Sadako

 

REAL NAME:
Sadako Yamamura. Her name means "chaste" (sada) and "child" (ko).


ORIGINS/RESIDES IN:

She is possibly from Oshima, a town located in the Imizu District in Toyama, Japan.


BACK STORY:

Her mother was called Shizuko Yamamura, a renowned psychic, and her father was called Dr Heihachiro Ikuma. Her mother was persuaded by her father to do a public demonstartion,but due to a migrane brought on by her powers, the show was cancelled. This led to her being labelled a fraud by the press. She fell into a deep depression and commited suicide by jumping into Oshima Islands volcano. Sadako remained on the island with her family. Her father tried to awaken potential psychic powers within himself but gained an illness and was hospitalised for many years. When she was 19, she joined an acting troupe and fell in love with a sound operator named Hiroshi Toyama. He knew of her powers and accepted them. Unfortunately, an early form of the curse found its way into a recording studio and killed 4 people. She fled and went to visit her father in hospital. When she got there she was raped by a doctor called Nagao Jotaro. By doing this, he discovered her darkest secret, she was a hermaphrodite. She then attacked him with her powers but her threw her down a nearby well and sealed her inside. She could see herself reborn years later and vowed revenge on the world. It is believed that she survived for 30 years. She projected a series of images onto a videotape which, when people watch it, killes them after 7 days. She died after creating the tape.


ENEMY(S):

All of humanity.


CREATED BY:

Koji Suzuki.


APPEARS IN:

She started off in a series of novels, Ring, Spiral, Loop and Birthday. She then appeared in the films; Ring, Rasen, Ring 2, The Ring Virus, Ring 0, The Ring, The Ring 2, Rings, Sadako 3D.


PORTRAYED BY:

Rie Ino (Ring, Ring 2), Hinako Saeki (Rasen), Ayane Miura (Ring: Kanzenban), Tae Kimura (Ring: The Final Chapter, Rasen), Yukie Nakama (Ring 0: Birthday), Ai Hashimoto (Sadako 3D), Bae Doona (The Ring Virus), Daveigh Chase (The Ring, The Ring 2) and Kelly Stables (The Ring 2).


APPEARANCE:

She is well known for her long black hair covering her face. She almost appears as that of a shadow. In modern times, she is often seen crawling out of tv screens after she has crawled out of the well. She has pale skin and wears a long white dress. If you look closely you can also see that she has a single, misshapen eye.


HEIGHT:

N/A


PERSONALITY:

She comes across as a shy, inward, possibly scared little girl. After going through all that she did it is no wonder as to why she has such a hatred for human kind. In all of her vengeance, she still manages to keep an almost cool exterior.


FAVOURITE WEAPON:

Her weapon would be her psychic powers, especially telekinesis. It is also thought that she could resurrect people. Her victims die with a look of unearthly anguish on their face so it is assumed that she makes them die of fright, possibly through inducing a heart attack. She placed some of her DNA into the cursed video which becomes a virus (a smallpox one to be precise), infecting those who watch it.


FAMOUS LINE/QUOTE:

N/A


ANY OTHER MEDIA:

A parody of her was made in Scary Movie 3. She was also spoofed in Robot Chicken. There was a film called The Ring: Terrors Realm in which a cure to her virus resides in virtual reality. The metal band Thanatos had a song called "The Sign Of Sadako". She is also popular in Japanese pop culture and Memetic fanart.


POPULARITY:

Her character specifically, brought the popular image of the Japanese ghost (yurei) into western culture. Although it has been in Japan for hundreds if not thousands of years, it was unexplored territory here. Her image, a typical representation of a Japanese ghost, was not seen here before so had the power to chill its viewers to the bone. Although most people these ays say that the whole creepy little girl act is done to death, or the American version is at least, the Japanese version still holds strong. Nothing beats the original as they say.