Sadako vs Kayako

So I finally got a chance to go and see this movie. I just want to say that I have always loved the Ring franchise, even the American version, and the Grudge franchise. I was so excited to hear that they were making a crossover 'versus' movie involving Kayako and Sadako. Unfortunately, this movie killed my hype and I have been very disappointed.

The plot is actually very simple and exactly what the title says. A young Japanese woman watches the tape of Sadako and has a few days left to live. In order to prevent herself from dying, she takes the tape to the house of Kayako's. On the day Sadako is released from the tape, the two vengeful spirits will face off.

In case you don't know who they both are, Sadako is from the Ring franchise. She is a cursed spirit who haunts a video tape and kills anybody who watches it in seven days, which is how long she was in the well and how long she survived for. Kayako is a deadly spirit who was in love with this guy and was murdered by her husband, who, in a fit of anger and sorrow, got her neck snapped and only allows her to growl. Her son also got killed by drowning by his own father for witnessing the murder and the two now haunt the house and kills whoever enters it.

My thoughts on the movie was that it was bad writing and the script was awful. I only give it two points for the great effects and 1 point for the crossover idea. My suggestion, watch it when you have absolutely nothing else better to do.

At first impression, I must say that I was a little bit perplexed about why the world needed a movie that would plot the entity from "Ringu" (aka "The Ring") up against the entity from "Ju-On" (aka "The Grudge"). I am a fan of Asian cinema and love Asian horror, and I have watched the movies from both franchises, but I can't claim that I was ever craving anything even remotely in the likes of these two entities being put up against one another. Unlike the "Freddy vs Jason" movie, for example, which was long waited and had been pitched. But perhaps the Japanese audience have been waiting and longing for a movie that put Sadako up against Kayako.

Regardless, given the chance to sit down and watch "Sadako vs. Kayako", I of course did jump at it. This is a Japanese horror movie after all, so it is right up my alley.

The movie does start out by raising a good point about the curse of Sadako almost coming to an end as the video (VHS) format is obsolete. That was a nice touch of detail from writers Takashi Shimizu and Kôji Suzuki.

"Sadako vs Kayako" has some very interesting sound work, and it really helped to build the atmosphere and mood of the movie. There is a lot of atmospheric sounds put into the movie when Sadako and Kayako are on the screen, and also when something creepy is about to happen or actually happening on the screen. I must admit that I was rather impressed with the sound department and the work they mustered in this movie.

There are some pretty interesting visuals in the movie as well, and director Kôji Shiraishi really managed to use these visuals so well in the movie to establish scares and atmosphere.

As for the acting in the movie, well I can't claim to be familiar with anyone on the cast list, but I will say that the cast ensemble did great jobs with their given roles and characters. And it was nice to see this many new faces in a movie.

There was a good pace to the movie, and the dialogue was good and seemed quite natural. And the character development was also good throughout the course of the movie, because it made the characters stand out from one another and not just be generic and pointless characters. Do take into consideration that the character gallery is rather extensive, and there is a lot of people to keep track of, some more important to the story than others, of course. So keep vigilant and attentive to the story, or you might miss something important.

While the design and layout of the Kayako house was rather interesting, I think it was a shame that it was kept so dark all the time, because a lot of details were being missed and obscured by the darkness. Sure, it sets mood, but would have been nicer to have had a bit more of proper lighting.

Actually a good portion of the movie is filmed in a relatively dark setting. Sure, it adds to the atmosphere, but it becomes annoying after a while, especially because it is so much more nice to actually see everything that is going on clearly in a movie. Especially since you did pay money to watch this.

One thing that puzzle me is why there is no consistency from movie to movie as in what you see on Sadako's cursed VHS tape. It keeps changing from movie to movie. That really makes no sense to me.

As a seasoned horror veteran, I can't claim to find a Japanese woman in a white dress with her long black hair covering her entire face as being particularly scary. Nor can I claim to find a milky white boy with funky hair who sounds like a cat as being scary either. But hey, they are iconic characters of the two Japanese franchises. I guess you have to be Asian in order to find this particularly scary. And also the thing with long black hair showing up out of nowhere in places it shouldn't or couldn't be is not scary either, it is just downright weird.

For an actual showdown between Sadako and Kayako, then you actually have to wait a very, very long time throughout the movie, and that is even before someone just suggests pitching the two evil entities against one another. It is not before the last 15 minutes of the movie that the actual pitching of the two iconic entities take place. And the showdown was not really as satisfying as it should have been, especially since it took almost the entire movie leading up to it.

"Sadako vs. Kayako" is an entertaining enough movie for what it turned out to be. But I can't really claim to find that this was a movie that was particularly necessary for either of the franchises. This wasn't a scary movie, not even by a long shot. It was an interesting enough ride up to the last 15 minutes, which culminated in a less than satisfactory manner.

My rating for "Sadako vs. Kayako" lands on a mediocre 5 out of 10 stars, because this wasn't an outstanding movie in any way, nor was it a particularly necessary movie or a necessary crossover between two franchises.

Demons in Japanese culture, may take human form. Or semi-human form if they prefer. One such demon, Kayako, inhabits a house and attacks those who enter it. The demon Sadako curses and appears to those who happen to see her frightening video clip. Two young women, one of whom is cursed by Sadako, figure that the only way to survive is to pit the two demons against each other. A spectral showdown ensues.

While it is a creative concept and it is an intriguing glimpse at Japanese horror culture, there is not much depth here. There are few twists and even less in terms of dialogue. For a foreign horror film, I expected more shocking behavior, yet it seems to be made for a PG-13 crowd. Little bawdiness and less blood spilled. Seen at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

I enjoyed this a lot, probably even more than my rating. I'm a big fan of Ringu and fond of Ju-on, so watching Sadako and Kayako go at it was great fun for me. Both ghosts are in fine form (Kayako's son Toshio, however, looks like he's taken a few too many blows to the head over the years, which, like much in this film wound up looking more goofy than scary).

Don't get me wrong, this movie is dumb. But it's the kind of dumb I watched with a big grin on my face. I wish the showdown could've gone on a bit longer, but I got what I came for. Two stars begrudgingly removed for choosing silliness over horror, but I got into the spirit of it and I really enjoyed this movie.

So the Ring versus the Grudge? It may sound insane - well to be honest it kind of is. And the makers of this knew exactly that this was just too weird. And that's why this is not just horror, but also comedy. And it's intentional for sure. Of course that means that purists, who like their horror straight will have issues with the movie. But if you don't mind the fun stuff in between, dive into this.

It's a weird experience and while it's not really necessary to have seen all the other movies that came before this, a little bit of knowledge will help you enjoy this a bit more. It does seem a bit muddled and you may lose track of certain things, what with this combining "myths" and all. But just the fact they did this is great. It's really a fun movie overall