Director: Hideo Nakata
Notable Cast: Elaiza Ikeda, Himeka Himejima, Hiroya
Shimizu, Ren Kiriyama, Rie Tomosaka, Takashi Tsukamoto
In terms of franchises, the Ring franchise still
might now be the wildest – despite intensive efforts to continually reboot it in
some wild ways. It’s a weird one, often perplexing at times, but not
necessarily the strangest one I’ve seen. After a relatively successful reboot
in Japan of the series with Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2, the
franchise took a wild swing with the entertaining Sadako Vs Kayako which
serves as more of a “fan service” film rather than a true part of the original
or the reboot franchise. It’s not that surprising then that the latest film, under
the rather confusing title Sadako, also serves as something of a soft reboot.
It’s a film that attempts to go back to the original’s tone and feeling with a
few new themes thrown in as it strips back the wild aspects of the newer films
for something a bit more traditional. This leaves Sadako feeling a bit
anemic in its narrative, repetitive and unmemorable as it runs through many of
the tropes, but disregards many of the other elements that made Sadako and her
films horror classics.
The big reason that fans should be intrigued about Sadako
is that it marks a return to the franchise by its directorial creator, Hideo
Nakata since the disastrous The Ring Two. Dabbling on and off in horror
for the last 20+ years, his track record can be hit or miss, but his return
does perk a lot of interest. Perhaps it shouldn’t be so shocking that the film
is more akin to the original run of Japanese films (including his own Ring
and Ring 2 entries) in tone. It’s a shift that certainly sounds tempting
on paper – being a loose reboot that only hints at being part of the same
universe as previous films. Still, the execution of its ideas seems thin at
best and leaves so much to be desired.
