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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 |
 "Brilliant & original"After reading some of the reviews here, I just had to say that the original Ringu is far superior to the remake. I saw Ringu a couple of years before The Ring, & was very excited about the remake. However, I spent most of the time in the cinema getting really angry at how butchered the story was (& sadly, how awful Naomi Watts, a fellow Aussie, was - overacting at its best!). I could actually go on for hours about this, but the thing I want to point out is the ridiculous horse story (& how a certain stupid character causes one to kill itself, because for some reason, she could not just leave it alone!!!). My main problem is all the ridiculous extra "scary" bits the remake threw in, like the hairball, the fly on the screen - totally unnecessary. And we should NEVER see Sadako/Samara's face - she was much scarier when all we could see was hair & eye! Do yourself a huge favour - see the original. By the way, I loved the remake of Ju-On, so I am not against them at all - just keep them faithful & coherent!  "Liked the Ring better."Monday, February 07, 2005 / 3 of 5 / Liked the Ring better. This is the Japanese predecessor to the Ring here in the states. I had just watched Ju-on and had this one as well. I felt it wasn't quite the film that Ring would become. It lacked the visceral terror, creepy atmosphere, and production values of the Ring. Still taken on its own it's fairly effective, although again I didn't even enjoy it as much as Ju-on. I think in the US version the mystery was handled with more panache instead of exposition by a `psychic' boyfriend who explains the girls power in a lump sum finish up ending. I also preferred the grainy, monochromatic gloom of the Ring locales vs Ringu. Ah well, still somewhat entertaining to watch. "Excellent"I think this is probably the best horror movie I have ever been scared in my life, I jumped out of the sofa and just walked out of the room! If you plan to watch and be scared, don't read the plots of the movies, it will spoil the effect. The movie is not as fast-paced as the western movies, no gory scenes, a good horror movie doesn't need to scare people anyway. "The original movie stands heads above its successors"The first theatrical version of Koji Suzuki's novel, as there was Ringu Kanzenban, a 1995 TV movie, is the one that inspired two Japanese sequels, a prequel, the South Korean version, Ring Virus, and oh yes, the pitiful American version with Naomi Watts. Needless to say, Ringu stands head above them. The story's well-told by now, but let me relate it one more time. Following the death of her niece, high school student Tomoko, Reiko Asakawa, a journalist, investigates the cause. Seems like there's a cursed video that'll kill someone within a week of that person watching it. As a cute high school student tells her in a videocamera interview, "I heard that suddenly, there's this scary woman who says, `you'll die in one week." Well, in the opening moments of the movie, Tomoko tells her friend Masami that she and her friends saw a weird video while vacationing at Izu Pacific Island. It turns out that Tomoko's vacationing friends also died on the exact same day and time as her, and that one of the girls died with the same look of sheer shock that Tomoko did. Reiko goes to the same resort, discovers a video in a nondescript blank case, watches it, and, well, gets the curse. The imagery of the video has a surreal yet eerie look, the woman combing her hair, the man with white cloth on his head pointing, the dancing Chinese characters, and that eerie scraping metal sound. To that end, she enlists the aid of Ryuji Takayama, her ex-husband who teaches either math or physics at a university. It's his analytical and logical mind that she feels can help her in this dilemma. Ryuji watches the video and after getting Reiko to copy the video, analyzes weird sounds, images of an erupting volcano, and the character "Sada" seen in someone's eye. Their investigation leads to Mount Miharajima on Izu Oshima, which is an island inbetween the two peninsulas which encircle Tokyo Bay, Izu Hanto and Boso Hanto. I'd call this more a suspense thriller with supernatural overtones rather than an outright horror flick. And it's a balance of appealing characters, an interesting and unique story, and low-key rather than Hollywood-style overblown style that place this over The Ring. Other than the images of the video, flashback techniques in B&W help advance the story. So does the technique used in Tomoko's death, a close-up of her fear-stricken face, a sudden reverse image, then nothing. The tension keeps building as the date is presented onscreen, followed by a low and eerie sound, counting down the days Reiko has to live. There is hardly any incidental music to speak of, as much of the sounds are of the same low and haunting sounds. However, the thing that'll guarantee Ringu its immortality is the sight of Sadako, long black hair covering her face, dressed in a white robe, creeping out of the TV, hands with fingernails torn out, stalking her prey. This spectre has been copied or revised in Japanese films like The Hypnotist, Ju-On, its American remake The Grudge, and the Scary Movie 3 parody. Another thing to note is the change of Asakawa to a female character, as opposed to the male Kazuyuki Asakawa in the original novel. And the distorted photographs and marks on arms is something in both the manga and here. As Reiko Asakawa, Nanako Matsushima balances an amiable, hard-working employee and loving single mother who wants to spend more time with her son. She's definitely warmer than the Korean version's Eun Kyung Shin, who played Hong Sun-Ju as somewhat of a cold fish. Hiroyuki Sanada plays Ryuji with a stolid, curt, rational man who's intelligent enough to suss out the clues from the video. And Rikiya Otaka also does well as Yoichi, who's cute and likeable rather than creepy. Hopefully, the original movie Ringu 2 and the original sequel, Rasen (Spiral) will come out soon on DVD to see how the Ring story continues movie-wise. "Scared me for days"I'm not much for horror movies. They usually strike me as rather simple-minded, relying on gore and Psycho-like music to instill fear. Ringu, on the other hand, scared me in a more subtle, hair-raising way--through the story itself. There were no axe-murderers or masked crazies coming after scantily clad teenagers, but an unknown terror that comes after anyone... Well, anyone who... Oh, nevermind. I have not yet seen "The Ring", so I won't recommend one over the other. However, for an intelligent and interesting horror flick that'll leave you turning the lights on and looking under your bed for days, definitely give Ringu a look. |
