Sadako Yamamura

Sadako Yamamura is the main antagonist from the horror film series Ringu, which was based on a trilogy called Ring written by Koji Suzuki. She had immense psychic powers, including the ability to kill someone just by wishing it. Her character was the main influence of Samara Morgan who was featured in the American remake of ''Ringu. ''

History
Sadako's mother was Shizuko Yamamura, a psychic. Her father was unknown, but presumed to be some kind of sea demon. Shizuko was always considered strange by the other inhabitants of her home island of Oshima. She would sit on the beach and stare at the ocean for hours. She was once seen speaking to it in a language that wasn't human. It is presumed that a sea demon talked to Shizuko and impregnated her with Sadako. Shortly before this, she had predicted the eruption of Mt. Mihara, the island's volcano, with her psychic powers. Hoping to make money off of Shizuko, her cousin leaked this to the press, and Shizuko became famous overnight. This attracted the attention of Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, a professor from a Tokyo university who wanted to prove the existence of ESP. He arrived on Oshima, and visited Shizuko. The girl and the married professor began an affair, and as Shizuko was found pregnant shortly thereafter, Ikuma was presumed to be Sadako's father. After Sadako's birth, Ikuma took her and her mother to Tokyo, where he continued his experiments.

A few years later, Ikuma decided to hold a public demonstration of Shizuko's powers, with members of the press present. Ikuma and Shizuko proceeded with the demonstration, while Sadako watched from backstage. Shizuko never once failed, but the demonstration was interrupted by a reporter who stood up and declared Shizuko a fake. This started an uproar, with other observers joining in the declarations of "fraud" and "fake." Sadako was enraged by this treatment of her mother, lashed out with her power and killed the first reporter to cry out. After the demonstration, Ikuma was fired from his university. He took Sadako with him to his home on the Izu peninsula, while Shizuko returned to Oshima, eventually killing herself by leaping into Mt. Mihara. Ikuma, who loved Sadako as his own daughter, wanted her to have a normal life, but he realized that there was an evil and good version of Sadako. Ikuma imprisoned and drugged the evil version of Sadako so that the evil version will never develop during puberty. Meanwhile he took great care of the good version of Sadakoand allowed her to live a normal life by joining an acting troupe in Tokyo.

During her time in the acting troupe, Sadako's beauty and charisma charmed everyone, especially the sound manager Toyama, whom Sadako fell in love with. However, the members of the acting troupe (except for Toyama) began to fear and bully her after discovering her powers. The evil version of Sadako began to taunt the good version of Sadako which led her to be attacked and eventually killed by the angry mob of the troupe members led by the fiance of the reporter who was killed during Shizuko's demonstration. However, this caused both the evil and good versions of Sadako to merge and she later killed each of the troupe members one by one including her lover Toyama.

As the good version of Sadako recovered in her home, Ikuma planned to drug her but she later finds out and attempts to escape by going outside in the forest. However, Ikuma catches up to her near the well and he bludegeons her with a machete and throws her body into the well. Believing that Sadako was killed from the attack, Ikuma left the well. But Sadako was still alive, and her hate and rage at the world accumulated around her in the well, remaining when she died. Thirty years later, a resort was built on Ikuma's property, and a cabin was constructed over the well. A young boy placed a blank tape in the VCR to record a show, and forgot about when he left the cabin. The TV and VCR were situated directly above the well, and Sadako's rage radiated up around the tape. The tape was imprinted with images from Sadako's mind and memory. The tape was cursed, and anyone who watched it would die in seven days unless they copied the tape and showed it to someone else.

Trivia

 * Sadako's character is very similar to Carrie White as both are outcasts in society and struggled to fit in due to their potentially deadly supernatural abilities. They also have killed their tormentors with their powers and they are eventually killed by one of their parents. Both of their biological fathers rarely appeared in the plot but they somehow influence the lives of their daughters. Both characters also had to attend a place (Sadako-acting troupe, Carrie-new high school) so that they could live a normal life, which terribly backfires.
 * She is also very similar to Carmen Winstead as both have been thrown into an underground place (Sadako-well, Carmen-manhole) and manipulated technology in order to seek revenge and kill anyone who refuses to believe them or pass their stories to others.
 * 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).
 * Sadako Yamamura was based on the character Okiku from the Japanese folklore Banchō Sarayashiki, 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.