Sadako 3D
Release Date: 12th May 2012 (Japan)
Running Time: N/A
Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa
Writer: Koji Suzuki, Tsutomu Hanabusa
Starring: Satomi Ishihara, Koji Seto, Tsutomu Takahashi, Shota Sometani, Yusuke Yamamoto, Hikari Takara, Ryosei Tayama
My last post in April 2012! This film is based on Koji Suzuki’s upcoming horror novel named ‘S’. Although I quite like the idea of Sadako reaching out for me in 3D seeing the trailer left me sceptical about ths being scary. The plot seems to regurgitate some elements from Kiyoshi Kuosawa’s J-horror classic Pulse and none of the titles in the director’s history leaves me convinced he can make anything substantial in horror terms but then the original novels weren’t straight horror either. The actors are mostly teen friendly but there is Shota Sometani (Himizu) in this. This might be better than I expect it to be.
High school teacher Akane Aikawa (Ishihara) has heard rumours of a video making the rounds on the internet. The video shows someone committing suicide. It is said to be cursed and viewers soon die after watching it. Then one of Akane’s students, Noriko, kills herself in mysterious circumstances. Hers isn’t the only death and although the police call the deaths as suicide Aikawa recognises that the reason people are killing themselves is because of that cursed video. Meanwhile Detective Koiso (Tayama) is on the hunt for Seiji (Yamamoto), a man who seems to be involved. He’s involved alright and he’s got an evil plan to bring someone out of retirement.
Thanks to AKB48 Fan we now have an indication of how a once terrifying and tragic horror film figure has transformed into a family friendly figure of fun as we get to see her at a baseball game (between the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters played the Chiba Lotte Marines) at the Tokyo Dome where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.
Update: Thanks to Goblin we have a trailer with English subs.
Genkinahito 
It doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence does it! I still want to watch it but I don’t have any high expectations at all.
BTW to promote the movie, Sadako even threw the first pitch in a recent baseball match. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_pVBKCNSAQ
Thanks for the video. Like the baseball players around her I was bemused more than anything. I want to watch Sadako 3D just to say that I have seen every version of Ringu (apart from the TV one) but I’m not holding out too much hope for it being good. It looks like it’s aimed at a young audience – is the pretty-boy villain played by Yusuke Yamamoto wearing eye-liner? – so it might be a lot of fun more than anything.
I’m so excited to hear about ‘S’ (do you have any idea about when it’ll be published?), although… Mmm. Also not too convinced by the trailer. It looks like it could have some dedicated 3D scenes, even though I’m not too sure if this is good or not. On one hand, yay, 3D gimmick is actually being used, but on the other hand, it reminded me of the My Bloody Valentine remake. Not inspiring confidence there.
I have no idea when ‘S’ is getting published but I daresay it will be some time soon since the movie is tied in with it. You’re right about the trailer having dedicated 3D scenes – glass flying everywhere and Sadako looming out. I’d love to be in a cinema with that happening but the trailer doesn’t scream scary.
Speaking of 3D… I didn’t hate the remake of My Blood Valentine but I think I remember falling asleep during it…
There never was an official release of a novel with the title ‘S’ announced. The next novel by Koji Suzuki is called ‘Edge’ and goes on sale 26th of June (http://www.amazon.com/Edge-Koji-Suzuki/dp/1934287385). But the bestseller author wrote the story for ‘Sadako 3D’ exclusively for the movie, just that it´s not going to be available as book.
I´m totally looking forward to the movie, because it´s apparently a sequel to ‘Spiral’ and I always wanted to know how Takanori´s future would be. So for me, it doesn´t matter if this movie is scary or not (I never found the original movie very scary either), but what I liked was the story Suzuki was telling. For me this trailer is very interesting, but I can also see that they don´t wanted to put any spoilers in it. That´s very okay for me, that just makes it more thrilling for me to finally see it. 😀
Didn’t Spiral get a sequel in Loop? I found Ring absolutely scary when I first watched it. It’s a great example of horror in an ordinary setting like The Exorcist. I consider the novel a great mystery thriller. It’s sequels went off in a crazy sci-fi direction but they were still enjoyable and I’d also like to know what became of Takanori. Actually, Loop ended on such a nice note…
When I went to check when S was getting a release for Curiositykitty I checked Wikipedia which had it down as TBA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koji_Suzuki. I also came to realise I had only watched SOME of the adaptations and not most of them.
I´m sorry, I just saw it, they just posted the book release date and info on the ´Sadako 3D` twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/sadako3d).
All books: http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/sp/201204-04/
´S`http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/book/bk_detail.php?pcd=201112000591
It´s going to come out on 11th may. 🙂 I see, that was a little of a surprise, since before it wasn´t announced, but there is now even a little summary for the book.
Yes, that´s why I like this series too, it´s a great mystery thriller, that gives you chills. Well, yeah, but while ´Loop` was more the continuation of the ´Ring`-Series and features Ryuji Takayama, I would call ´Sadako 3D` a direct sequel to ´Spiral`, because Takanori Ando as the son of Dr. Ando, is here the lead character. Ryuji´s story ended with ´Loop`. I mean, I don´t think Suzuki will alter anything on his ending in ´Loop`, but if we look at the time that has passed … . Well, I think this is the interesting part about ´Sadako 3D`. 😀 Takanori is a very interesting character and tragic.
Thanks for the reply. Ah, sequel as in ‘following Takanori’ I get you! I think Loop ended on the perfect note so I agree with you about Suzuki not revisiting the ending. Thanks for the update on the novel!
I made English subs for the trailer. Go and have a look!
Oh, that is so awesome. Thanks for the link! I’m going to use this as my Sadako 3D trailer.