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Ringu Director: Hideo Nakata Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 100 minutes Studio: Universal Studios Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-03-04 Buy from Amazon |
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From Amazon.com A grainy, enigmatic videotape has the power to kill people seven days after they watch it. This brilliant premise fueled the 2002 Hollywood hit The Ring, but before that it conquered Japan in Ringu, Hideo Nakata's quietly unsettling study in terror. Fans of the U.S. version will find a less elaborate storyline and more primal fear in the original; the basic plot, however, still has a worried reporter (Nanako Matsushima) tracking down the meaning of the video--and, having watched it herself, she has only a week to work. The film's calm, economical style actually adds to the creeping sense of dread throughout, and the hair-curling set-pieces stand out in contrast. Like an old photograph of something evil, Ringu has the strange-but-familiar power to unnerve. Guaranteed, its effect will linger for at least seven days. Longer... if you're lucky. --Robert Horton |
 "Very Good"I personally liked The Ring better, but I liked the ending to this one better. It ended better because it had the little girl telling the reporter about the tape never stopping. Good Japanese horror film. PS. Don't see the american version of Dark Water with Jennifer Connely. It sucked! "Worth the scare!"I saw Ringu before I saw the Ring. I thought this was very scary. I thought it was a lot more scarier than the Ring. Sadakao and her evil is more evident in this film. IF you enjoy Japanese horror this is the perfect film for a Friday night.  "Man, I've seen too many horror movies"You know when you have watched too many horror movies when your friends are cringing in terror and all you can do is yawn. While Ring, a blockbuster success in Japan, does deliver some chills (especially to those who can get scared easily), it is ultimately disappointing. The movie starts off very well, with a girl who tells her friend about a videotape she had watched a week ago. In it were some disturbing (not gory) images then a phone call at the end of it. The phone call indicated that she was going to die at the end of the week. In the movie, this premise is an urban legend that they brush off, but as the girl goes downstairs, the TV suddenly turns on and she found dead the next morning. It is the second most chilling scene in the movie and sets the tone. The next day, a reporter, covering the case finds out about the legend and begins a search for the tape. She finds it and she is given the same call. In one week, she is going to die. Of course, she won't take it lying down, so she enlists her ex-husband and they begin researching the history of the tape. The actual investigation takes 80% of the movie and it is non too exciting to watch. We do get a sense of dread as each day is counted, and the investigation itself is interesting, in a Changeling, sort of way, but many things pop up that begin to throw water on the flame we call reality. We learn that her husband is suddenly Psychic and this psychic allows the reporter to magically appear in scenes that happened years ago, a la Mummy Returns. However, the background story in and of itself is fairly boring and there are little twists and turns. It is more interesting when they dissect the videotape for evidence and clues. The last day (the movie is broken over a period of 7 days) is the most terrifying, due to self-motivated fear. We all know what is going to happen at 7:00 p.m. and as the main characters become more frantic in their actions to find a solution, the viewer also shares in the sense of despiration. When the phenomenon finally happens, it is a scene right out of a 1980's Lamberto Bava movie, but much better done. It is scary scene that caused several people in our viewing audience (both ladies and one guy) to gasp. It is a well crafted scene. However, the ending of the movie is poorly done. How does the reporter figure out the answer? There could have been 100 different answers to why she was spared, but of course she knows the right one. Anyway, the fear that eminates from this movie is like that of the Blair Witch Project. It is self-created and those who are fearless when watching horror movies may not be too impressed. However, all my friends who watched the movie said it was scary as heck, so hence my recommendation for the casual horror movie lover....Rating: B-  "Eerie horror as satire on mass communication"It's well known that Japan is several years ahead of the USA as far as technology, and as seen Lost in Translation, the wave of mass communication leads to absurdity. Ringu acts on the same premise but in a very different way. As you probably know from the American remake, it's about a reporter who stumbles across a videotape that kills all who watch it. The remake was a good movie, but it just didn't inspire the same primal emotions or incorporate the same wit as the original. This film is as smart as George Romero's Dawn of the Dead and as scary as Silence of the Lambs. Televisions and telephones create an ominous presence whenever appearing in a scene. The TVs are a personification of evil as effective as Hannibal Lector. After seeing the film, I actually had slight nightmares about being attacked by my TV. The mass influx of news stories in different versions lead to the depletion of information overall. The main characters struggle, even the psychic, to discover the truth about the tapes origins within the week they have left. Rumors seem true, then false, then turn out true, and no one knows who to believe. In a world where mass hysteria stems from overloaded misinformation, we are forced to ask ourselves, should I pass that chain letter and condemn the recipient to its consequences, or should I sacrifice myself to end it. This is a film that understands, as all great horror films do, that the greatest terrors lie within. "Reflections In A Well"The core difference between Koji Suzuki's book and this film is the decision to use a woman lead - Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa, a newspaper woman. Screenplay writer Hiroshi Takahashi then introduces her ex-husband, Koichi (Katsimi Muramatsu) as the other lead. The film gains considerable intensity as a result of the relationship between the two in their efforts to save themselves and their young son Yoichi (Takashi Yamamura). The primary plot device, a video tape which contains a series of mystical sequences and clues. Watching it brings on a mysterious curse that kills in exactly seven days. Reiko and Koichi must peel back layer after layer of mystery in an effort to discover why a resort hotel always seems to have a copy of this tape on hand. And why a volcanic eruption 40 years before has triggered a string of horrible deaths. While the film differs in many places from the book it has an immediacy and vividness that the book, with its procedural narration, seemed to lack. This happens slowly, and the initial scenes of the film after the opening death of the first high school student drag a bit. Director Hideo Nakata uses a light touch, depending on expressions and lighting to create horror rather than violence and gore. There are still plenty of jarring moments, though. The book, however, does better with the motivations behind the tape, which the film leaves somewhat vague. Of course, the story depends on the somewhat arbitrary nature of the evil behind the tape for its uneasiness. The acting, by the way, completely overcomes the dubbing. You often will know what is going on without any reference to the text. This is as close to an artistic Japanese horror film as I've seen. The cinematography is subtle in effect, but with powerful use of shadow in a variety of settings. Quite by accident, I'm following this story from book to Japanese film (and next the US film), and the way Hideo Nakata chose to capture the book is quite eye opening. Definitely a must see. |
