the creativity of it. I mean, wow. It's a lot. Most of it wasn't actually scary, but certainly memorable.

This movie really makes me see Sadako (2019) in a different light. I think the original director returned just to remind people that Sadako 3D is not what the franchise is about. 2019 had some silly aspects, but Sadako 3D makes it look almost gritty and realistic with its utter ridiculousness, almost like an attempt at 'return to form'. It shows just how far a franchise can derail if it runs long enough.

If you want a serious suspenseful horror film like the original Ringu, nothing to see here. Me personally, I'm used to seeing long running franchises go completely off the rails (Alien and Godzilla come to mind), so seeing an interation of Sadako this crazy isn't all that surprising. Go in with an open mind, and you might have fun with it.

This film starts with a man named "Seija Kashiwada" (Yusuke Yamamoto) throwing the body of a young woman into a well. The scene then shifts to a high school teacher named "Akane Ayukawa" (Satomi Isohara), who confiscates a cellphone used by one of her students, which prevents her from watching a mysterious video linked to recent deaths. Yet even though Akane temporarily prevented her student from accessing the streaming video, she couldn't stop her from doing so after school. The next day, Akane learns that the student has committed suicide. Shocked, another student named "Lisa Kitayama" (Hikari Takara) decides to investigate the video herself, but is saved when Akane arrives just in time. The problem is that the spirit named "Sadako Yamamura" (Ai Hashimoto), released by Seiji, is not only intent on killing Lisa but also wants to take over Akane's body because Akane has powers Sadako needs to complete her mission of killing every person on Earth. For those unfamiliar, this film is part of a series that began with the 1998 movie "Ringu," followed by two sequels, the first being "Spiral" that same year. Unfortunately, "Spiral" didn't perform well at the box office, and a different sequel called "Rungu 2" was produced in 1999, which then spawned another sequel the next year. As for this particular movie, it picks up where "Spiral" left off, even though it's been around 13 years since then. That said, the film acknowledges the passage of time a couple of times, but it doesn't mention any characters from the previous films except Sadako. So, you don't need to watch the earlier movies to understand what's happening. I should also note that although this film was made in 3D, I wasn't able to see it in that format, so I can't say how much better it was than the version I saw. Hopefully, the 3D effects were impressive because the 2D version didn't add much over the previous films in the series, with the excessive reliance on CGI toward the end being a particularly poor choice. Regardless, I don't think this was a bad movie necessarily, but I was somewhat disappointed overall, and I have rated it accordingly.

This piece of rat-infested dog poop is simply not worth watching. Almost everything about this film is just wrong. The onryo ghost, which I personally find to be a very chilling entity, is included in a variety of laughably stupid sequences. The way the horror scenes were constructed is grade D filmmaking at its worst. We're talking head-slapping stupidity. For example, Sadako is "controlled" by a young dude with an oh-so-lame Japanese rockstar fashion sense who is played by an actor who should not be working. Right from the opening scene, this guy is an absolute embarrassment with his terribly acted "evil laugh." Imagine if Michael Cera tried to be scary, and this is what you'd get. Sadako just friggin' pops out everywhere, like some mentally challenged CGI jack-in-the-box. There's no emphasis on creepiness or atmosphere at all. The storyline is also haphazard and totally boring. There's literally no talent behind or in front of the camera here. Everyone involved in this travesty should be thrown down a well.

If you're looking for good recent Japanese horror, check out "Tormented" (2011), "X Game" (2010), "Tomie Unlimited" (2011), "Kaidan Horror Classics 1-4" (2010), and "Gomenasai" (2011).

"The Ring" ("Ringu") was groundbreaking and innovative back in its time, and the following movies - read parts 2 and 0, as well as the Korean version, but not the American version (which was just beyond awful) - were great. And in the spirit of the previous Japanese movies, I was thrilled when I happened to fall across "Sadako 3D" by sheer luck. Preparing for a good old fashioned Japanese scarefest, I settled in on the couch to watch "Sadako 3D".

And now that the end credits have finished, I sit here with a very, very empty feeling and a rather bad taste in my mouth. This movie was quite far from the original trilogy, both in plot and in scares. Not to mention the 3D effects were not particularly impressive.

For a Japanese horror movie then "Sadako 3D" was frightfully lacking spooks and scary moments. And a poorly animated CGI version of Sadako didn't really help the movie along in any great way. Nor did it help when she came out of the well and had strangely mutated legs. Or when there were several of those creatures crawling around. It was just horrible to witness.

The acting throughout the movie was adequate, despite the actor and actresses had very little to work with. And Satomi Ishihara (playing Akane) did carry the movie all by herself actually. Without her in the movie, it would have been even more gut-wrenching to sit through.

At 96 minutes, you get very little worth for your money. The movie is lacking that tradition dark sense of foreboding doom and horror that usually permeates the Japanese horror movies. "Sadako 3D" was too much of a re-shined attempt to cash in on an otherwise great series and try to brighten it up with 3D effects.

Having seen "Sadako 3D", I am somewhat hesitant about sitting down to watch "Sadako 2 3D". Why? Well, aside from the lack of creativity in the title, then from the fear that it will turn out just as dull, lifeless and boring as the first "Sadako" movie was.

"Sadako 3D" is more of a slap in the face of fans of the original "Ring" movies than it is a well-worthy addition to the legacy.

When the 1998 film Ringu aka Ring hit theaters it took the world by storm becoming not only the highest grossing horror film in Japan, but spawned two sequels, a video game as well as two American versions. With not much word of the series for some time it's back with an all-new installment named for the famous focal point of the series Sadako 3D, but can it live up to the creepy nature that made the original film so great or is it just another forgettable sequel to a once great franchise.

Sadako 3D follows a high school teacher who discovers Internet footage that her students have been watching of someone's suicide that is rumored to drive anyone who watches it to commit suicide as well. While she doubts it at first, she soon discovers that it is actually of a man whose intention is to create chaos in the world by bringing back Sadako and her curse. Initially this film takes some interesting directions shifting the curse from the VHS to update it to the current Internet nature. There are some creative moments using cell phones and computer screens that should have delivered but never really push the envelope the way it should have. Even with these issues the film still could have worked pretty well, but due to the decision for 3D they opted to over saturate the film with CGI effects that were not all that great. Part of the charm of the original films was just the pure creepy especially the Sadako character. She did very little in the originals other than climb out of the well and inch towards you, but the look and vibe was very effective. Sadly that is all gone with the exception of a few moments until the end when things change completely. This series has always been a cursed haunted genre film, but this entry takes it out of that all together at one point turning it into somewhat of a monster film losing the entire point of this series. While it loses the Ring aspect, it still could have been pretty cool had they not used some pretty poor CGI to bring these creatures to life.

This movie had lots if issues, but all stuff that could have still worked well had they not gone complete CG for everything. Fans of the original film will most likely have some real issues with this film as it plays more like a reboot than a sequel and fails to live up to the classic that came before it. Word is that there is a sequel to this film coming as well and hopefully they will take some of the good ideas here and deliver something a lot better.