5.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
A mysterious, white-clad man is seen dropping a long-haired woman into a well. The well is full of women, all with long hair, all dressed in night-dresses. Thirteen years after the original film, two mysterious suicides- one at a bus station, and the other involving a schoolgirl prompt Detective Koiso and his partner to investigate a string of mysterious deaths. The deaths involve video played on devices, with a voice saying "You're not the one", just before the deaths.
Starring: Satomi Ishihara, Yûsuke Yamamoto (III), Ai Hashimoto (I), Kôji Seto, Ryôsei TayamaHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 51% |
Supernatural | 29% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 MVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Blu-ray 3D
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Would it be too on the nose to deride Sadako 3D as a “cursed video”? That epithet is bandied about so much in the film (actually usually modified as “cursed video clip”) that perhaps one can be forgiven for coming to the conclusion it’s a not so subliminal message about the film itself. When the original Japanese version of Ring appeared in 1998, it was an admittedly spooky little entry that nicely played on the perhaps intentional irony of never knowing quite what to expect when popping a VHS tape (remember those?) into your VCR (remember those)? The Japanese entry was followed by a two unrelated sequels, as well as a prequel just for good measure, and of course international remakes started popping up, including the 2002 American version. To its credit Sadako 3D at least attempts to update the franchise, substituting streaming video for those clunky old tapes, but the film doesn’t even have the courage of its own premise. Some of the biggest “scares” in Sadako 3D have absolutely nothing to do with the so-called “cursed video clip” and in fact stem from good old hoary horror film clichés like jump cuts set to shuddering low frequency effects on the soundtrack. Some of these supposed “scares” are of things as banal as a schoolgirl showing up in a hallway. The horror. Perhaps more debilitating than this situation (which actually becomes kind of funny after a while) is the fact that Sadako 3D’s screenplay is such a jumble that even rabid Ring franchise fans (and there must be some—somewhere) may have a hard time untangling the overly contrived and actually downright confusing plot.
Sadako 3D is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with both AVC (2D) and MVC (3D) encoded 1080p
transfers in 1.78:1. As readers of my reviews may know, I'm often on record of stating how relatively flat and textureless
some digitally shot features are, and that's rather ironically the case with this Red One lensed feature. While the image is
as clear and well defined as the best HD native material usually is, there's a really surprising lack of depth to this offering,
at least in its 2D rendering. Colors have been graded rather aggressively, with a kind of blanched look that robs the film of
vividness. There are also a couple of sequences that seem to be littered with noise, though I'm frankly not sure if
perhaps this effect was added in post to somehow delineate the "real" world from the virtual one. The fact that the film is
so unclear on so many levels that even this seemingly cut and dried issue can't be discerned is perhaps another indication
of how confusing Sadako 3D can be.
The 3D experience here is generally fine, if awfully dependent on some fairly silly and trite effects. Over and over, Sadako's
hand or other elements (like her hair—yes, her hair) penetrate straight out toward the viewer. Later, after Akane's
telekinesis is revealed and she begin shattering various computer monitors, shards of glass fly straight at the viewer. Aside
from these effects, however, things are rather surprisingly restrained. Even an opening sequence which is shot from the
perspective of the bottom of the well where Sadako "resides" is weirdly lacking in depth. Generally the film tends to utilize
well worn 3D tropes like an out of focus foreground object providing a sense of depth while a scene plays out in the
background.
From a purely technical perspective, by far the best thing about Sadako 3D is its extremely lively and boisterous lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in Japanese). This is a film that isn't, to use Spinal Tap parlance, merely turned "up to 11", it's pushed fairly well toward the "12" range. Effects burst almost nonstop through the surround channels, and the film is awash in lots of LFE, some of it frankly stupid (the aforementioned jump cut revealing— gasp—a girl in a hall), but some quite effective (as in the finale's longish chase scene). Fidelity is excellent, with dialogue and effects all presented with crystalline clarity. Even though the film tends to wallow in hyperbole (including pretty loud volume a lot of the time), dynamic range is surprisingly wide.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the whole premise of Sadako 3D is that a video can kill, and you may indeed be bored to death by this flabby, inconsistent film. 3D fans may at least get some passing kicks out of some of the visual gimmicks that are offered.
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