Sadako (film)

Sadako (貞子) aka Sadako KOL (貞子：咒殺 KOL) is a 2019 Japanese supernatural horror film directed by Hideo Nakata. Loosely based on the novel Tide by Koji Suzuki, the film is an installment in the Ring franchise, and a sequel to Nakata's 1999 film Ring 2. The film centers around a vengeful ghost named Sadako Yamamura who is associated with a cursed video tape; whoever watches the tape is killed seven days later.

Sadako premiered in Japan on 24 May 2019, and it played on the opening night of the Fantasia International Film Festival. A tie-in manga series, Sadako-san and Sadako-chan, was published in February before the film's release.

Plot
Believing her daughter to be Sadako Yamamura's reincarnation, clairvoyant Hatsuko Sofue prepares to set fire to the padlocked closet where her daughter is confined. Sadako's ghost breaks free from a cave on Oshima Island and appears inside Hatsuko's apartment. The little girl suddenly appears outside the closet with Sadako and Hatsuko faints as the apartment erupts in flames.

At Kurokawa Memorial General Hospital, clinical psychologist Dr. Mayu Akikawa examines her patient, Ms. Kurahashi. Wandering the streets alone, Hatsuko's daughter collapses after encountering the ghost of a woman who jumped off a bridge to her death. Police bring the girl to the hospital. Detectives inform Mayu and her supervisor, Dr. Minoru Fujii, about the fire that killed five people, including Hatsuko, at the apartment building. Detectives add that there is no public record of the little girl, whom Hatsuko raised in secret. The girl explains that her mother called her Sadako, although her real name remains unknown. Mayu sees the girl telekinetically moving toys while being interviewed. Mayu's dropout brother Kazuma works with web marketing consultant Yusuke Ishida to boost his social media presence as an aspiring YouTube personality. Ishida recommends recording a frightening urban experience to excite Kazuma's dwindling audience. Kazuma decides to investigate the apartment building fire.

In the hospital, a mysterious girl is teased by another child. In response, she uses telekinesis to throw a rolling cart at her, only to collapse after having a vision of an old man dying in an elevator. Mayu consoles her and learns that the girl is imprisoned in her mother's closet. She faints after seeing Sadako's ghost on a TV. Ishida informs Mayu that her brother went missing after visiting Hatsuko's apartment. Mayu watches an online video that shows talismans covering the interior of the closet where the girl was imprisoned. Kazuma, who recorded the video, runs away after encountering Sadako's ghost. Mayu pauses on an image of skulls underwater. While walking in the hospital hallway, Mayu meets Kurahashi, and an altercation ensues when Kurahashi realizes that Mayu is afraid of her. The mysterious girl entrances Kurashi and then collapses. On a lobby television, a video of a well suddenly plays, and Sadako crawls out of the well and then out of the television. She climbs atop Kurahashi and grabs Mayu, who faints.

When she recovers, Mayu discovers the girl was taken to ICU in a coma. Kurahashi was readmitted for psychiatric care. Mayu tells Fujii about seeing a ghostly woman with long hair. In a dream, Mayu relives the girl's experience of imprisonment in a closet, while her mother accuses her of being Sadako reincarnated. Believing her brother's disappearance is connected, Mayu encounters Kurahashi demanding to know who Sadako is. Kurahashi recounts Sadako's origin story: She was born with the ability to strike people dead with a thought, and, fearful of her power, her father threw her down a well to kill her, inadvertently creating a curse that killed many people. When Kurahashi grabs her, Mayu sees a vision of Kazuma and Sadako. Kurahashi warns that Kazuma cannot be saved. After Mayu leaves, water pools on Kurahashi's ceiling. Sadako emerges from beneath the bed to kill Kurahashi. While watching another online video of her brother, Mayu sees images of a cave, a baby reflected in an eye, bodies rising from the water, a woman falling to her death off a cliff, submerged skulls, and her brother. Ishida, who watched the video, meets with Mayu and tells her about a cave on Oshima Island in Izu that became a shrine for dead priests until it was rendered off-limits by a cave-in. A picture of the shrine shows a talisman-like one seen inside the girl's closet. Ishida also mentions an urban legend about a cursed videotape that once went around the Internet.

Mayu connects Ishida's notes to Sadako's origin and concludes Sadako was born on Oshima Island. While taking a ferry to the island, Mayu warns Ishida that circumstances regarding the mysterious little girl's upbringing resurrected Sadako's curse. Mayu and Ishida come across an old woman in the cave, who reveals that unwanted babies are abandoned and left to die inside the shrine, and Sadako feeds on their souls. Mayu, who grew up as an orphan along with her brother, wonders if she and Kazuma were also called by Sadako to gather in the cave shrine with other abandoned spirits. To investigate this further, Mayu and Ishida explore the cave at night. A ghostly hand pulls Mayu through a rock pile, leaving Ishida outside. Mayu learns that Sadako's mother Shizuko abandoned her daughter, but Sadako survived, which is how she manifested her power. A vision of the little girl appears. Writhing bodies rise out of a pool and begin pulling the girl underwater. Mayu embraces the girl and pleads with her to fight back. Back at the hospital, the little girl comes out of her coma. Mayu sees the skulls and bones underwater as the vision of the girl vanishes. Ishida finally gets into the cave, and he and Mayu find Kazuma. Sadako rises to attack Mayu, but Kazuma allows Sadako to drown him instead, sacrificing himself to save Mayu.

Afterward, Mayu recovers in her former hospital. Before being discharged, the little girl thanks Mayu for helping her. When Mayu is alone, Sadako appears in her hospital room, throwing open her privacy curtain and killing her.

Cast

 * Elaiza Ikeda as Dr. Mayu Akikawa
 * Himeka Himejima as Girl / Sadako Yamamura
 * Renn Kiriyama as Minoru Fujii
 * Hiroya Shimizu as Kazuma Akikawa
 * Rie Tomosaka as Hatsuko Sofue
 * Takashi Tsukamoto as Yusuke Ishida
 * Hitomi Sato as Masami Kurahashi
 * Ayaka Minami as Sadako Yamamura

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "Sadako sees a once-terrifying franchise staggering limply to the finish with a rote final chapter that rehashes previous chapters to diminishing returns".

James Marsh of the South China Morning Post gave the film a score of two-and-a-half out of five stars, writing that the film's "balance between the old world and new media is awkward and only intermittently successful, but nevertheless drags this lurching, wayward franchise back in the right direction". Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, writing for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, commended the film for its exploration of "the deeper, richer psychological terrain which was always in the series", writing positively of its "broad disinterest in continuing rehashing the now thoroughly overcooked cliché of the cursed video as the central narrative core of the film".

Conversely, Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting lamented that the film "presents a wide open world of unexplored possibilities", and concluded that "despite a premise that suggests an attempt to modernize this franchise, nothing has changed at all. What once made Sadako so terrifying [...] has now become far too familiar and ineffective". Polygon's Joelle Monique wrote that the film "[loses] several of the key elements that made the original films terrifying and thrilling"; she criticized the ways in which the film deviates from the franchise's established lore, and negatively characterized the film as having "the lowest body count in Ringu franchise history". Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com noted the film as having "sporadic lukewarm scares" and wrote: "Sadako is far too touch-and-go with its chilling potential, all despite the promise from its creepy young lead (Himeka Himejima) [...] there are so many story pieces that don't build to grandiosity, so much as drag viewers to an underwhelming climax".