Just perfect...

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely Brilliant!

A Disappointing Continuation

The vengeful spirits of the Ring and Grudge series face off. Sadako v.s Kayako is basically the Alien v.s Predator and the Freddy v.s Jason of horror movie tropes that keeps happening from once in a while but it's also worse from the earlier as well since it was neither exciting or fun to begin with but also just a waste of my time as well but at least not money so that's great at least. The story was pretty dumb and the acting was even worse to be honest and if you're a fan of those 2 characters? Perhaps see it but if not? Definitely skip it until the end of days. (F)

Hearing a story in their class, a group of students seek out a cursed videotape of urban legend and after finding themselves under its curse try to alleviate the danger by introducing another local urban legend to counteract the effects of the curse leading the entities to battle each other.This was quite an overall enjoyable if slightly flawed entry. One of the finest aspects of this one is the fact that it manages to incorporate both aspects of the franchises pretty neatly. The fact that this one takes the atmosphere of the cursed house, ably captured in the opening moments of the attack at the house followed by the appearance of the ghost behind her, coupled with the urban legends featuring the adventures of the bullies in the house where they each encounter spirit in fine scenes from the initial scenes of them egging the kid on to his game inside the house followed up by the relentless and efficient manner in which they take out both the bullies and their other victim while inside. It leaves a great impression with the ability to feature such a strong implication of the storyline into this one. However, it's the other storyline here that really manages to get a lot to enjoy with this one. Not only does the setup for requiring the outdated form of technology in today's modern society come off rather nicely, but the series of isolated scenes to showcase this while playing through the idea of killing off those associated with the cursed videotape. Those scenes are incredibly fun, from the series of flashes to the ghost coming up on them unaware to finding clumps of hair in their hands or falling on them from above which are somewhat shocking while getting this one set-up for the other great scenes that emerge from this storyline including the fantastic exorcism scenes that relate closer to mythology in their country than a tradition scene. There's a nice sense of respect and continuity offered in these scenes with getting both storylines somewhat setup for the big final confrontation which could've been highly enjoyable and really had a lot to like but was just a slight disappointment which is the first flaw here. Both sides could've had plenty of chances to showcase their skills but instead, it's quite a rushed and slightly underwhelming series of scenes that could've had them clashing more than what goes on here that gives this a quite shallow ending. Likewise, the other problem with this one is the fact that this one takes way too long to get going because it severely shortchanges the screentime of one of the franchises, featuring plenty of chances for one while not so much the other and it doesn't really give itself enough to condense the two settings which leaves it a little lopsided. Otherwise, there's not much else wrong here.Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

Schoolgirl Natsumi (Aimi Satsukawa) asks her friend Yuri (Mizuki Yamamoto) if she can transfer her parents' wedding video onto DVD; in order to do so, the girls buy an old VHS player in which they discover an old tape that turns out to be a fabled cursed video that, once watched, invokes deadly long haired spook Sadako (Elly Nanami), who materialises to kill her victims two days later.After their initial attempts to break the curse fail, Natsumi and Yuri's only hope lies with spiritual medium Kyozo (Masanobu Andô) and his young assistant Tamao (Maiko Kikuchi), who decide to pit Sadako against grudge spirits Kayako (Runa Endo) and Toshio (Rintaro Shibamoto) in a battle for the girls' souls. Meanwhile, schoolgirl Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro) also finds herself cursed when she enters the haunted home of Kayako and her son Toshio — can Suzuka's life also be saved as a result of the supernatural battle?Films featuring onryō (vengeful Japanese spooks) really do very little for me: I thought that Ringu (Ring) was mediocre and found The Grudge (Ju-on) incredibly boring. Director Kôji Shiraishi tries to inject a little life into the tired genre with this mash-up of these well known franchises, but all he succeeds in making is a film that, rather predictably, falls somewhere between mediocre and incredibly boring.Following lots of talk and some not-at-all-scary scenes in which the spooks make brief appearances, the titular fight between the ghosts finally ensues, and it's extremely underwhelming, like two women having a pathetic cat-fight, with little kid Toshio sticking up for his mum. If you're an avid fan of Japanese ghost movies, you might get a kick out of seeing these legendary spirits scratch and claw at each other, but I'll never understand the appeal.

Great movie with lots of excitement and thriller View sadako vs kayako It was obvious the director favored sadako as she mostly won the battle with kayako and the scenes for kayako were too short and limited to the house alone. Still a great movie but would have preferred equal fight capabilities.ith Japan's two most famous fright franchises having squeezed sequels or remakes dry and needing to be spliced together like a human centipede, the result can only be the J-horror to end all J-horrors. Director-writer Koji Shiraishi ("Carved: The Split Mouth Girl") knows that self-parody is the only way to go with "Sadako vs. Kayako," contriving a goofy way to make the vengeful spirits from "Ringu" (a.k.a. The Ring) and "Ju-on: The Grudge" cross paths for a twisty- crawly smack-down. Ingenious marketing has created buzz since the two characters made a side-splitting ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game in Hokkaido. The film boasts long, jerky festival legs and will be a jamboree for audiences when it screens at Toronto's Midnight Madness section. Shudder, AMC Digital Networks' streaming service, holds North American rights.Shiraishi, a B-horror-making machine, has a knack for deadpan spoofs, as seen in "Shirome" — a clever mockumentary that nails the infantile tone of celebrity reality TV and idol bands, and "Paranormal Phenomenon," a send-up of "Paranormal Activity" and the whole found- footage genre. Both "Ringu" and "Ju-on" have spawned so many sequels and knockoffs that the premise no longer shocks, and Shiraishi has the sense of humor to trigger laughter from the familiar, such as Sadako and Kayako's contorted gaits, influenced by kabuki and butoh.The problem with reviving Sadako in the digital age is that videos are now a rarer species than ghouls (let alone Pokemon monsters). But the film has found a solution by having college student Yuri (Mizuki Yamamoto) buy a VHS player from a second-hand shop to help classmate Natsumi (Aimi Satsukawa) transfer her parents' wedding video onto DVD. The girls find a videotape inside the player, with clumps of hair poking out. Still, Natsumi watches the video and gets the obligatory ringtone of doom, telling her she's got two days to live.Sadako and Kayoko participate in a bizarre first-pitch ceremony at the ballgameYuri consults her anthropology professor Morishige (Masahiro Komoto), who has written a book on urban legends. His elated reaction reveals he's been (literally) dying to meet Sadako. He eagerly asks Natsumi to pass him the video, then enlists the help of a weird Shinto priestess, Horyu. The resulting exorcism is pure farce, with Horyu soliciting donations for the temple even in the throes of a possession, while Morishage gushes with fanboy excitement. Shiraishi also gets comic mileage from Sadako's Rapunzel-like hair, which turns up just about everywhere in gross-out scenarios.The shenanigans are intercut with an adjacent, blander plot that involves high-school student Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro, "Chasuke's Journey"), who moves into a nondescript neighborhood with her parents. The house next door, whose gates are sealed by yellow duct tape, and which bears the sign "Entry Forbidden," piques her curiosity. She learns that it was the infamous home of Takeo Saeki, who murdered his wife Kayako (Rina Endo) and son Toshio (Rintaro Shibamoto). She becomes troubled by strange vibes, especially after a boy who's forced by school bullies to enter the house as a dare, goes missing. The haunted house sucks intruders into every available storage space, which isn't near as funny as it sounds, and doesn't lampoon the "Ju- on" template very well. Toshio, the ghost boy with heavy mascara, prances around, but his apparition is neither as creepy nor, in this film, as gag-worthy as Sadako.The parallel tales remain unrelated until a linking device finally arrives in the form of Kyozo (Masanobu Ando), an onmyoji (shaman), and his pint-sized sidekick — blind psychic Tamao (Maiko Kikuchi). Summoned by Horyu at the eleventh hour, the duo sense the house calling to Suzuka, and a plan is devised to cancel out all the protagonists' curses in one fell swoop. How Shiraishi contrives to bring the two grumpy fiends under one roof certainly takes some warped imagination, and the resulting rumble is supremely silly yet undeniably fun.The cast carries off the cheeky tone, and never takes itself seriously. Usually, J-horror is inundated with idols mugging fear with whiny voices and gormless stares, but Yamamoto, Satsukawa and Tamashiro display self-control and even a bit of welcome meanness. Ando, one- time soulful teen star of "Kids Return" (1996), hams it up big time. Endo's Kayako, who never makes a full appearance until the end, does so with grotesque aplomb.Tech credits are adequate in an average budget. Playing along with the retro feel, the visual effects remain low key till the finale, which boasts glossy-looking CGI.