SADAKO VS. KAYAKO (2016 - Japanese)

Studio:       Universal Pictures
Director:    Koji Shiraishi
Writer:       Koji Shiraishi
Producer:  Shinichiro Inoue, Jim Takagi
Stars:     Mizuki Yamamoto, Tina Tamashiro, Aimi Satsukawa, Misato Tanaka, Masahiro Komoto, Masanobu Ando

Review Score:

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Summary:

Two vengeful ghosts are forced into conflict when competing curses afflict two teenage girls.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

District Welfare Officer Tachibana comes to Ms. Yasue’s house to check on the elderly woman. Tachibana finds Yasue dead. Sadako’s cursed videotape suddenly starts playing on the TV. Sadako Yamamura’s ghost appears behind Tachibana.

At Seian University of the Arts, Professor Shinichi Morishige teaches a class on urban legends, speaking specifically about Sadako’s cursed video that kills viewers two days after watching it. Two of his students are Yuri Kurahashi and Natsumi Ueno.

Suzuka Tagaki moves with her parents into a home across the street from the abandoned house rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of Kayako Saeki and her son Toshio. Suzuka begins experiencing frightening nightmares and visions.

Natsumi convinces Yuri to help her transfer her parents’ wedding video onto DVD as an anniversary gift. The two girls go to a secondhand store and purchase a used VCR.

Once they are home, the girls find a strange videocassette inside the deck. Yuri insists on playing it, but becomes distracted by her phone and doesn’t actually watch it. After watching the video, Natsumi receives a terrifying phone call from Sadako and briefly sees her ghost.

At the secondhand store, part-time employee Keiko tells the owners she sold the player containing the supposedly cursed tape. Laughing about the legend, the girl notes she watched the tape two days earlier. Shortly after, the owners watch in horror as Keiko jumps to her death from the shop’s second floor.

Following a nightmare, Suzuka tells two classmates about the house across the street. They tell Suzuka about the murder-suicide and string of deaths plaguing subsequent owners.

Yuri and Natsumi return to the secondhand store and learn about Keiko’s death. The owners explain they acquired the tape from an estate sale for Ms. Yasue, noting that welfare officer Tachibana died two days after discovering Ms. Yasue dead.

Convinced Natsumi is cursed, she and Yuri bring the tape to Professor Morishige for help. Despite the risk, Morishige’s fascination with Sadako’s ghost compels him to watch the tape while transferring it to DVD. Sadako calls his office phone.

From Morishige’s book, the girls learn that Sadako’s curse can supposedly be lifted by showing the video to someone else. However, they realize that Natsumi actually gave Morishige the tape and he willingly watched it alone. Morishige promises to find an exorcist who can save Natsumi.

Suzuka sees four schoolboys outside the Saeki house. The first boy is bullied into entering while the other three are lured later. Kayako and Toshio attack all four boys.

Morishige takes Natsumi and Yuri to see spiritualist Ms. Horyu. Horyu performs a ritual to banish Sadako from Natsumi. However, Sadako possesses Natsumi and kills Horyu’s two assistants. Before dying, Horyu exclaims that she has contacted psychic spiritualist Keizo Takiwa for further assistance. Kayako then kills Horyu as well as Morishige before releasing Natsumi.

Natsumi blames Yuri for unleashing the curse. Thinking she can save her friend by doing so, Yuri watches the video.

Keizo arrives with his associate Tamao, a blind girl, as Yuri receives a phone call from Sadako. Keizo and Tamao explain it isn’t true that the curse can be stopped by passing it on. Keizo summons Sadako and bags the hair he pulls out of Natsumi’s mouth. Keizo tells Tamao his idea that he can save the girls by forcing two ghouls to fight each other.

Keizo and Tamao survey the Sakei house and examine the well out back. They briefly meet Suzuka out front and warn her to stay away from the house, despite sensing she is already connected.

Having heard about the missing boys from school, Suzuka tells her parents that the house might be related. Suzuka continues having haunting visions, as does Yuri.

Overcome by fear of dying alone, Natsumi confesses to Yuri that she stole Morishige’s DVD and uploaded the cursed video to the internet. Natsumi then tries strangling herself, but Sadako appears and kills her.

Keizo and Tasao arrive and explain to Yuri that Sadako will not permit any interference with the curse, including suicide. Theorizing that Sadako’s curses are linked by an invisible thread that started with Yuri, Keizo reasons that they can spread a vaccine to eliminate the other curses by cursing Yuri.

Suzuka is drawn to the Saeki house. Once inside, she sees a vision of Toshio and screams. Suzuka’s parents rush over. Toshio kills her father while Kayako kills her mother.

Keizo, Tasao, and Yuri arrive at the house. Keizo pulls Suzuka out. When Suzuka recovers, Keizo explains his plan to have each girl’s curse confront the other in order to destroy them both. Keizo lays out a plan for the two girls to enter the Saeki house, which will add Kayako to Yuri’s curse, and have Suzuka watch the video while inside, which will add Sadako to her curse. Keizo and Tasao also prepare a failsafe to trap the ghosts in the backyard’s well.

Yuri and Suzuka enter the house and follow the plan while Keizo and Tasao wait at the well. Sadako calls Suzuka’s phone after she watches the tape. Toshio appears. Sadako’s hair comes out of the TV and pulls Toshio in. Sadako climbs out of the television. Kayako crawls down the stairs and the two ghosts attack each other, but neither is destroyed.

Keizo rushes inside. In an effort to antagonize the ghosts into obliterating each other, he throws Sadako’s videocassette at Kayako, who crushes it.

Everyone runs outside to the well. Keizo tells the two girls that one of them will have to be sacrificed. Possessed by both ghosts, someone has to jump to her death in the well, but Sadako and Kayako will end up sealed inside. Yuri volunteers.

Sadako and Kayako appear outside and Keizo is knocked to the ground. Yuri jumps into the well. Sadako and Kayako leap after her and collide over the opening. The two ghosts merge into a mutated hybrid specter that falls into the well. At Taseo’s direction, Suzuka covers the well.

Taseo discovers Keizo lying dead. The lid suddenly explodes off the well. A hybrid ghost of Sadako and Kayako emerges while Toshio appears behind Taseo. Taseo and Suzuka scream.

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Review:

For some, “Sadako vs. Kayako” falls between “Alien vs. Predator” and “Batman v Superman” in the field of mighty movie matchups not meeting a mightier mind’s expectations.  Specifically with those latter two, the marquee bout follows a bloated buildup where one can’t help wondering what’s taking so long, and who greenlit scripts where the main men don’t trade blows until end credits are almost rolling?

I get why there are those who feel the same about “Sadako vs. Kayako,” though I don’t share their disappointment.  Here’s why.

SMALL SPOILER

If a supernatural slugfest is all anyone is after, “Sadako vs. Kayako” doesn’t have it.  The two creepy crawly juggernauts of J-horror don’t pit gaping mouth against tentacle hair until nearly 90 minutes has elapsed, and the movie only runs 98.  That’s a long way to go and a short window remaining for the brief battle we finally witness in the climax.

END SPOILER

But barely living up to its title is the only serious sin committed by “Sadako vs. Kayako.”  Anticipation would be calibrated more correctly if the movie were called “The Ring Meets The Grudge,” since it really isn’t about the titular women, though that alternative name doesn’t have the same snap.

Remember those “wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas you had as a kid?  Seven-year-old me brilliantly wondered, “what if someone was bitten by a vampire AND a werewolf?” for instance.

Now remember those monster mashes that played in Saturday afternoon syndication?  The ones where Universal’s classic characters went at it in a shared universe that only somewhat made sense?  Or when Godzilla would go up against some crazy creature and just when your imagination thought it couldn’t get any cooler, out comes a metal monster, twin fairies, or something just as wildly ridiculous yet exciting?

That is “Sadako vs. Kayako.”  Someone essentially asked, “what if somebody watched Sadako’s cursed video while inside the house haunted by Kayako?”  Then the filmmakers loaded up on an attitude that takes its spookiness seriously while retaining an air of carnival barker showmanship.  The result isn’t the hardcore horror of icon against icon some want.  But creative energy puts fun into the frights, capturing the kind of ‘anything goes’ enthusiasm that makes us want to see two franchises fused in the first place.

Fresh out of their professor’s urban legend lecture on Sadako’s cursed video, Natsumi coerces classmate Yuri into helping her transfer a wedding video onto DVD for her parents’ upcoming anniversary.  This being 2016, VCRs of course aren’t readily available.  So the girls hit a secondhand store and pick up a dusty old deck.  Guess what they find inside the player when they bring it all home?

If I cup my hand to my ear, I can hear harrumphers harrumphing, “ain’t that convenient!”  Sure.  Except this is where “Sadako vs. Kayako” overcomes illogical bits by valuing entertainment above all else.

Cut corners are compensated with well-placed humor that says, “just play along.”  Things are never quite comedic.  The film only wants you to know that no standards are lowered by giving yourself up to a good time.  You undermine your own experience by dwelling on anything in the way.  Besides, is this any more unbelievable of a premise than how Freddy met Jason?

While the two friends deal with Sadako, a third schoolgirl moves across the street from the now abandoned “Ju-On” house.  Visions of pale croaker Toshio soon start plaguing Suzuka, positioning her for a curse of her own.

Things get worse for everyone involved.  When all hope is lost, a casual spiritualist with “too cool for school” charm comes up with a radical plan.  Give the girls both curses, and let the ghosts collide over who can claim the kills.  However, if Sadako and Kayako don’t take the bait to destroy each other, everyone is going to have even deadlier trouble to deal with.

“Sadako vs. Kayako” is basically a “Ringu” sequel with a dash of “The Grudge” added for flavor.  While I’d argue that those who wanted the aforementioned supernatural slugfest should still sample what writer/director Koji Shiraishi came up with instead, I concede that Kayako content is scarce, which is the bigger drag for “Ju-On” fans.  Hazarding a ballpark guess, I don’t think Kayako is onscreen for more than two minutes total.

Regardless, the setup is solid.  It’s just that it occupies most of the movie, which doesn’t work for all audiences.  There is still a story, more than one actually, so at least it never feels like the plot is padding to delay the inevitable.

Other than the title being moderately misleading, “Sadako vs. Kayako” is a biting blend of “The Ring” and “The Grudge.”  In spite of contrivances and a deliberate dose of goofiness here and there, the jump scares are good, imagery is eerie, and there are enough grim moments to make for a uniquely spirited haunter.  Maybe it isn’t the mashup many wanted.  But maybe it’s the J-horror jam we deserve.

NOTE: There is a post-credits scene.

Review Score:  75

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