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DVD Ringu
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
Everyone has heard of "The Ring," a terrifying horror movie starring Naomi Watts. But before there was that film, there was "Ringu," a hair-raising ghost story where something as insignificant as a videotape can kill.
Four teenagers have died mysteriously, and another has gone mad. After finding that her niece was literally scared to death, Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) begins investigating the cabin where the four kids stayed. There she finds a strange videotape full of bizarre images. Then the phone rings. It fits the profile of the "cursed video" that has been circulating, which will kill the watcher after seven days.
Reiko is understandably terrified -- especially when her young son also watches it. She calls in her ex-husband Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), who initially discounts her fears. But soon he begins to believe as well, and assists Reiko in investigating the origins of the tape, and the strange images on it. They find that the source of it is a young girl with monstrous psychic powers, who was murdered thirty years ago...
"Ringu" has become one of those rare films that are frequently ripped off (especially in Asian cinema), referenced, and remade (especially in Hollywood). Crawling ghosts with long drippy hair, slow-acting curses and all that.
But as we all know, the first is usually the best. There aren't any masked slashers or bloody bodies in this. Instead, there is an everyday item that happens to be cursed, and a jerky-limbed girl who can kill with a thought -- and even death can't stop her. (Interestingly, Sadako and her mother were based on real people)
Hideo Nakata did a magnificent job with a film that could have been incredibly tedious; much of "Ringu" is detective work, with the ghoulish Sadako only entering the picture at the end. Instead, it has suspense. Colours are muted, and the plot grows more taut and claustrophobic as the characters try to beat the clock. And the end is a terrifying twist that can't be seen in advance -- but which leaves us wondering what we would do in that situation.
Matsushima and Sanada are excellent leads for this movie; not only do they have excellent chemistry, but they seem like a plausible pair of exes. Reiko is played as a strong, smart woman who desperately wants to save her son, while Ryuji is insensitive and rather brusque, but cares as much for Reiko as he seems capable of.
With a quietly taut storyline and a terrifying demon-spawn villain, "Ringu" strips horror down to its bare bones, and lets the ordinary scare us silly. Outstanding.
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.
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.
Following in the footsteps of The Ring cycle, the Ju-On series of horror films has taken Japan by the throat. According to this movie, the title refers to a curse placed upon a house where violence occurred. Sure enough, we see a string of unhappy encounters in a seemingly ordinary home, where ghosts have settled in the aftermath of murder. Director Takashi Shimizu (who also directed the Hollywood remake, The Grudge) constructs the picture out of separate fragments, not told in chronological order; the haunted house is the main character, not any one of the unsuspecting human characters. Cult mavens might suggest that Shimizu uses devices and images that have already worked well in films by Hideo Nakata and Kiyoshi Kurosawa--the Japanese horror film does have its... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Megumi Okina - Misaki Ito - Misa Uehara (II) Director(s): Takashi Shimizu DVD Release Date: Released the 09 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With its disturbing images and a few good shocks, The Ring is the kind of frightfest you'll watch to set a chilling mood or spook your susceptible friends, but when you try to sort it out, this well-mounted American remake (of the 1998 Japanese hit Ringu, based on Koji Suzuki's popular novel) becomes a batch of incoherent parts. The negligible plot follows a Seattle reporter (Naomi Watts) as she investigates the death of her niece, the victim of a mysterious videotape that, according to urban legend, causes the viewer's death seven days later. (Fear Dot Com borrowed the same idea while avoiding this film's lofty pretensions.) The countdown structure follows the reporter, her son, and her estranged boyfriend into deepening layers of terror--all quite effective until... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Naomi Watts - Martin Henderson - Brian Cox Director(s): Gore Verbinski DVD Release Date: Released the 04 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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There'll probably be nothing new to you in "The Eye" if you've seen "Ringu", "Tale of Two Sisters", "The Sixth Sense" and all other movies of this kind. The story itself also is not original - we've read and seen plenty of those where different transplants start to behave strange and don't obey their "owner". So if you want some revelation you won't find it here. But somehow this film attracts you. First it's how "The Eye" is done. And it's done almost perfect considering the cinematography. It's beautiful and stylish like many recent Asian horror flicks (just recall the above-mentioned "Tale of Two Sisters"). You will really be enjoying aesthetically what you see. And the second thing - "The Eye" contains some truly chilling scenes - I mean REALLY chilling. You won't regret watching it... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Angelica Lee - Lawrence Chou - Chutcha Rujinanon Director(s): Danny Pang - Oxide Pang Chun DVD Release Date: Released the 21 October 2003 This item is currently not available.
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It's not the scary hit that The Ring was in 2002, but The Grudge makes a similarly convincing case for American remakes of popular Japanese horror films. Barely a year passed between the release of Takashi Shimizu's creepy ghost story Ju-On: The Grudge and the production of this American remake, set in Tokyo and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in her first post-Buffy horror film. About the only significant difference between the two films is the importing of a mostly-American cast (including Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall and Grace Zabriskie), but The Grudge was reconfigured (by screenwriter Stephen Susco) to allow Shimizu to refine and improve the spookiest highlights of his earlier version, which enjoyed previous incarnations as a short film and two... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sarah Michelle Gellar - Jason Behr - Clea DuVall Director(s): Takashi Shimizu DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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