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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 |
 "Sadako Is Much Scarier Than Samara!"Ok I saw the American version first, and when I first saw it I didn't really like it, mostly because I wasn't really sure WHY I should be scared. After watching it a couple times again I was truly chilled by it, gaining a better understanding of the story and I heard that the Japanese version was better so I invested in the entire set, Ring, Ring 2 and Ring 0... I have to say after seeing the Ring (I've heard you should buy this version, the version I bought was a poor transfer, a little too dark at times...) amd Ringu that Ringu is the superior film. It just is. The Ring is good and chilling but the story of Ringu is far better. For example the story of Sadako's mother makes MORE sense as to why she is the way she is than does the story of Samara. Sadako inherited powers from her mother, where as Samara was just bothered by her mother's horses. Samara's paternity is never addressed where as in Ringu Sadako's is hinted at and the idea is terrifying. There were few special effects in this movie and I guess if you can't get scared unless everything is super fancy then this is not the movie for you. I however thought the lack of special effects made the movie seem more real and made it scarier to me. The Ring was all grey looking so it seemed to be going on in a way where it couldn't happen to you, because our world doesn't look like that. However it's the opposite in Ringu where everything is very natural and normal looking. I also think the famous out the tv scene was ruined in the American version because of all the stupid pointless special effects in that. The Japanese scene is far more chilling, and the reporter's son is more interesting and engaging than the Sixth Sense boy in the Ring. I also preferred the couple. Reiko and Ryuji were more convincing together than the American couple. They had better chemistry and Ryuji was more involved right away from the start and a lot less of a doubting Thomas. Basically, the Japanese movie seems more original and terrifying in my opinion, where as the American version tries too hard with it's CGI and falls desperately short. With Ringu less is DEFINITELY more.  "'The Ring' is better"This review is spoiler-ish, and intended for people who've seen The Ring and were curious about this movie. First of all, the two films are very similiar - at the beginning, they even share most of the same shots, like the father and son confronting each other in the rain - but I think that The Ring was an improvement mainly for these reasons: 1) The Ring is scarier. Some people say it's just unsubtle, but the subject at hand is a horror movie, not an existential treatise, even if the story is brainier than most. It's true that The Ring, as another review very aptly put it, 'goes for the throat,' but it does so very well, while Ringu has only a few moments of real terror. There's nothing here to match the equine imagery, or the 'drowned' faces. 2) The score is very creaking and unsubtle. Obviously in a horror movie, the score kicks up whenever something scary is about to happen, but I noticed it a lot more - it seemed a lot more contrived - in this movie, as opposed to The Ring. You hear the violins start screeching and you just roll your eyes. 3) Both versions skimp on the backstory, but Ringu does much more so than The Ring. In The Ring, you get to see the living Samara speak, at least, which I think is important in establishing her as a character, and the story surrounding the girl's family seems at once more ominous and more believable in The Ring. Part of what made The Ring so effective was the horror in the backstory, and it's much less developed in Ringu, even if Sadako's origin is better explained. 4) The treatment of the ex-husband character (whose equivalent in the book was the main thing which made the book so great) is dissapointing in both films, but in this one, not to spoil anything, there's a random twist to his character which made no sense to me, and which was sensibly dropped in The Ring. 5) The Ring actually makes it clear what the ring _is_, and what Samara's curse, symbolically, is (a disease, something that was played up a lot in the book). 6) Ultimately, I think that the motivation at the heart of The Ring is revenge, even though it's suggested that Samara/Sadako is evil by nature, and in relation to #3, I don't think it's really made clear to what extent she suffered. When the ex-husband character descends into the well, he remarks in passing that she was still alive, a fact which was played up more (and to good effect) in The Ring. Ringu makes it seem sort of like Sadako created the tape just for the heck of it. The desperation and malice in her character comes across much better in The Ring. She doesn't have a character, you could say, but good monsters do, and she did in The Ring. On the other side, the acting in Ringu is just a touch better than in The Ring - the main character's face communicates fear so well, it's almost scarier than the faces of the corpses - and it avoids a couple of the eye-rolling contrivances like the sliding television which weakened The Ring with its subtler atmosphere, but ultimatley, I think a story as scary is this one deserved the extremely scary treatment given to it by The Ring. Ringu is still worth seeing, but for once us Americans got it right.  "Endless Cycle"Ringu was an excellent movie, but I find I enjoyed the American version better. However, the Japanese movie explained things better. To get the full story I recommend the comic book, Ringu, then The Ring. This story, like Final Fantasy VII, leaves a lot open to discusion. Points like what Samara was, how her parents arranged her birth, how her curse worked, and other questions are pretty much left open to let the viewers decide for themselves. The Japanese version plays up the psychic power aspect more then the American version, to the point of using it only as a way to move the plot. That aside, this movie is a great movie, and it truely is one of the scarier ones I've seen. "Runs rings aroung The Ring!!"I don't know what it is about Asian cinema, but when they make a scary movie, they make a SCARY movie. I saw the American version (The Ring with Naomi Watts) first and thought it was pretty scary. In fact, I paid to see it twice in theaters and bought it as soon as it came out on DVD. When I heard that the Japanese predecessor was better, I had to watch it. I was impressed. At the time, I still didn't think highly of foreign films; I still expected the bad dubbing and horrible special effects. This movie marked the beginning of my newfound appreciation for foreign films. Even more astonishing was that this movie helped me better understand the American version that I had already watched and loved. I think what makes Ringu better is that the Japanese aren't afraid to bring elements of the paranormal into their movies. Psychics (from what I read and hear) are pretty common in Japan, and the idea of psychic abilites plays into Ringu a lot. I think if the American version had played that angle up more the movie would have been even better. Ringu's ending is more sinister than The Ring's ending; it poses some difficult questions (at least it did for me). The only downside for some people will be that there is no English soundtrack; you have to read subtitles while you watch the action. This didn't bother me, but my brother says he won't watch it because he "watches movies, not reads them." He's missing out on something great. "Ringu"Let's get one quick thing out of the way: The American remake 'The Ring' is Not better. The Ring isn't bad, but Ringu is far superior. Ringu's creep-factor and build up of tension to its ultimate culmination is a work of brilliance. The Ring, at times, will meander aimlessly into places that have no meaning or little relevance. The 'mystery video' in The Ring is also far too long and some of the stuff in it doesn't even apply to the story. Rent or buy both of them, neither one is bad, Ringu's just the better of the two:). |
