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.

In Japan, there is an urban legend that there is a cursed video clip of a suicide released by a man called Kashiwada (Yûsuke Yamamoto) in Internet that drives the viewer also to commit suicide. When the high- school student Noriko Morisaki seeks the video in classroom, her teacher Akane (Satomi Ishihara) takes her cellular to return it after class. But soon Noriko watches the footage at home and dies and the police inspector Koiso goes to the school to interview Akane and her students. Koiso's assistant Nakamura believes that the video is real, but Koiso does not pay much attention on him.

When Akane's boyfriend Takanori (Kôji Seto) is captured by a woman in the video and Koiso witnesses Nakamura committing suicide, they investigate Kashiwada and discover that his intention is to bring Sadako (Ai Hashimoto) back to a new body and Akane is the chosen one. Now Akane has to fight against Sadako to bring Takanori back and save her life.

"Sadako 3D" is a very bad Japanese horror movie with a senseless story. The plot is silly, with Kashiwada releasing the video to find a strong body to revive Sadako and they actually want Akane's body. Akane uses her super-scream to get rid of the supernatural creatures as if it were a comedy. So why do they need to make a video to kill people? They are very powerful and wouldn't be easier if they simply find Akane and use her body to revive Sadako? The conclusion is awful and in the end only the gorgeous lead actress Satomi Ishihara is worth to be watched in this terrible movie. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "A Invocação 3D" ("The Invocation 3D")

The Ringu franchise gets a 21st century update in this fourth instalment of the classic horror series. Coming over a decade after Ring 0, Sadako 3D was a real chance to kickstart the ailing series and give renewed life to Koji Suzuki's classic story. Sadly, although the film starts well and manages to update key elements of the Sadako folklore, it is ultimately let down by a bizarre finale and its completely pointless use of 3D. We are left to wonder whether Sadako should have perhaps stayed down the well.

The film begins with the suicide of a disgraced artist, broadcast via webcam to a handful of people on a video sharing website. Although the video is promptly deleted, it soon becomes notorious throughout Japan as "the cursed video" after rumours emerge that all who watch it take their own lives shortly thereafter. The legend is particularly popular among teenagers, who scour the net 24/7 trying to find a working link among the '404 not found' error pages.

The film's protagonist, Akane, is a high school teacher drawn into the legend after one of her students apparently commits suicide while watching the clip. As more and more of her class expose themselves to the danger, Akane learns of a connection between the suicidal artist and the notorious Sadako legend from a decade earlier. Could Sadako be behind this latest cursed video? If so, what does she want this time? And how can she be stopped?

For fans of American horror, Sadako 3D is to Ringu what Scream 4 was to Scream: a reimagining of the original story, transferred to a modern setting with modern technology, and with characters who are aware of the previous films' events. Where Scream 4 failed was in trying to merge the original premise – of teenagers being isolated and stalked in a small town – with the modern setting, never really answering the question of how a 21st century teenager can ever be 'isolated' in an era of smartphones and mobile internet. By contrast, the writers of Sadako 3D recognise that the original film's premise would seem dated today, and use advances in technology to their advantage.

For starters, Sadako no longer needs a television set to wreak her revenge: the creepy long-haired girl appears from smartphones, laptops and even electronic advertising boards. It's a useful ploy that means characters are never really safe wherever they are, and it works well. What also succeeds is the uncertainty of the 'cursed video': instead of a tape that characters either watch (and be damned, exactly seven days later) or don't watch (and be safe), the video is an online stream that moves about the internet, appearing at random on computers or smartphones that have previously searched for it. This means you are never really sure when (or if) a character will be next, giving a breath of fresh air to what could have been considered, by now, a tired concept.

All of that, though, is completely undermined by the final act, where the director (for some inexplicable reason) decides to crossover a decent paranormal ghost story with a creature feature – with predictably terrible results. Without spoiling the full details in this review, nuances from the Sadako legend are reduced to Silent Hill-like zombie creatures, almost leaving the viewer unsure if they're still watching the same film. Of course, genre crossovers are popular in Asian cinema and can be done successfully (see, e.g., Spellbound), but this just fails miserably. Things do get back on track somewhat for the ultimate finale, which satisfies to a point, but the damage has already been done by that stage.

Mention must also be made of the 3D effects. Although often a gimmick at the best of times, the extra dimension serves no purpose whatsoever here, being restricted to shots of Sadako's hand emerging from screens of various sizes – and that's about it. Moreover, since most of the (modest) budget appears to have been spent on the 3D apparatus, the film looks decidedly low-budget when watched in 2D, with some truly laughable CGI effects. I appreciate that the 3D 'gimmick' may have been required to get this film made at all, but I do wonder whether the final act would have strayed so far from the Ringu folklore had the director not being able to cheat his way out of proper storytelling with the cheap, gimmicky effect.

Ultimately, then, we are left with the feeling of what could have been. With its decent overall premise and its intelligent use of technology to update the original story, this could have been the refreshing reboot needed to kickstart the Ringu franchise. As it is, Sadako 3D is a mere curiosity; worth a watch (for the first hour at least) if you enjoy the original films, but more likely (in the final act) to alienate existing fans than win over new ones.

5 out of 10 – disappointing.

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).