Sadako 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.

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")

We live in times where VHS tapes are quite unpopular and idle, so of course a premise which focuses on a cursed VHS tape would not work anymore, as in scaring people who spend most of their times on their tablets, IPhones, Blu-Ray, Netflix etc. Then, through an insane worshiper, the curse reaches Internet, whereby Sadako's ghost searches from a supernaturally gifted host to occupy and live once again. This greatest plot ever thought to upgrade the "Ringu" premise is, unfortunately, misused in "Sadako 3D", which is surprising coming from the J-Horror genre full of such great films, "Ringu" itself included, that left Hollywood jealous and out of attention, forcing them to remake several Asian films.

"Sadako 3D" has a plausible plot for this high-tech times, but is visually absurd and spends most of its length focusing more on action and abusing of 3D effects, forgetting the new kind of thriller the story should provide. Basically, it turns out too much violent and noisy for a "Ringu" (or a J-Horror) film. Hopefully, this is an isolated case and won't happen to upcoming films, otherwise, be sure Japanese horror itself is cursed.

Back when the world was first introduced to the creepy long-haired girl in white that came after a viewing of a cursed videotape, the goggle box in the living room was probably the only device one needed to fear. Today, the invasion of the electronic screen into every nook and cranny of our lives is so pervasive that we'd probably be staring at fear itself no matter where we turn- and it is precisely this reality that 'Sadako 3D', the fifth official entry in the 'Ring' series, exploits.

In one of the more effective sequences of the movie, our protagonist Akane (Ishihara Satomi) flees the all-girls school she is teaching at to get away from the multitude of computer screens within, only to be confronted on the street by electronic billboards above and around her. It is a clever reflection of the world we live in today, dominated by second, third and fourth screens of different sizes and dimensions. Speaking of dimension, an additional dimension of fear has also been added in the form of depth, another phenomenon that 'Sadako 3D' gladly takes advantage of.

Yet despite these virtues, director Hanabusa Tsutomo's adaptation of original creator Koji Suzuki's newest addition to the series is a hugely disappointing entry that sullies the reputation of the franchise. Instead of the grippingly eerie atmosphere of Hideo Nakata's first film, we get cheap 'boo' scares that dissipate as quickly as they appear. Instead of a genuinely spine-tingling central character in Sadako, we get a young teenage girl with superimposed red eyes and inexplicably numerous spider-like 'Sadakos' that end up unintentionally amusing. And instead of some intriguing village folklore surrounding Sadako, we get some lame excuse in the form of a limp revenge plot concocted by a vengeful artist.

Yes, Tsumoto's 'Sadako 3D' is such a deeply flawed movie that one can't help but lament at the caricature the central character has become at the hands of a clearly inept director. Tsumoto was also behind the screenplay and he and co-writer Fujioka Yoshinobu are just as incompetent in sustaining any dramatic momentum in the storytelling. Despite hewing closely to the template of the original movie in having a female protagonist on the hunt for Sadako, the duo fail to replicate the former's riveting buildup of fear or dread, chiefly because Akane isn't given much of a mystery to decipher in the first place. Couple that with a haphazard manner by which various supporting characters chance upon the said cursed footage and meet their death, and you have a narrative that basically makes little sense.

But none of that compares to the appalling CGI employed for Sadako. It says a lot when the Sadako of fourteen years ago looks more realistic than the Sadako here- and that is apparent right from the opening shot with a woman falling down a well. Even if we are willing to overlook the perspective issues of this oft-repeated shot, the use of CGI in Sadako's appearance from a computer screen or smartphone is simply awful, driven solely from the perspective of the third dimension with little thought of other spatial considerations.

Most dreadful- and worthy of reiterating- is the laugh-inducing climax where tens of Sadako-wannabes go after Akane in pure arachnid fashion. For no other reason other than the fact that it must have been hard crawling out of smaller modern-day screens, our supposedly fear-inducing character has suddenly been reduced to a long-legged creature monster that moves with extraordinary speed. Not only that, Akane also makes the transformation from scared schoolteacher to spider-buster, vanquishing her pursuers with a simple wield of a metal rod. Humour was probably not Tsumoto's intention for this drawn-out ending, but there's little else it offers.

Regrettably then, this seemingly prescient entry into the 'Ring' mythology is a complete letdown. Instead of offering a new dimension in horror, it careens into unintentional humour and just about erases any lasting memory of why Sadako was so terrifying in the first place. Like most franchise entries with '3D' prominently displayed within its title, it is no more than a cash-grab attempt at exploiting the extra dimension with a lame rehash of a previously successful horror that did just fine in 2D. With such a feeble return, this Sadako might as well have stayed in the well- which is where you want to kick it under after you've seen it.

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From the original Ringu series that is. It might try to come up with something fresh and original, but it doesn't really succeed. The main actress is really beautiful and she may be able to act, but it's not like she has to in this movie. Many people will also have issues with CGI, but it's not about the CGI itself, but the fact that it is poor CGI, added to make the 3D thing "work".

I only watched the 2D version, but it's crystal clear, where the 3D is supposed to kick in. Even the version I watched is "comin' at you"! But that does not warrant watching this movie. At least not on my watch. But somehow they seem to have managed to make enough money to actually be able to do a sequel to this (according to IMDb) ... I'm not holding my breath (sorry for the pun).