Ringu

Rating:
Summary: What a terrible movie
Review: This movie stinx! The purchase of this movie was the biggest waste of money ever. The acting was terrible, the ending was predictable, and the hole thing is a bunch of dumb chines people screaming.

Rating:
Summary: Please lay-off the comparisons...
Review: Both Ringu and The Ring are fine examples of scary movies. They are two slightly different movies. Remember, the ring was inspired by the first, it doesn't mean it has to be exactly the same. Ringu was scary and I think Gore V. added a little extra to the very original and interesting story. I also love the fact that the movie itself never tried to have a happy ending, it never tried to "wrap things up" in the end. It also left alot of brain teasers about the origins a secret. This allows people to use their imaginations, nothing is more effective than playing on your own fears.

Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted horror
Review: Ringu is basically deserving of its reputation as a near-masterpiece of quiet, subtle horror. If you like unconventional, ambiguous creep-outs like Picnic at Hanging Rock or the first half of Lost Highway (which, come to think of it, also involves some very unsettling videotapes) you'll probably appreciate this film. I'd recommend this over the American remake, although I don't agree with those that find Gore Verbinski's version vastly inferior. In fact, it's surprisingly well done, my only real complaint being the predictable tendency to tone down the ambiguity. For instance, the death-dealing video in the Japanese version consists of a series of bizarre images that are never explained. In the American version (The Ring), the images, although just as bizarre, are all eventually neatly tied up with the narrative, each one being assigned an explicit meaning. It was a bad move that aptly illustrates the general lack of faith that Hollywood has in the intelligence/imagination of American moviegoers. Also, although fairly well done in The Ring, the climactic scare scene just isn't as hair-raising as it is in Ringu. Anyway, if you're interested in seeing both versions, I'd recommend starting with the slower, subtler original.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the American version.
Review: I saw The Ring the other night and gave it a 2 star rating as one of the most over-hyped movies in a long time. I'm glad i saw it, though, and enjoyed the creepy mood and atmosphere of it, but i didn't think it was the scariest movie of all time like so many of the five star reviews were saying. I had a big problem with how the movie was hard to figure out in parts and there were many unanswered questions that left me with an unsatisfied feeling. Plus, i didn't buy the explaination for how the images got on the tape at all. Thankfully, i was able to see Ringu, which had the effect of fixing the focus on a blurry picture and making everything crystal clear. Not only was Ringu a better story and went in a different and more enjoyable direction than the story The Ring was trying to tell, but it all made 100% sense by the end of the movie and cleared up all the unanswered questions i'd had about The Ring. The explaination in Ringu for the reason behind the images appearing on the tape was believable. Also, Ringu didn't drag the way The Ring did. Technically, The Ring looked better, but that was only because of the millions of dollars difference in the budget. Considering Ringu was made on a shoestring budget, i'd say they did a great job of it. The scene where the girl comes through the tv made sense in Ringu due to the different approach to the story and the explaination of things, whereas in The Ring it just looked like a Hollywood afterthought that was tagged on for shock purposes. The way it was done in Ringu was also ten times scarier than in The Ring, and the music during that part was scarier too. Ringu also helped explain the epilogue in The Ring that had made no sense to me at all. I really didn't like the way the story was handled and altered in The Ring. They added parts to it that just ended up confusing me. My advice would be to skip The Ring totally and watch Ringu instead. It may not be Hollywood material for all you people who depend on cgi effects and huge big budgets, but the story of Ringu is much more enjoyable to follow and made a hell of a lot more sense than The Ring.

Rating:
Summary: Japanese
Review: I would like to see this movie, so I can see how the movies differ, but being in Japanese (and I do not know the Japanese language) I would have no idea what is going on...

Rating:
Summary: Good, but 'The Ring' is way better
Review: While I will agree that this movie is disturbing and scary, for people to say the remake is bad is idiotic. Some great things about this movie is the esp part, very interesting. The 'samara' character in the original does a better job, in terms of 'the walk' at the end. It's very unanatural and disjointed-disturbing. The 'eye' thing at the end is freaky. When she comes through the t.v., at the end, her hair looks fresh and clean and this was kinda fake. In the remake 'Samara' comes out of the well like she has been in a well, dripping wet and messed up looking-much better, I think. However the reporter in this finds out everything awfully quick. The remake keeps you at the edge of your seat and does not let you go. The footage on the tape, in Ringu' is kinda lame. The small amount of effects the American version used are far better, especially the look on the dead victims. In Ringu their expressions were not scary at all, kinda comical if you ask me. I know all the art critics and 'people who think the remake is an insult to the original' will not agree w/this review. I have only two comments. Ringu is a little scary, but the remake 'The Ring' is horrific.

Rating:
Summary: The Postman Always Wrings Thrice, Plus Thrice
Review: I heartily agree with the luxurious anxieties expressed below, but wish to clarify a few things which may seem unclear (not that I am opposed to lack of clarity.) Ringu, aka Ring or Ring 1, was made in tandem with Spiral (which we might call Ring 1.5.)
Spiral was less than the overwhelming success expected at the box office (which happens when you try to compete with yourself), so the makers moved quickly to Ring 2, which pretended that 1.5 never happened, and is a direct sequel to Ring 1. So far, so good. Then along comes Ring O, a fine movie but lacking the shattering brilliance of the first two, though retaining the atmosphere and sense of unease. Ring 0 is of course the "prequel," and answers all the questions you already strongly suspected the answers to, while adding a few dozen of its own. The proper order of viewing should be (beg to differ): Ring 1, Ring 2 (which provides devastating new information in the first five minutes, info which is reprised more overtly but less effectively at the end of Ring 0, which should be viewed last.) Spiral is I understand now more-or-less available on DVD, and I will forego speculation on its merits.
Meanwhile, I've noticed about a dozen thematic devices in Ringu
(and more in 2 and O), ranging from the traditional Japanese figures of "the woman with long hair" and "the woman in the well" to death by phone and death by video to Carrie and creepy killer kids. This list is far from exhaustive. It should all be a mess, and in some ways it is, but it doesn't really matter because here the supernatural is strongly present yet without clear causation or rational interconnection. It just is, so you can run but you can't hide. And being a nice person earns no mercy. I haven't seen the Hollywood remake, nor have I seen the Korean. Will do so, but I'm in no hurry.

Rating:
Summary: Best Horror Ever
Review: Why they kept the "u" in the title I do not know, it isn't even pronounced since the movie was titled using the English language in Japanese script, it doesn't make sense, but an easy mistake.

This movie is the original, it tells the tale of a curse laid down by the tormented soul of Sadako, a girl who was fathered by something that may not have been human, had stranbge powers and eventually cast down a well and left to die. Her curse reaches out through a video tape that causes those who watch it to die exactly 7 days to the very second after having viewed it. This movie tells of Reiko, a journalist who's niece has just died a terrifying death, she begins to investigate the giurl;s death and stumbles onto a oath that could end her life throug hactions of her own. She watches the video tape that killed her niece and gets a strange call, she has 7 days to live.

The movie is told more through character development, drama and suspence, I found it more believable than the remake (The Ring), those that do not link with this version so well need t odo a little research on Japanese mythology and their traditional forms of monsters and how they were said to co-exist with humans.

With the other 2 movies, it becomes more apparent that Sadako is a tragic figure rather a ruthless one as Samara is in The Ring.

Truly the best horror ever, sadly ruined by the remake (the the latter is als ogood, it pales next to this). This is one movie that had me unplugging my tv and VCR so I could sleep at night ;)

Rating:
Summary: PLEASE STOP COMPARING TO "THE RING"!
Review: Before I begin, I just want to say, I have also reviewed the American remake and also rated it 5 stars. I feel that I can do this simply because, after I had watched it and its predecessor, I felt like I had watched two films with only their most basic premise in common; therefore, comparing the two, I feel, is completely unfair. Both movies were fabulous in their own respects.
In The Ring, I thought that the minute-and-a-half embellishment of the first scene was a great touch (with the water pooling under the door, etc.) and I also enjoyed the almost-purposefully campy acting of the two actresses involved as it seemed, to me, to make fun of other American teen horror flicks. As for the rest of the movie, poorly scripted dialogue and mediocre acting was the major downfall (how this could happen when Ringu's dialogue was so excellent I will never understand) - In Ringu, however, the acting seemed much more realistic, even in the first scene, and the resultant setup was also very effective.
Second, the video in the remake is almost TEN TIMES more unsettling to watch than the one in Ringu- it reminded me of a demented student art film... the video in Ringu is about a fourth as long and, while its mere ambiguity is creepy, I was rather unimpressed with it.
Third- the subsequent storylines are wildly different except for their culminations and each is likeable in its own respects- I like Ringu's storyline, once again, for its creepy ambiguity, but I think that The Ring gains a point here plotwise because I LOVED the idea that the main characters would seek the origin of the tape and find out more about Samara's (Sadako's) life. It was fascinating and SUPERBLY creepy, and I liked all of the embellishments in that area.
Finally, and as much as I hate to say it, I enjoyed the special effects of the remake (expecially in the last scene). Did it seem to anyone else that, in Ringu, Sadako looked rather... clean? Just my opinion.
Point is- both had good, creepy atmosphere, and good storylines. Scenes from the remake are, in my opinion, done better. Acting in the remake suffers, and this takes MUCH away from the overall movie. Acting in the original is superb- top-notch; therefore, the rest of the movie is very enjoyable, and make up for the places where special effects, etc. were used in the remake and subsequently seem to lack when watching the original.
My advice: see both, and don't make up your mind about one until you HAVE seen both. You will not be bored: they are hardly similar. I really think that how you will view these movies depend on what you appreciate in cinema- I appreciate art and cinematography, which was embellished in the remake, but I also appreciate subtlety and ambiguity, which is rampant in the original (not to say that both don't contain some of the other...). Both approaches to the story are very intriguing. I really enjoyed both movies, and see no need to compare them with each other.

Rating:
Summary: So Scary You'll Sweat
Review: This is an amazingly awesome movie. The remake is excellent, but the original Japanese version will literally take your breath away. It was so scary I had to turn all the lights on in the house to watch it. You don't want to be alone when you watch this.