Sadako vs. Kayako is a 2016 Japanese horror crossover by Kōji Shiraishi that sets the Ring curse against the Ju-On curse.
At a glance
- Director: Kōji Shiraishi
- Writer: Kōji Shiraishi, based on the Ring series by Koji Suzuki and Ju-On by Takashi Shimizu
- Cast: Mizuki Yamamoto, Tina Tamashiro, Aimi Satsukawa, Masanobu Andō, Mai Kikuchi, Runa Endo, Elly Nanami
- Release: June 18, 2016 (Japan); January 26, 2017 on Shudder in North America
- Runtime: 98 minutes
- Studio: Kadokawa Daiei Studio and NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
- Franchise: Ring franchise and Ju-On
Overview
Japanese horror’s two most famous long-haired ghosts finally share a screen. Sadako Yamamura kills through a videotape; Kayako Saeki kills anyone who enters her house. Kōji Shiraishi, the director of the found-footage cult favorite Noroi: The Curse, treats the match-up with a straight face for most of its runtime, then delivers a finale gleefully absurd enough to justify the title. It began life as an April Fools’ Day joke and ended up as a knowing, crowd-pleasing monster rally.
Plot summary
University student Yuri Kurahashi and her friend Natsumi buy a secondhand video player and find an unlabeled cassette inside. Natsumi watches the whole thing. This version of the curse is faster: victims have two days, not seven. Their folklore professor, Morishige, is thrilled by the chance to meet Sadako and watches the tape himself, then takes the girls to an exorcist, whose ritual ends in a massacre.
Across town, high schooler Suzuka Takagi has moved in next to the abandoned Saeki house and keeps dreaming about it. The house is as deadly as ever, and boys who are dared to go inside never come out. Suzuka is eventually drawn in, and her parents are killed by Kayako and her son Toshio.
The two threads meet through Keizō Tokiwa, a brash spirit medium, and Tamao, a blind girl with psychic sight. Yuri has deliberately watched the tape to take on Natsumi’s curse, which proves useless when Sadako kills Natsumi anyway. Keizō’s solution is outrageous: if one victim carries both curses, the two ghosts will fight over her and destroy each other.
Spoiler section: the ending
Suzuka watches the tape inside the Saeki house while Yuri lets Kayako see her. Sadako crawls from the television, Kayako crawls down the stairs, and the brawl ends in a draw. Keizō’s fallback is to lure both into a well and seal it. Yuri jumps in, the ghosts collide, Keizō is cut in half, and the two spirits fuse into a mass of hair and eyes that plunges after her. The seal fails. What climbs out is a single new entity, nicknamed Sadakaya, wearing Yuri’s body, Sadako’s look and Kayako’s croaking death rattle. Toshio appears behind the survivors, and the film cuts to a new cursed video starring the merged ghost.
Production and behind the scenes
Kadokawa announced the crossover as a prank on April 1, 2015, then confirmed in December that it was really happening. Shiraishi wrote and directed. Neither Takako Fuji, the original Kayako, nor the actress who played her in the 2014–2015 Ju-On reboot films returned; Runa Endo played Kayako and Elly Nanami played Sadako. The heavy metal band Seikima-II recorded the theme song, “Noroi no Shananana.”
Release and reception
Promotion leaned into the comic side of both ghosts. Fans voted online for their favorite (Sadako won), the ghosts staged a first pitch at a Nippon-Ham Fighters versus Yakult Swallows game, and a Hello Kitty collaboration put both on kawaii merchandise. Reviews were mixed. Bloody Disgusting complained that the face-off takes far too long to arrive, while The A.V. Club called it worthwhile popcorn entertainment for curious J-horror fans.
Place in the franchise
The film is a standalone reboot of both curses rather than a continuation of any earlier timeline, so newcomers can start here. Its rules, a two-day deadline and a well that cannot hold either ghost, are unique to this entry. For the original versions, start with Ringu.
Trivia
- The project was first teased as an April Fools’ joke on April 1, 2015.
- Runa Endo is at least the fifth actress to play Kayako on screen.
- Elly Nanami is the seventh actress to play Sadako in a Japanese production.
- Seikima-II released the theme song as a double A-side single on June 15, 2016, with an English version included.
- The fused ghost is popularly called Sadakaya.
- Shudder brought the film to North American audiences with English subtitles in January 2017.