Sadako Yamamura

"Nobody made it. It wasn't made at all. That video... is the pure, physical manifestation of Sadako's hatred."

- Ryuji explaining Sadako's curse. "Why were you the only one saved?"

- Sadako lamenting over her own preventable fate after Mai and Yoichi were rescued from her wrath. "Sadako! Did you do that? Sadako!"

- Shizuko after witnessing Sadako psychically killing someone for the first time. Sadako Yamamura is the central antagonist of the Japanese psychological horror film franchise Ring, which was based on the novel series of the same title by Koji Suzuki.

She was a tragic young woman whose supernatural abilties caused her to become an outcast throughout most of her life. She was eventually imprisoned inside a well and after her supposed death, she returned as a vengeful ghost and created a cursed videotape, which killed the viewer 7 days after viewing it unless they copy and pass it onto someone else. In all incarnations, she wears a white dress and conceals her face with her long, black hair and often walks in a jerking manner.

Her character was portrayed by the seven actresses, being Rie Inō in Ring and Ring 2, Hinako Saeki in Rasen, Yukie Nakama in Ring 0: Birthday, Ayane Miura in Ring: Kanzenban, Tae Kimura in the TV series Ring: The Final Chapter and Rasen, Ai Hashimoto in Sadako 3D, and Sadako 3D 2, and Elly Nanami in Sadako vs Kayako.

In addition, she is incarnated as Park Eun-Suh in the South Korean remake and Samara Morgan in the American remake.

Novels
In the summer of 1946, Shizuko Yamamura brought up a statue of an oceanic deity, En no Ozunu, from the ocean floor with the help of her childhood friend Genji. Soon after, she began to exhibit psychic powers. The following year, against her friends' advice, Shizuko travelled to Tokyo, where upon arrival, she collapsed due to a migraine, which was revealed to be a side effect of her newly gained powers.

While in the hospital, she met Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, a professor of psychiatry. Ikuma was fascinated by Shizuko's powers, and had an affair with her but when she conceived, she traveled back to her hometown on Oshima Island to avoid causing a scandal for Ikuma. Later that year, on October 31, 1947, a baby girl named Sadako was born, and Shizuko handed her over to her grandmother whilst Shizuko moved and stayed with her lover. In 1950, when Sadako turned 3, Shizuko returned for her, and they left Oshima, not to be seen for 5 years. After 4 years, Shizuko gave birth to a boy, but he died from illness after 4 months. Sadako had psychic powers like her mother but grew up isolated and socially awkward, unable to make any friends.

At an ESP demonstration hosted by Dr. Ikuma, Shizuko was branded a fraud and charlatan after she abruptly ended the demonstration. Because of this, Ikuma divorced Shizuko, the latter falling into a deep depression. The following year, Sadako suggested that she and Shizuko go back to Oshima to escape the press. Before the year was over though, Shizuko committed suicide by leaping into the volcano, Mt. Mihara, and Sadako went to live at Yamamura Villa, run by her cousin, Takashi.

At the age of 11, Sadako predicted the eruption of Mt. Mihara, which was proven correct, but denied having any psychic powers. Knowing what could happen if her powers grew, at the age of 19, Ikuma sent Sadako to Tokyo, where she joined the Hisho Acting Troupe. Five people, including the troupe director, mysteriously died via a heart attack after listening to a cursed sound recording after Sadako's powers went awry. It is reported that Sadako fell in love with Toyama, the sound manager, but after a spiteful troupe member exposes their intimacy through an explicit recording, Sadako left Toyama and never returned.

In the summer of 1966, her father contracted tuberculosis after trying to gain psychic powers on his own. Sadako visited him frequently at the sanatorium. On one of her visits, she was raped by a man named Nagao Joutarou, a young doctor who watched her bedridden father. When he raped her, he found out that, while appearing female, she had external testes due to Testicular Feminization Syndrome. It was a secret she kept hidden throughout most of her life and, ashamed, she threatened to kill him telepathically. However, he strangled her and threw her down a nearby well.

Sadako survived on sheer willpower for 20 years in the well before dying. In the late 80s, a resort is built over the site, with the sanatorium converted into a restaurant, and log cabins built. In late August, a family from Tokyo stayed in cabin B-4, which conveniently had the TV and VCR placed directly above the well. The son, who was a devoted fan of a certain comedy show, wanted to watch it. But his parents, being the ones in control, were watching something on NHK. The son agreed to record the show, which gave Sadako, as a vengeful ghost, the opening she needed. The channels were different in Hakone--but of course some child would never know that. Embedding the ring virus into the tape and burning the images, the original tape was created.

After four high school students are killed by Sadako's curse, investigators Asakawa and Ryuji postulate that Sadako mutated the smallpox virus, which she contracted from Nagao, with her own DNA and her psychic powers, planting it in the tape she made through nensha. The virus passes on to those who watch the tape in the form of a throat tumor which kills the victim within a week, forcing them to hallucinate their own rotting face shortly before death. The only way to survive is by copying the tape and passing it to someone else.

Films
In 1951, Shizuko Yamamura, a psychic from Oshima Island, sat on the beach where she stared at the ocean for hours. In reality, Shizuko was communicating to a sea demon in an inhuman language. Eventually, the sea demon impregnated Shizuko with a baby girl named Sadako. Shizuko intended to abandon the baby girl at a nearby cave but Sadako was still there, even when the waves tried to wash her away. Reluctantly, Shizuko raised Sadako as her own child.

At the same time, Shiuzko predicted the eruption of Mt. Mihara with her psychic powers. Hoping to make money off of Shizuko, her brother Takashi leaked this to the press, and Shizuko became famous overnight. This attracted the attention of Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, a university professor from Tokyo who wanted to prove the existence of ESP. He sailed to Oshima Island and visited Shizuko, where they began a love affair and eventually married each other. Noticing that Shizuko's daughter Sadako had no father, Ikuma took the role of being her father. After their marriage, Ikuma took Shizuko and Sadako to Tokyo to use their powers as evidence for his experimental studies on the existence of ESP.A few years later, Ikuma held an ESP demonstration in Tokyo with members of the press present. Ikuma and Shizuko proceeded with the demonstration whilst Sadako watched from backstage. Even though Shizuko never failed in proving her psychic abilities, Miyaji, a journalist, denounced her as a fraud. Other journalists also joined in the slander against Shizuko. Having enough of this unfair treatment, Sadako used her psychic abilities to kill Miyaji via a heart attack. The journalists noticed that Miyaji's post-mortem face was left with a grim expression and immediately blamed Shizuko for his death. However, the true killer simply scuttled away.

After the demonstration, Ikuma was fired from his university and Sadako split into two clones of herself: one was good whilst the other was evil. He moved his wife and the Sadako clones to his home in Izu Peninsula. Meanwhile, Shizuko was gradually driven insane and she often spent her time combing her hair in front of the mirror with a grim expression on her face. Shizuko eventually returned to Oshima Island to jump into the crater of Mt. Mihara during the same day she accurately predicted it to erupt.

Ikuma allowed the good Sadako clone to live a normal life whilst he drugged the evil Sadako clone to prevent her from growing and locked her in an attic. In 1970, the good Sadako clone, whom everyone simply referred to as Sadako, joined an acting school in Tokyo. Her natural beauty and charisma captivated her fellow troupe members, especially Toyama, whom Sadako fell in love with. However, the evil Sadako clone tracked her down and tormented her everyday. She also created a cursed recording which killed several troupe members via heart attack, causing the other troupe members to fear and turn against Sadako. Meanwhile, Akiko, the vengeful fiancéof Miyaji, tracks Sadako down at the acting school and armed herself with a gun along the way to protect herself from Sadako. After Akiko convinces Toyama's ex-girlfriend Etsuko to expose Sadako's dark past during a theatrical performance, the troupe members, excluding Toyama, beat Sadako unconscious. Returning to Sadako's childhood home in Izu Peninsula to kill the evil Sadako clone, Akiko enters the attic to kill the evil clone but finds her missing. Meanwhile, the evil Sadako clone merges with the unconscious good Sadako clone, reviving her. In her merged form, Sadako kills all the troupe members, including the sympathetic Toyama. Akiko and Etsuko survive the killing spree and hide in the house but Sadako corners them and forces them to shoot themselves. Ikuma returns and fearing what his daughter might become, he plans to drug her with poison. Knowing his plans, Sadako flees outside to an old well. Ikuma chases her and grabs a nearby machete where he bludgeons her with a machete and dumps her body inside.

Many years later, a set of rental cabins were built over the well and inside one of the cabins, there was a blank videotape. As a vengeful ghost, Sadako transferred disturbing imagery onto the tape and anyone who viewed it would die in 7 days. She will call her victim to warn them about their 7 day deadline if they watched the cursed videotape specifically in the cabin. If they fail to copy and pass the tape to someone else, Sadako will crawl out of the nearest reflective surface, especially from TV screens, and frighten them by revealing her malformed eye. This ultimately kills her victim via a heart attack, leaving their faces grimly distorted with fear. Alternatively, Sadako can force her victims to commit suicide and possess people with strong psychic relationships with her to do her murderous biddings.

Sadako vs Kayako
Sadako also appears in a crossover film called Sadako vs. Kayako, where she battles her rival, Kayako Saeki, who is also a bloodthirsty vengeful ghost. The film is centered around two teenagers named Yuri and Suzuka, who are cursed by both entities, as they attempt to find a way to permanently end both curses.

The cursed videotape has also been upgraded and instead of 7 days, the victim would only have 2 days to live, presumably because by now, Sadako was extremely eager to enact her mass murdering agenda upon humanity. In the cursed videotape, it shows an abandoned run-down building instead (a possible reference to Sadako 3D) which briefly ends with static and later on, Sadako appears in the doorway of the building and menancingly stares at the viewer. Sadako can also manifest behind the viewer once they have finished watching the cursed videotape and at some occassions, she can possess people to kill other people or possess her victims to kill themselves in brutal ways.

After multiple deaths and failed exorcisms related to the cursed videotape, Yuri enlists the help of an exorcist named Keizo, who recently saved Suzuka from being brutally murdered by Kayako. Together, they devise a plan together, where Yuri shows Suzuka the cursed videotape in the cursed Saeki house in order to make Sadako and Kayako fight over the girls, which would hypothetically obliterate both entities in the process. Suddenly, Toshio appears in front of them and meows at them, frightening Yuri and Suzuka. Toshio notices the static on the TV and whilst curiously investigating, Sadako drags him into the TV screen with her own hair. Sadako proceeds to crawl out of the TV screen and prepares to kill her soon-to-be victims but at the same time, a bloody Kayako menancingly crawls downstairs. Yuri and Suzuka, cornered by both entities, are left with no choice but to watch as Sadako eerily walks towards them in the hallway. Suddenly, Kayako races towards Sadako in the hallway and jumps on her, seemingly dragging her away to her defeat. Just as they thought the horror would be over, Kayako emerges but her eyes and mouth are impaled by Sadako's hair. Keizo then warns them not to look at Sadako in the eye over the phone.

Looking away in fear, Sadako reveals her infamous death stare eye as Kayako looks up, only to have her body brutally blasted in a bloody mess. The puddle of blood vanishes but Sadako continues to menancingly walk towards them. Keizo then rushes into the house, realising that the plan has failed. He grabs the cursed videotape and scalds Sadako that she's a demon as he hurls it towards her. At the same time, it is revealed that Kayako quickly survived from Sadako's attack as she emerges from the darkness. The cursed videotape fails to hit Sadako and as it falls onto the floor, Kayako crushes the tape with her hand but Sadako bounds her hair to the tape with her hair.

Keizo tells Yuri and Suzuka to go to the well outside and Yuri sacrifices herself to be a bait in order to lure Sadako and Kayako into obliterating each other. Whilst Yuri stands on top of the well, Sadako and Kayako exit the house and they stand opposite to each other, determined for a brutal fight. Yuri falls into the well as Sadako and Kayako race towards each other and unexpectedly fuse into a much more powerful demonic entity that combines both of their respective curses called Sadakaya.

At the end, if a person watches the cursed videotape or visits the Saeki house or alternatively does both, they will be haunted by Sadakaya and be presumably killed by her. Sadakaya also appears as a sole entity in the cursed videotape instead of Sadako herself and she appears to be much more bigger, stronger and have greater abilities to freakishly contort her body. Combined with her traditional white dress and long, black hair that covers her face, Sadakaya also makes Kayako's infamous death rattle noises in the cursed videotape.

Victims

 * 1) Miyaji- Heart attack.
 * 2) Several unnamed journalists- Killed one by one via a heart attack over an unspecified period of time.
 * 3) Aiko Hazuki- Heart attack.
 * 4) Yusaku Shigemori- Neck forcefully sprained and broken.
 * 5) Dr. Wataru Kuno- Breaks neck and spine after collapsing on top of candles due to shock.
 * 6) Hiroshi Toyama- Heart attack.
 * 7) Five unnamed troupe members- Heart attack.
 * 8) Kaoru Arima- Heart attack.
 * 9) Etsuko Tachihara- Shot by Akiko, who was under the influence of Sadako.
 * 10) Akiko Miyaji- Forced by Sadako to shoot herself.
 * 11) Heihachiro Ikuma (presumed)- Heart attack.
 * 12) Unnamed schoolboy from Izu- Heart attack.
 * 13) Tomoko Oishi- Heart attack.
 * 14) Iwata Suichi- Skull smashed in motorcycle accident.
 * 15) Tadehiko Nomi- Heart attack.
 * 16) Yoko Tsuji- Heart attack.
 * 17) Ryuji Takayama- Heart attack.
 * 18) Kōichi Asakawa- Heart attack.
 * 19) Kanae Sawaguchi- Heart attack.
 * 20) Masami- Heart attack.
 * 21) Reiko Asakawa (implied)- Hit by truck after being distracted by a vision of Yoichi, who was influenced by Sadako.
 * 22) Takashi Yamamura- Drowned.
 * 23) Dr. Kawajiri- Electrocuted in swimming pool.
 * 24) Unnamed nurse- Electrocuted in swimming pool.
 * 25) Tominaga Tetsuo- Hit by truck.
 * 26) Noriko Morisaki- Thrown off building.
 * 27) Numerous viewers of the cursed video in Sadako 3D- Heart attack.
 * 28) Seiji Kashiwada- Heart attack.
 * 29) Detective Koiso's partner- Committed suicide under the influence of Sadako.
 * 30) Nagi Ando's victims- Possessed by Sadako to kill several victims in various ways.
 * 31) Yasue- Strangled by cord.
 * 32) Machimane- Throat slit by knife.
 * 33) Keiko- Falls off the second level of a store to her death.
 * 34) Shin'ichi Morishige- Face smashed by a possessed Hōryū.
 * 35) Hōryū- Smashes her own skull whilst being possessed.
 * 36) Several of Hōryū's assistants- Necks twisted and snapped in the presence of Sadako.
 * 37) Natsumi Ueno- Hanged by a belt.

Trivia

 * Her name means "chaste" (free from any sexual intercourse) in Japanese which may hint to her inability to reproduce due to her Testicular Feminization Syndrome and her obsession of procreating (this is explained in the original novels).
 * Fans consider Sadako to be more powerful, frightening yet tragic than Samara, who on the other hand was viewed as being more evil and sadistic. Sadako expressed more remorse in her actions, even as a vengeful ghost, and primarily killed those who tormented her in her lifetime. Samara was alienated by people who were genuninely concerned by her powers and harmed and killed innocent animals in her lifetime and even manipulated many well-intentioned characters into viewing her as a victim.
 * Sadako's character is very similar to Carrie White:
 * Both were imprisoned in their homes throughout most of their childhood (Ikuma however imprisoned Sadako to prevent her from harming anyone else rather than to be abusive like in the case of Carrie's mother)
 * Both were teenage social outcasts who possess powerful psychic abilities.
 * Both fell in love with a young man who already had a girlfriend of his own.
 * Their tormentors tried to humiliate/expose her on stage during an important event.
 * Both their powers went lethally awry as a result and their lovers are unintentionally killed first.
 * Both quickly kill their other tormentors afterwards in their signature appearances.
 * Both brutally corner and kill the two main culprits who were responsible for driving her to commit a murderous rampage in the first place.
 * Both their parents feign their comfort towards them before killing them, to stop their powers from growing stronger.
 * Both ultimately return from the dead (this is confirmed in Sadako's case whilst Carrie's revival is implied).
 * The concept of Sadako's good side and evil side and both sides merging together near the end of the plot is similar to Alessa Gillespie, who also splitted her souls into a good version of herself and an evil version of herself. Adding onto that, both characters originated from Japan, both have unknown fathers, both have mothers who had contact with demonic entities, both possess supernatural abilities that cause them to be alienated, both are considered to be demonic incarnations (Alessa was accused of being one whilst Sadako was literally one since her father was an actual sea demon), both were attempted to be killed by members of society who feared and ultimately outcasted them because of their powers and both have initiated a powerful curse that holds immense control over the settings that the characters live in in both films.
 * Sadako Yamamura was based on the character Okiku from the Japanese folkloric tale caled "Banchō Sarayashik", who was the servant of a samurai, who eventually killed her by throwing her in the well as she rejected his amorous advances. She became a vengeful ghost like Sadako who haunted the samurai day and night.
 * Sadako is based on the life of early-20th century psychic Sadako Takahashi, an apparent practitioner of nensha, the art of projecting images onto film by thought alone. In 1931 Takahashi was studied by psychologist Tomokichi Fukurai for his book "Clairvoyance and Thoughtography".