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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 |
 "A Nice Idea, But..."This is, of course, the original film which inspired the terrifying American remake, "The Ring", and on that note I have to give it credit for being a nice blueprint. The Japanese version has its strong points, but does not achieve the same atmosphere of constant dread and fear, or the big, shocking scares of its successor. Needless to say, "Ringu" is a much lower budget film than the Hollywood remake, and to those who are turned off by special effects this may be a plus. Having seen the American version first, some of the moments that scared me the first time around were laughably lacking in terror in "Ringu", and some are not even present. That said, the climactic scene was every bit as unnerving, if not moreso, than the remake. It's quite an astonishing accomplishment given the low budget feeling the rest of the film carries. My suggestion would be to watch this version first and appreciate it for what it is, and when you're ready to be really chilled to the bone, watch Verbinski's vision of "The Ring".  "Amazing and Terrific !"I watched this movie after the US version and I thought the Japanese version is the best one ! The US version was really good in my opinion. I haven't been scared with a movie for so longtime but this one did.So I was expected the US version far superior to the Japanese and finally it's not.Japanese made the best scary movie without spending much in FX.Everything is in the atmosphere and you scare of the stuff you finally don't see on screen.Bravo ! Otherwise I watched RINGU 2 and RING 0 or RINGU 0 and unfortunately I was quite disappointed. Ring 0 is of course the prequel and even if there are some creepy moments, the story could have been more frightning. I found it very uninteresting and finally impatient to see the movie finished. RINGU 2 is certainly worst. It is bad ! The story is just too flat ! Like a lack of creativity. A pity. USA are working on THE RING 2 now so I just hope they don't work it on the same plot as RINGU 2 because we will have one more time a sequel that will disappoint ! To end, try to get AUDITION also from Japan. EXCELLENT ! "worlds better than the american remake"i wish i'd only seen this one prior to watching 2002's sleeper hit the ring which is a terrible remake of this japanese suspense thriller. actually, this is more of a supernatural horror film but it's definately worlds away from the american stinker that everyone so loves. in this film, we actually have a bit more atmosphere & it's the whole atmosphere of the film which is entirely creepy instead of jumpy music, horses going crazy, & suicides in showers with electronic components. ok, i hope i didn't spoil this one for you. here we have a young japanese woman who is investigating an urban legend about a freaky character that comes on late at nite on your television & then you receive a phone call shortly after viewing that states you will die in seven days. to make things much worse, there is a videotape going around with some artsy imagery(looks like something a college student would make for a film festival) which will generate a phone call from the dead. after learning of the death of her niece, the woman overhears stories of how the young girl may have died & seeks out to find the truth. you probably know the basics of the plot if you saw the dreaded americna version so i will spare you some of the agony. i like this one better for several reasons. this story gives us more interaction between the lead characters which is going to allow viewers to understand how they arrive at their conclusions in solving the mystery of the ring. also, we have the lead character's ex-husband who has esp so he is able to see certain things simply by touching someone's personal effects or their skin. in addition to that, i like the fact the japanese woman in this film is a much better mother than the horrible one we saw in the ring. lastly, we understand sadako's anger & reason for killing a bit more in this one than we do in the remake. the remake would have you to believe she was born evil like a michael myers which was not credible in my opinion. again, the atmosphere is the thing that will leave you uneasy in this film which is what thrillers of the sixties & seventies could do like those great classics by polanski. the atmosphere here is always eerie & there is nothing pleasant about ringu whatsoever. check this one out first if you are trying to decide which one to buy. if you love this, then avoid the remake at all costs. "Original and Extraordinary"Unlike some, I didn't think the remake was so very terrible: a slick, more effective than average American horror film. Rather as "The Magnificent Seven" was a slick, more effective than average American Western. But no comparison with "The Seven Samurai" which was like nothing you'd ever seen before. And so is this. Of course it's maybe a bit culturally correct always to prefer the subtitled original to the big budget Hollywood remake so perhaps I'm just kidding myself on. But then I ask myself how excited I am at the prospect of seeing Hideo Nakata's latest, "Dark Water", compared to how excited I am at the prospect of seeing "Pirates of the Carribean" and all such doubts vanish very, very fast. It is probably best to do as I did and watch the two versions in the right order, the first first. This was very hard for Americans, I gather, as the studio, having got their hands on the rights, took great pains to ensure nobody saw the Japanese version first. One joy of the Japanese version is that it is so much less tidy. It's a mystery story and as it unfolds we get a glimpse of the solution to the various riddles. But it's just that, a glimpse. Lose ends abound. What exactly is the significance of the figure in the video with a white hood covering his/her head? We aren't told: it's left to our imagination. As it should be. Perhaps for a satisfying crime mystery we want every neatly tied up. For a satisfying supernatural mystery we surely do not. See it anyway. It's probably one of the best four or five horror movies that have ever been made. It is infused with a uniquely strange and disturbing atmosphere. Silence is used to terrific effect. The picture is generally so drained of colour that when you remember it later you won't be sure it was in colour at all. The acting is excellent. Rikiya Otaka is particularly extraordinary as the little boy Yoichi. (This reviews the DVD but of course, given the story line, one really should watch it on video. Incidentally, I did recently read somewhere that this film is remarkable for marrying East and West given the strikingly western technological theme of videotapes. Ignorant as I am of things Japanese, that does seem extremely silly. My own video player is a Sanyo. Where was yours made?)  "Both good!"I enjoyed both the US and Japanese movies! Both are scary films! I've seen all four of the Japanese movies, Ring1,2,0 and Ring Spiral. I do believe that the Japanese version is best seen in context with the sequels. Together they create a complete view of the sad story of Sadako. Sadako is a much more sympathetic character than is Samara. She, herself, is a victim of some unspeakable evil! The US Ring's ghost is just plain 'EVIL'. I have no sympathy for Samara. She scares the "living daylights" out of me. I probably would have thrown in the well, also. There are deleted scenes in the US film which I wish were left in the movie. They provide some important background to the plot. But, I'll keep both and scare myself on a regular basis. :) The original Haunting and the Lady in White still are at the top of my list of ghostly horror movies. But, these are not far behind. |
