View source for Sadako Yamamura

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Short description|Main antagonist in the Ring franchise}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Sadako Yamamura
| image = Sadako_Yamamura_in_Ringu.png
| caption = [[Rie Inō]] as Sadako in ''[[Ring (film)|Ring]]'' (1998)
| first = ''[[Ring (Suzuki novel)|Ring]]'' (1991)
| last = ''[[Sadako DX]]'' (2022)
| creator = [[Koji Suzuki (writer)|Koji Suzuki]]
| based_on = [[Personal life|Life]] of Sadako Takahashi
| portrayer = {{Plainlist|
* [[Rie Inō]] (''Ring'', ''Ring 2'')
* [[Hinako Saeki]] (''Rasen'')
* [[Ayane Miura]] (''Ring: Kazenban'')
* [[Tae Kimura]] (''Ring: The Final Chapter'', ''Rasen'' (TV))
* [[Yukie Nakama]] (''Ring 0: Birthday'')
* [[Ai Hashimoto]] (''Sadako 3D'')
* Elly Nanami (''Sadako vs. Kayako'')
* Ayaka Minami (''Sadako'')
* '''as Park Eun-suh:'''
* [[Bae Doona]] (''The Ring Virus'')
* '''as Samara Morgan:'''
* [[Daveigh Chase]] (''The Ring'')
* [[Kelly Stables]] (''The Ring Two'', ''[[Rings (2005 film)|Rings]]'' (2005))
* [[Bonnie Morgan]] (''The Ring Two'', ''[[Rings (2017 film)|Rings]]'' (2017))
}}
| full_name = {{Plainlist|
* Sadako Yamamura
* Park Eun-suh
* Samara Morgan
}}
| alias = {{plainlist|
* Masako ([[Spiral (Suzuki novel)|''Spiral'']])
* Julia (''Rings'' (2017))
}}
| occupation = Actress (formerly)
| species = {{Plainlist|
* [[Onryō|Vengeful ghost]]
* Quasi-oceanic [[demigod]] (formerly)
* [[Human]] (formerly)
}}
| gender = Female (intersex)
| significant_others = {{plainlist|
* Ando Mitsuo (''Spiral'' novel and film adaptation)
* Hiroshi Toyama (''[[Birthday (short story collection)|Birthday]]'', ''[[Ring 0: Birthday]]'')
}}
| family = {{Plainlist|
* '''Novels:'''
* Shizuko Yamamura (mother) [[†]]
* Heihachiro Ikuma (father) [[†]]
* Takashi Yamamura (first cousin once removed)
* Unnamed younger brother †
* '''Japanese films:'''
* Shizuko Yamamura (mother) †
* Heihachiro Ikuma (adoptive father) †
* Unknown sea demon (biological father)
* Takashi Yamamura (uncle) †
* '''American films:'''
* [[Rachel Keller]] (surrogate mother)
* Anna Morgan (adoptive mother) †
* Richard Morgan (adoptive father) †
* Evelyn Borden (née Osorio) (biological mother) †
* Galen Burke (biological father) †
* '''Manga:'''
* Sadako-san and Sadako-chan
}}
| nationality = [[Japanese people|Japanese]]
}}
{{Nihongo|'''Sadako Yamamura'''|山村 貞子|Yamamura Sadako}} is the main [[antagonist]] of [[Koji Suzuki (writer)|Koji Suzuki]]'s [[Ring (novel series)|''Ring'' novel series]] and its [[The Ring (franchise)|eponymous film series]]. Her backstory varies between continuities, but all depict her as the [[Onryō|vengeful ghost]] of a young psychic who was murdered and thrown into a well. As a ghost, she is dressed in a simple white dress with long black hair hiding her face, and uses {{transl|ja|[[Thoughtography|nensha]]}}, her most distinctive power, to create a cursed [[videotape]]; whoever watches the tape will be haunted by Sadako and die exactly one week later unless the tape is copied and shown to another person, who must then repeat the same process. The titular "ring" from the novels and films refers to a ring-like visual that appears on the cursed videotape, which actually depicts the top of the well as seen by Sadako from its bottom. Korean and American films reimagine the character as '''Park Eun-seo''' ({{ko-hhrm|박은서}}) and '''Samara Morgan''' respectively, with similar backgrounds and features.

Sadako has been played by a number of actresses in films, including [[Rie Inō]], who premiered the role in ''[[Ring (film)|Ring]]'' (1998) and ''[[Ring 2]]'' (1999), [[Bae Doona]] in ''[[The Ring Virus]]'' (1999), and [[Daveigh Chase]] in the [[The Ring (2002 film)|first American film]] (2002). Two film adaptations largely differ from her traditional depictions: ''[[Ring 0: Birthday]]'' (2000), in which she is portrayed by [[Yukie Nakama]], follows the events leading to her death and features her as main protagonist rather than as an antagonist, while ''[[Sadako vs. Kayako]]'' (2016), in which is portrayed by Elly Nanami, is a [[Crossover (fiction)|crossover]] pitching her against ''[[Ju-On]]'' and ''[[The Grudge (franchise)|The Grudge]]'' antagonist [[Kayako Saeki]].

Sadako and her American version Samara are both regarded as popular horror characters, notably spreading the appearance of ghosts with [[Yūrei]]-like looks of pale girls with long dark hair in popular culture.

==Novel series==
Sadako was born in 1947 to Shizuko Yamamura and Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma in [[Izu Ōshima|Oshima Island]]. The year before, Shizuko gained psychic powers after retrieving an ancient statuette of [[En no Ozuno]] from the ocean. Shizuko also gave birth to a baby boy, but he died four months later due to an illness. Planning to move to [[Tokyo]] with Ikuma, she entrusted her mother to take care of baby Sadako. At Ikuma's encouragement, Shizuko displayed her psychic powers during a publicized demonstration. However, Shizuko bowed out of the demonstration due to migraines brought on by her powers. The press denounced Shizuko as a fraud because of this. Depressed, Shizuko eventually returned to Oshima Island and committed suicide by jumping into [[Mount Mihara]]. Meanwhile, Ikuma attempted to unlock psychic powers of his own by meditating beneath a waterfall, which ended up causing him to contract [[tuberculosis]], requiring him to recuperate in a sanatorium in the [[Izu Peninsula]], leaving Sadako to be raised by Shizuko's relatives. Like her mother, Sadako was a powerful psychic; whereas Shizuko could only burn images onto [[paper]], Sadako could also project images into electronic media, such as TV.

At the age of nineteen, Sadako joins a [[Tokyo]]-based acting troupe. As revealed in the short story ''Lemon Heart'', she falls in love with the sound operator, Hiroshi Toyama. He learns of her powers, but he accepts them. However, an early form of the curse is created in the form of a sound recording that kills four people, including the troupe's director, resulting in a heartbroken Sadako leaving Toyama. Eventually, Sadako visits Ikuma in the Izu sanatorium, only to be raped by a doctor named Jotaro Nagao, who is unknowingly infected with [[smallpox]]. During the assault, he discovers that Sadako has [[Androgen insensitivity syndrome#Testicular feminization|testicular feminization syndrome]], and [[hermaphrodite|has the genitalia of both sexes]]. Sadako bites him on the shoulder, causing her to be infected by the smallpox virus that Nagao contracted. Finally, Nagao throws her down a nearby well and seals her within. [[Spiral (Suzuki novel)|Foreseeing herself being reborn years later]], Sadako vows revenge on the world before she dies. Her psychic powers mutate the smallpox virus into a new strain of virus, called the "ring virus", one that causes anyone who contracts it to die, seemingly of fright, within a week.

By [[Ring (Suzuki novel)|''Ring'']], in 1991, the Izu sanatorium, including the well that Sadako was thrown into, has been rebuilt into a mountain resort. The well is located right below a TV screen of one of the resort's cabins. When a vacationing family forgets to bring home their videotape after one night, Sadako projects the new virus onto the TV screen, taking the form of a video, and the [[Videocassette recorder|VCR]] records it into the tape. The next visitor at the cabin, 17-year-old Tomoko Oishi, inadvertently discovers and watches the tape, leading Sadako to kill her. Tomoko's uncle, journalist Kazuyuki Asakawa, begins investigating her death and watches the tape, leading to him being cursed by Sadako. He learns about Sadako's origin and writes a journal detailing his investigation.

As revealed in [[Spiral (Suzuki novel)|''Spiral'']], the ring virus originally had an escape clause that allowed it to propagate itself, but Tomoko and her friends, not believing any of it, mischievously overwrote the part where the tape gave the solution as a prank. As a result, the virus had no means to inform its viewers on how to multiply itself, so it mutated when the next viewer of the tape, Kazuyuki, watched it and copied it for his friend, [[Ryuji Takayama]]. Two strains then emerged: a ring-shaped one, which would invariably kill its viewers within a week, and a [[spermatozoon]]-shaped one, which would lay dormant within the viewers unless they were ovulating women, whose [[ovum]] would be infected by the virus and transformed into a Sadako clone. This was because Sadako wanted to be reborn, something she could not biologically do because she was [[intersex]]. Finally, though the original tape and its copies had been disposed of by the events of ''Spiral'', the virus found its way into a new media: Kazuyuki's journal, which his brother published after his death in a car accident. Kazuyuki's survival was actually not because he copied the tape for Ryuji, but rather because he unwittingly helped the virus propagate. This was why Kazuyuki survived where his wife and daughter, who also copied the tape per his instruction, did not.

The dormant virus infects the ovulating Mai Takano when she watches the tape, causing her to give birth to a Sadako clone who assumes the name Masako. She is described as a "complete hermaphrodite" as she has fully functional male and female reproductive organs. After her identity is revealed, Sadako tells Mitsuo Ando that she made a deal with Ryuji: in exchange for his resurrection, he would help her be reborn, something he did when he attracted Ando into the case. She then blackmails Ando: in exchange for not activating the dormant ring virus that he contracted when he read Kazuyuki's journal, he would refrain from stopping it from being published. As an incentive, Sadako, who has the ability to clone a person by implanting their genes into her, will birth his deceased son, Takanori, back to life. Realizing that Sadako would win no matter what he does, Ando reluctantly cooperates. 

In the third novel, [[Loop (novel)|''Loop'']], which revealed that the events of the previous two books were set in a [[virtual reality]] called LOOP, it is stated that the ring virus unwittingly escapes into the real world after its creators clone Ryuji, who is dying from the virus. The virus separates from Ryuji and mutates with a bacterium, creating a highly dangerous cancer called the Metastatic Human Cancer (MHC), which threatens all life. The cloned Ryuji, who is raised as Kaoru Futami and has no memories of his life in LOOP, eventually has to reenter the virtual reality to get the cure for both the ring virus and the MHC. In the short story "Happy Birthday", Kaoru finds a cure that neutralizes all clones in the virtual reality, causing both himself and the Sadako clones to rapidly age and die within a matter of years.

The fifth novel, ''[[S (Suzuki novel)|S]]'', reveals that Masako was impregnated by Ryuji and gave birth to a girl named Akane Maruyama. Akane, unlike the Sadako clones, does not inherit the defective genes that had imperiled the clones, including Masako, who dies a few years after she is born. Meanwhile, Ryuji tries to stop the ring virus from propagating through Kazuyuki's journal but relents to allow four Sadako clones to continue existing, thinking that they have short lives and therefore pose no threat. However, the clones are killed off one by one by Ryuji's student Hiroyuki Niimura, who feels it is his duty to destroy Sadako once and for all.

==Manga series==
In ''Sadako-san and Sadako-chan'', set after the [[Sadako (film)|2019 film ''Sadako'']], Sadako seeks to move on from her tragic past and spread the curse via [[videotape]] by navigating the modern era of [[YouTube]] and [[social media]] with a young girl known as "Little Sadako", a reincarnation of herself. Little Sadako, a young child and fledging [[YouTuber]] who spends all day in a small closet at her mother's request, befriends Sadako when she arrives seven days after watching her tape and not being afraid of her, creating a joint [[YouTube channel]] with her dubbed "Twodako".

In the [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic]] ''[[Sadako at the End of the World]]'', Sadako is summoned after two young girls watch her videotape to find that an apocalypse has occurred since she was last summoned, and that the two girls are apparently the last humans alive. Conflicted over what to do when the girls' seven-day period is up, Sadako assists the pair in searching the world for more victims for her under the guise of friendship, as the trio's growing bond increases the possibility of Sadako herself finding peace and her curse being broken. Ultimately, after killing the last hairdresser on the planet after having their hair done and meeting with [[Banchō Sarayashiki|Okiku]], Sadako reluctantly elects to take both girls' lives on the seventh day, ending her own curse and reuniting with them in the afterlife.
==Film series==
Her past is portrayed differently in the film series. In this continuity, Sadako is not the biological child of Dr. Ikuma and Shizuko but is implied to be the result of sexual intercourse between Shizuko and an enigmatic sea demon after Shizuko spent hours staring at and talking to the ocean. Shizuko's brother Takashi later learns of her psychic prediction of Mount Mihara's eruption and tells everyone about it, making her an instant celebrity. Dr. Ikuma, eager to prove the existence of [[extra-sensory perception|ESP]], encouraged her to participate in a demonstration at [[Tokyo]]. During the demonstration, Shizuko was successfully able to prove her psychic abilities but a spiteful journalist, Miyaji, accused Shizuko of being a fraud, inciting other journalists to join in the slanderous uproar. Sadako, who watched from backstage, snapped and killed Miyaji, to stand up for her mother.<ref>Takahashi Hiroshi, "Ring", translated by J. Lopez, [unpublished, from http://www.curseofthering.com/RingText.txt {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428065220/http://www.curseofthering.com/RingText.txt|date=2016-04-28}}]</ref>

[[File:Hashimoto Ai "The Inerasable" at Opening Ceremony of the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival (22430805435).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ai Hashimoto played Sadako in ''[[Sadako 3D]]'' (2012).]]

Sadako eventually split into identical twins, one good and innocent, and the other wrathful and destructive. After Shizuko committed suicide, Ikuma moved to [[Izu, Shizuoka|Izu]] with the twins. The good Sadako grew into an adult and became an actress, while the evil twin was locked up by Ikuma and drugged to stunt her growth. Akiko Miyaji, the fiancé of the journalist whom Sadako killed, leads an angry mob to kill the evil Sadako, only for the twins to merge into one and slaughter her tormentors. Ikuma then wounded and threw Sadako down the well behind his house. Sadako survived within for 30 years, dying shortly before the events of ''Ring'', creating the cursed videotape.

At the end of the ''[[Sadako 3D 2]]'', it is revealed that Sadako has a daughter, who is briefly described as "the seed of despair, growing, and ready to bloom".<ref>{{cite book|last=Suzuki|first=Koji|title=Spiral |url=http://www.vertical-inc.com/books/kojisuzuki/kojisuzuki_top.html|series=Ring|year=1995|publisher=Vertical Inc.|language=en}}</ref>

Sadako appears in the crossover film ''[[Sadako vs. Kayako]]'', encountering [[Kayako Saeki]], the antagonist of the ''[[Ju-On]]'' films. Sadako's cursed videotape, in this version, is reduced to a two-day deadline instead of the traditional seven days. She is also shown to be much stronger and more violent this time, forcing people who try to hinder her curse or escape to kill themselves in brutal ways. The two ghosts battle each other to kill two women who are under both of their respective curses, they are lured to an old well with the help of psychics Keizo Tokiwa and Tamao in an attempt to destroy them both. However, it ends up causing the two ghosts to fuse into a huge, monstrous entity called '''Sadakaya'''. Furthermore, prior to the battle and subsequent fusion, Sadako's curse is inadvertently transferred from the cursed videotape to the Internet, potentially unleashing it upon the entire world.

==Appearance==
[[File:Hokusai Sarayashiki.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Sadako's backstory is heavily inspired by the Japanese legend of [[Okiku]].]]
Sadako appears as a young woman whose face is hidden under her long black hair, and she wears a white dress that has water stains on it that is also frayed at the end. This appearance is typical of ''[[yūrei]]''. Specifically, Sadako is a type of ''yūrei'' known as an ''[[onryō]]'', bound by a desire for vengeance. In ''[[Sadako 3D]]'', Sadako appears as her human self while still displaying traits of an ''onryō'', in addition to the standard yūrei appearance. ''Ring: Kanzenban'' was the only rendition that differs from a traditional ''yūrei'' appearance. She is shown similarly as a young woman, yet her hair barely covers her face, and is frequently portrayed nude as opposed to a white garment. Sadako is also an amalgamation of two famous Japanese ghosts, [[Yotsuya Kaidan|Oiwa]] and [[Banchō Sarayashiki|Okiku]]. From Oiwa, Sadako takes the single, misshapen eye. From Okiku, the style of murder, of being thrown down a well and then having the ghost rise from the well to seek vengeance.<ref>{{cite web|date=2018-05-26|title=Sadako's Secrets: Explaining "Ringu" at the Asian Art Museum {{!}} JETAANC|url=http://www.jetaanc.org/ringu/|access-date=2021-09-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526124338/http://www.jetaanc.org/ringu/|archive-date=2018-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Shea |first=Keri |date=14 April 2023 |title=Sadako's Fury: Ring at 25 |url=https://warped-perspective.com/index.php/2023/04/14/sadakos-fury-the-ring-at-25/ |access-date=9 February 2024 |website=Warped Perspective}}</ref>

The success of the 1998 film ''[[Ring (film)|Ring]]'' brought the image of the ''yūrei'' to western [[popular culture]] for the first time, although the image has existed in Japan for centuries. This image is often used in [[Japanese horror|J-Horror]] films, such as ''[[Ju-on]]'' (and its remake ''[[The Grudge]]''), ''[[One Missed Call (2003 film)|One Missed Call]]'' and ''[[Dark Water (2002 film)|Dark Water]]''.

In the original Japanese film, Sadako's face is never seen aside from her one-eyed glare, employing the [[fear of the unknown]]. In ''Ringu 2'', her skull is sculpted over with forensic clay in an attempt to reproduce her face. The Western remakes show Samara Morgan's face clearly.

[[File:Chizuko Mifune.jpg|thumb|right|220px|[[Chizuko Mifune]], a famous psychic in the early 20th century, is an inspiration for Sadako and her mother Shizuko.]]

Sadako is also 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''. Fukurai also worked with psychic [[Chizuko Mifune]], who inspired the backstory of Sadako and her mother Shizuko.<ref>{{cite book|first=Anthony|last=Enns|quote=Not only was Koji Suzuki -- the author of the ''Ring'' novels -- familiar with the history of Japanese parapsychology, but the story of Tomokichi Fukurai significantly influenced him as he wrote the first novel in the ''Ring'' trilogy.|editor-first=Kristen|editor-last=Lacefield|title=The Scary Screen: Media Anxiety in 'The Ring'|chapter=The Horror of Media: Technology and Spirituality in ''The Ring'' Films|publisher=Ashgate|location=Burlington, Vermont|date=2010|isbn=978-0754669845}}</ref>

In 2022, she appears as a playable character in ''[[Dead by Daylight]]'', and cameoed in ''[[Erma (webtoon)|Erma]]'' (a [[webtoon]] loosely inspired by ''[[Ju-On]]'' and [[The Ring (franchise)|''The Ring'']]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.polygon.com/22834879/dead-by-daylight-ringu-chapter-23-trailer-release-date |title=Dead by Daylight Chapter 23: Ringu (The Ring) comes to the game in 2022 |publisher=Polygon |date=2021-12-14 |accessdate=2022-05-26}}</ref>

==Powers==
Sadako has a variety of psychic powers throughout all the ''Ring cycle'' books and films. The most famous is her ability to create the "cursed" videotape.

===Videotape===
In the films her method of killing with the video curse is not explained, but when someone is killed by it she is seen climbing out of a nearby surface, often a television screen, and approaching them. The corpses are discovered with looks of unearthly [[anguish]] on their faces.

In [[Spiral (Suzuki novel)|''Spiral'']], the curse is explained in detail and is discovered to be a [[virus]]. When someone watches the cursed tape (or something else carrying the curse) some of their DNA is changed to become that of the Ring Virus (a hybrid of Sadako's DNA and that of the [[smallpox]] virus). This travels throughout their body and in most cases causes a [[sarcoma]] to form on one of the [[artery|arteries]] of their heart. If the curse has not been appeased within seven days, the sarcoma detaches from the artery and clogs it, causing [[heart failure]]. Eventually, however, the virus is able to infect people through means other than videotapes, such as a report detailing the events of ''Ring'' written by Kazuyuki Asakawa in which the virus had entered from Asakawa's body, a novel version of the report was published by Asakawa's brother, a movie based on the novel (which Sadako was cast as herself in), and finally the Metastatic Human Cancer virus that appears in the third novel, [[Loop (novel)|''Loop'']].

Each version of the videotape contains disturbing imagery. The novel version features messages at the start and end of the tape, though the method to removing the curse was recorded over. Most of the footage is from Sadako's perspective, including being sexually assaulted by Nagao Jotaro. The films' incarnation has more abstract imagery, and features an enigmatic figure whose face is obscured by a towel, pointing out to something off-screen. He is collectively referred to as the "Towel Man", and is speculated to symbolize Sadako's unknown, possibly otherworldly biological father. He appears in ''Ring'', directing Reiko to Yoichi watching the tape, and later points out the copy she made of the tape, implying he may actually be Ryuji Takayama following his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.curseofthering.com/faq.php#towelhead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185016/http://www.curseofthering.com/faq.php#towelhead|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 March 2016|title=FAQ - The original Japanese series|last=Lopez|first=J.|year=2006|work=[[Internet Archive]]|publisher=Curse of the Ring|access-date=8 July 2018}}</ref> The final shot of the tape is of the well, which extends with each viewing, until the deadline of the curse where Sadako emerges from the well and then crawls out of the nearest reflective surface to kill her victim.

An alternate version of the tape was featured in ''[[Ring: The Final Chapter]]'', portrayed as being recorded during pop singer Nao Matsuzaki's music video, and the deadline for the curse was extended to thirteen days.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cursedvideo.net/|title=Ring Saishusho Cursed Videotape|date=2005|access-date=8 January 2015|location=The Ring Area|archive-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216221530/http://cursedvideo.net/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The American film incarnation is probably the longest, and mostly consists of abstract imagery or exaggerated visions that Samara Morgan has seen, but still adapts a lot from the Japanese version including the infamous final sequence where Samara emerges from television to kill her victims.

==Other versions==
===Park Eun-Suh===
Sadako was the source for the character Park Eun-Suh in [[Korea]]n remake film ''[[The Ring Virus]]'' (1999), portrayed by [[Koreans|Korean]] actress [[Bae Doona]].

Park Eun-Suh more closely resembles the Sadako from the novels. She appears to be about the same age as Sadako, though her age is never confirmed; she is only said to have disappeared after high school. She and her mother both had supernatural powers (similar to Sadako and Shizuko) and were rumored to be witches. After Eun-Suh's mother throws herself off a cliff into the sea, Eun-Suh's powers mysteriously disappear. As she grows older, she works at a nightclub under the name "Sunny Park". Her powers return. She is able to turn on an unplugged TV and murders a man with her abilities after she catches him peeping on her showering.

Eun-Suh is raped by her half-brother shortly before her death, during which he discovers that she is a [[hermaphrodite]]. She is ashamed and telepathically threatens him. Horrified, he chokes her unconscious and drops her in a nearby well at the Sanitarium he was staying at for smallpox.

===Samara Morgan===
[[File:Daveigh Chase LF adjusted.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Daveigh Chase]] played Samara Morgan in ''[[The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring]]'' (2002).]]
Sadako was the main influence on Samara Morgan from the 2002 American remake, ''[[The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring]]'' and its sequels, ''[[The Ring Two]]'' and ''[[Rings (2017 film)|Rings]]''. She was played by [[Daveigh Chase]], [[Kelly Stables]] and [[Bonnie Morgan]], respectively. Samara Morgan is depicted as an otherworldly little girl, responsible for the creation of the cursed videotape from the American version of the ''Ring'' story. Her usual appearance is of a girl with long, dark hair covering her face and wearing a white dress. Samara possesses the power of [[nensha]] like Sadako, capable of burning images onto surfaces and into the minds of others. Unlike Sadako, Samara psychically disfigures her victims' faces before they finally die of a heart attack.

Samara's history is covered through the American films. ''The Ring'' states that Anna and Richard Morgan ([[Shannon Cochran]] and [[Brian Cox (actor)|Brian Cox]]), who own a horse ranch on Moesko Island, [[Washington (state)|Washington]], claimed to have adopted Samara from unknown parents on the mainland after numerous unsuccessful attempts to have a child on their own. As Samara grows older, her powers burn horrible images into Anna's mind, nearly driving her insane. Richard banishes Samara to live in the ranch's barn, but she uses her powers to drive Anna's beloved horses to suicide after they "kept her up at night". At some point, Samara is taken to a psychiatric hospital but the doctors are unable to explain her powers. During a family vacation on Shelter Mountain, Anna attacks Samara as she stands before an old well, suffocating her with a garbage bag and then dropping her down the well. Anna then commits suicide by jumping off a cliff. However, Samara clings to life for seven days alone in the well before dying from a combination of starvation and [[hypothermia]]. Eventually, a set of rental cabins are built near the well, one on top of it. This allows Samara to project her visions into a [[Videocassette recorder|VCR]] tape, creating the seven-day curse. Samara's curse kills Katie ([[Amber Tamblyn]]), the niece of journalist Rachel Keller ([[Naomi Watts]]), who investigates the tape's origins. Rachel, her ex-boyfriend Noah Clay ([[Martin Henderson]]) and their son Aidan ([[David Dorfman]]) all watch the video. Rachel meets Richard, who warns her to stay away and then kills himself via electrocution. Rachel and Noah eventually find Samara's corpse in the well and bury it. This however does nothing to appease Samara as hoped by Rachel and Noah and she kills Noah as per the rules of the curse. Rachel destroys the original videocassette in a fit of rage but uses a copied version of the video to continue the curse in order to save Aidan.

''The Ring Two'' expands upon Samara's backstory: her mother, a woman named Evelyn (portrayed by [[Mary Elizabeth Winstead]] in her youth and by [[Sissy Spacek]] as an older woman), believed that her daughter had a demon inside her and tried to drown the girl, but she was prevented by nuns. Evelyn is sent to an insane asylum, while Samara was put up for adoption. In the film's present timeline, Samara deliberately manipulates the tape to get back to Rachel, having decided to make Rachel her new mother. After Rachel burns the tape, Samara possesses Aidan. Rachel drugs Samara and then nearly drowns Aidan to exorcise her. Samara retreats into a television set, and Rachel allows herself to be pulled into Samara's visionary world and down the well. Rachel climbs out of the well with Samara pursuing her, but Rachel covers the seal on the well just in time.

In ''Rings'', the film expands further back on Evelyn's backstory. Evelyn (Kayli Carter) was kidnapped by a local priest, Galen Burke ([[Vincent D'Onofrio]]), who raped and impregnated her, which led to Samara's conception during Evelyn's captivity. Years after his daughter's death, Burke sealed Samara's remains in a wall of his house at some point after the events of the first film, knowing her spirit would still plague those who have encountered her. He also blinded himself so Samara could not kill him. Samara has been looking for a compassionate host in order to be reborn, which she finds in a teenage girl named Julia ([[Matilda Lutz]]). Burke tries to kill Julia, but Samara rises out of Julia's [[iPhone]], restores Burke's sight, and kills him. After the cremation of her remains, Samara's spirit now resides in Julia. In the film's closing scenes, Samara's video begins spreading online and goes [[viral video|viral]].{{fact|date=May 2023}}

==Reception==
The characters of Sadako Yamamura and Samara Morgan have been well received by audiences and film critics alike. ''The Movie Book'' describes Sadako as influencing the whole Japanese horror genre, making the mythological image of the [[yurei]] popular in film.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Baxter|first1=Louis|last2=Farndon|first2=John|last3=Grant|first3=Kieran|editor=Danny Leigh|others=Damon Wise|title=The Movie Book|year=2015|publisher=DK Publishing|language=en|isbn=978-0-2411-8802-6|pages=288–289}}</ref> British film critic [[Mark Kermode]] lists Sadako's iconic crawl out of a television set as his seventh scariest moment from the horror film genre.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/oct/19/features.review|title=All Fright On the Night|last=Kermode|first=Mark|year=2003|work=The Guardian|access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref> The scene also came sixth in [[Channel 4]]'s ''[[100 Greatest (UK TV series)|100 Greatest Scary Moments]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3215471.stm|title=Shining Tops Screen Horrors|year=2003|publisher=BBC News|access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref> On August 10, 2002, Sadako was given a public funeral at the [[Laforet]] Museum in [[Harajuku]], [[Tokyo]], to tie-in with the opening of a ''Ring'' exhibit at the museum and the release of ''The Ring'', with Koji Suzuki attending the funeral.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.curseofthering.com/exhibit.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081614/http://www.curseofthering.com/exhibit.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 March 2016|title=The Ring exhibit|last=Lopez|first=J.|year=2006|work=[[Internet Archive]]|publisher=Curse of the Ring|access-date=8 July 2018}}</ref> ''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'''s Mark Dinning described Samara as one of the film industry's most "unrelenting, unreasonable, plain uncontrollable baddies ever".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=8750|title=The Ring Movie Review|last=Dinning|first=Mark|publisher=Empire Online|access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref> Daveigh Chase has been praised for her performance as Samara Morgan, and won the [[MTV Movie Award for Best Villain]] at the 2003 ceremony.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/ontv/movieawards/2003/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421195306/http://www.mtv.com/ontv/movieawards/2003/|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 April 2008|title=2003 MTV Movie Awards|year=2003|publisher=MTV Awards|access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Gamera]] - both ''Gamera'' and ''Ring'' franchises are properties of [[Kadokawa Corporation]], and both franchises [[Gamera#Influences of the Heisei Trilogy|have occasionally associated in productions]] since the 1999 film ''[[Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris]]''.<ref name=Vanishing>[[Shinji Higuchi]], May 1, 1999, ''Gamera 3: Vanishing Book'', pp.46-50, [[Tokuma Shoten]]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{The Ring}}
{{Ju-On}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=1990s|portal2=Horror|portal3=Japan|commons=y|d=y}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamamura, Sadako}}
[[Category:The Ring (franchise)]]
[[Category:Characters in Japanese novels of the 20th century]]
[[Category:Fictional demons]]
[[Category:Female characters in literature]]
[[Category:Female horror film villains]]
[[Category:Female literary villains]]
[[Category:Fictional actors]]
[[Category:Fictional characters who can duplicate themselves]]
[[Category:Fictional characters with accelerated healing]]
[[Category:Fictional characters with death or rebirth abilities]]
[[Category:Fictional characters with body or mind control abilities]]
[[Category:Fictional female mass murderers]]
[[Category:Fictional female serial killers]]
[[Category:Fictional ghosts]]
[[Category:Fictional intersex characters]]
[[Category:Fictional Japanese people]]
[[Category:Fictional LGBTQ characters in film]]
[[Category:Fictional murdered people]]
[[Category:Fictional patricides]]
[[Category:Fictional spiritual mediums]]
[[Category:Fictional telekinetics]]
[[Category:Fictional telepaths]]
[[Category:Fictional victims of sexual assault]]
[[Category:Fictional yōkai]]
[[Category:LGBTQ villains]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1991]]
[[Category:Fiction about well-related accidents]]