Sadako vs. Kayako

Plot

A social worker visits the residence of a woman only to find her dead in front of her television set. The video player suddenly plays the footage of the infamous cursed videotape. As the social worker watches, Sadako Yamamura manifests behind her.

The video player is later bought by university students Yuri Kurahashi and Natsumi Ueno, who want to use it to burn a copy of Natsumi's parents' wedding tape onto a DVD. When they find the cursed videotape inside the player, a curious Yuri plays it. Yuri is then distracted by her phone, so she ends up not watching the footage - only a horrified Natsumi does. The girls return to the shop where they bought the video player, only to learn that a part-timer and the social worker from before mysteriously killed themselves two days after watching the same videotape.

Desperate, the girls go to Morishige, their professor and an author on urban legends. Morishige is obsessed with the idea of meeting Sadako - when Yuri gives him the tape, he becomes ecstatic and immediately watches it, although the girls are less than thrilled, as Natsumi only has a day to live. Morishige takes the girls to an exorcist in the hopes that she can save Natsumi. However, Sadako possesses Natsumi and kills Morishige and the exorcist for interfering. In her dying breath, the exorcist tells the girls that a man with psychic powers, Keizo Tokiwa, is on his way to help them.

When a despondent Natsumi blames Yuri for her condition, Yuri watches the tape, hoping that this will pass the curse on to her and Natsumi will be spared. However, Keizo arrives, accompanied by a blind psychic girl, Tamao, who tells Yuri that she has just unnecessarily cursed herself. The only way to permanently expunge it is to pit Sadako against another vengeful spirit so both obliterate the other. As Yuri hears that Natsumi has uploaded the cursed tape onto the Internet, Natsumi tries to commit suicide to escape a violent death, but Sadako appears before she can and kills her. Keizo and Tamao target Kayako Saeki to be the rival spirit.

Meanwhile, high school student Suzuka Takagi starts having dreams of the haunted Saeki house after moving in nearby with her family. She later runs into Keizo and Tamao, who states that the house beckons to Suzuka. Keizo warns her not to enter or she will be killed. After Suzuka leaves, a group of bullies arrive and force a schoolboy to enter the Saeki house. However, Kayako and Toshio violently drags all of them to their demise, including the schoolboy. That night, Suzuka thinks she saw someone inside the Saeki house, she goes inside herself. She sees Toshio and her screams prompt her parents to rush in, only to be killed by Toshio and Kayako. Keizo saves Suzuka, although she is already cursed. Yuri and Suzuka team up for Keizo's plan: Together, they enter the Saeki house, so that Suzuka can watch the cursed videotape inside and Yuri can see Kayako, thus becoming afflicted with both curses. Keizo hopes this will make Sadako and Kayako fight over the girls. Toshio gets trapped in the television, Sadako and Kayako appear and attack one another, though neither entity seems to gain any advantage. Keizo yells for the girls to flee, the plan having failed.

Keizo reveals his last resort: one of the girls has to lure both ghosts into the well so they can be sealed inside. Yuri chooses to sacrifice herself, jumping into the well as Sadako and Kayako rush toward her, colliding into a contorting mass of flesh and hair. The mass possesses Yuri, while Suzuka seals the well. Keizo dies after shielding Tamao from the ghosts' collision. This last resort does not work either: Yuri, who has Sadako's appearance, crawls out, emitting Kayako’s death rattle; both Sadako and Kayako's curses have combined, and become a single entity – Sadakaya. Sadakaya approaches a screaming Suzuka while Toshio appears behind Tamao. Their fates are left unknown.

In a post-credits scene, Sadakaya is shown in the videotape footage, now croaking and body contorting as she moves toward the screen.

Cast

Production

Despite a rumour about Takako Fuji reprising her role as Kayako in this crossover, the actress stated several times on Twitter that she was not playing this representation of the character. Masaki Saisho, who played Kayako in Ju-On: The Beginning of the End and Ju-On: The Final Curse, does not appear in the film either. This makes Runa Endo the fourth actress to play Kayako (counting Aiko Horiuchi, who starred in The Grudge 3).

As for Sadako, Elly Nanami is the seventh actress to play the role, after Rie Inō (Ring, Ring 2), Hinako Saeki (Rasen), Ayane Miura (Ring: Kanzenban), Tae Kimura (Ring: The Final Chapter, Rasen), Yukie Nakama (Ring 0: Birthday) and Ai Hashimoto (Sadako 3D) (excluding Samara Morgan's and Park Eun-Suh's incarnations from The Ring and The Ring Virus respectively).

Promotion and marketing

A certain number of events were held for the promotion of the movie. On Twitter, users can vote for either Sadako or Kayako as their favorite horror icon. The end of the vote were scheduled for the 17th of June. Two videos, one for Sadako and one for Kayako and Toshio, were uploaded on YouTube to appeal on the voters. Sadako won. In the end of May, a press conference was held to promote the movie. As it happened before for previous Ju-on movies, Sadako, Kayako and Toshio were present, in costumes, and stayed true to their roles. In the beginning of June, a baseball match featuring the Nippon-Ham Fighters and the Yakult Swallows was interrupted by Sadako, Kayako and Toshio who staged the first pit ceremony. A couple of other videos were released at the same time, featuring the ghosts of the movie teaching theater etiquette, such as not bringing recording devices or avoiding to take minors to see the movie. Social media was also heavily used to promote the movie. A Twitter account created for Sadako (as a promotion for the Sadako 3D movie) was reused. An Instagram account was created for Kayako and Toshio, depicting humorous, everyday life situation with the two ghosts. As for the marketing part, some goodies playing on the cute aspect regularly used in Japan were released, such as cup hangers, beauty masks and even a collaboration with the Hello Kitty brand. Other goodies were more traditional, such as T-shirts, key rings and doorknob hangers.

Reception

The film has received mixed reviews. John Squires of Bloody Disgusting complained that the title was deceptive saying "It’s not merely that it takes too long to get to the good stuff, it’s that the good stuff never comes at all." He further stated the film just wasn't interesting claiming "Feeling like a reboot of The Ring crudely smashed together with a reboot of The Grudge, the film hardly brings the two franchises together in any sort of creative fashion, and it’s all very clunky; worse yet, it’s incredibly boring." Joe Lipsett, also writing for Bloody Disgusting, agreed saying "The biggest flaw of Sadako vs. Kayako is that it takes far, far too long to get the titular to face off.....Even the narrative hoops required to bring the two franchises together doesn’t hold up under scrutiny!"

More positive reviews include Chris Alexander, writing for Comingsoon.net, found the film to be "goofy but entertaining" saying "The entire thing feels like an expanded viral video stunt, a fan-flick. But as we mentioned, that doesn’t mean you won’t have a good time." Katie Rife for The A.V. Club admitted that the "vs" in the title came up short, but said "Still, for fans of Japanese horror looking for popcorn entertainment, or for fans of Western horror looking for something different-yet-familiar, it’s worth indulging your curiosity for 98 minutes."