Sadako 3D (2012)

The spiteful ghost of Sadako, a murdered woman whose body was thrown down a well, reaches the Internet searching for a host in order to live once again.

Director:

Tsutomu Hanabusa

Writers:

Kôji Suzuki (based on the novel by), Yoshinobu Fujioka (screenplay)

Stars:

Satomi Ishihara, Kôji Seto, Ryôsei Tayama

Cast

Credited cast:
Satomi Ishihara	...	Akane Ayukawa
Kôji Seto	...	Takanori Ando
Ryôsei Tayama	...	Detective Koiso
Tsutomu Takahashi	...	Detective Nakamura
Hikari Takara	...	Risa Kitayama
Yûsuke Yamamoto	...	Kiyoshi Kashiwada
Shôta Sometani	...	Enoki
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ai Hashimoto	...	Sadako
Risako Itô
Shunsuke Itô
Yôko Kita	...	Noriko Morisaki
Yûna Taira	...	Young Akane

Storyline

Akane is a high school teacher who hears a rumor from her students that there is actual footage on the Internet of someone's suicide. The footage is said to drive anyone who sees it to also commit suicide. Akane does not believe the rumor at first, but when one of her female students dies after viewing the footage, she and her boyfriend Takanori are fatefully drawn into the horror that has been created by the man who appears in the suicide footage, Kashiwada. Kashiwada's intention is to create chaos in the world by bringing back Sadako and the power of her curse. Now Akane has to fight against Sadako and Kashiwada to save the lives of herself and Takanori.

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Plot Keywords:

entering tv screen | screaming woman | screaming in horror | supernatural power | red eyes | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on Koji Suzuki's 2012 novel "S". It is a loose adaptation of Suzuki's fourth novel. The novel is in the same continuity as the Spiral novel, which was adapted into Rasen (1998), but this film doesn't have any coherent continuity with Rasen (or any of the other Ringu films). That's partially because Suzuki's third novel, 1998's Loop, was never adapted into a film, leaving a huge gap of story in between these films.

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Connections

Follows Ringu (1998)

User Reviews

Sadako 3D attempts to continue the Ringu series but may have killed

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

12 May 2012 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Sadako

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$20,335,408

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kadokawa Pictures, Kansai Telecasting (KTV), Okayama Broadcasting Company (OHK)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1