Ringu

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Supernatural Horror Tale
Review: 'Ringu' has acquired a cult reputation among serious horror film fans and the fact that it has been unavailable in the US until now, well after the theatre release of the American re-make, has done nothing but add to its mystique. I haven't seen the re-make yet, but now that I've seen the original, it's on my list.
'Ringu' is a low budget Japanese horror film that will please anyone in search of intense, yet intelligent, thrills. It's a modern take on many elements of the classic ghost story; The characters encounter something odd, then investigate it, leisurely at first, then with greater desperation as they realize what they're up against.
'Ringu' deserves credit for creating real chills without ever once resorting to splatter or show-stopping special effects. The supernatural is presented slowly and disturbingly, until it finally stares the characters (and the viewer) full in the face. The climax has the feel of an actual nightmare.
If you want supernatural horror that really gives you the queasy feeling of encountering something outside of the natural world, this one's for you.

Rating:
Summary: Are you crazy?
Review: Anyone who thinks that the ...American version was better than the original needs to answer yes to my question. That piece of dung that Hollywood made is nothing compared to the original. Ringu will be my purchase on March 4th, Hollywood can keep their paltry remake. The original is creepier and the acting is even better. The major disappointment in that car wreck of a remake was that they showed her eyes, which ruined the overall creepiness. Avoid the remake at all costs and see the original. As is in most cases, the original is far superior.
Also, people who know nothing of film, like the ones praising the remake over the original, should not be writing reviews and take some lessons in film by whatever means neccessary. Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: "Will scare the living hell out of you!"- Ringu cover
Review: Premise(As displayed on Ringu Box":

"Within a week of watching a mysterious videotape, a group of teenagers are dead. The bodies are found gruesomely contorted, their eyes frozen as if they had seen something more terrifying than any physical threat. The video becomes an urban myth. Insidiously, an unseen force is pointing its deadly finger at those poor souls unable to resist their curiosity. One of those people is the cynical journalist, Reiko, who soon finds herself unwillingly drawn into a spiralling nightmare from an unseen, omnipresent threat. The most unsettling film since the Exorcist, with an unnatural presence that touches every nerve in your body, Ringu is a beast of an entirely different order. Critically acclaimed as one of the most frightening horror films in years, Ringu delivers a tense spine-chilling atmosphere, filled with an overwhelming sense of dread and a potent presence of unworldly evil. Dark, sinister and genuinely horrifying, this is a film you will never forget."- Ringu cover

My Review:

For those who have seen the ring, and really liked it, this movie is a real treat! While The Ring was a more "Real" movie(meaning that it is almost a possibilty of something that is not too far off from real life) Ringu is very "Unreal"(It goes very ESP style pshycic) it is overall scarier than the ring however not as enjoyable once you have already seen it. This movie is based on the book: Ringu by Koji Suzuki.

Both movies however are good, and entertaing, and both have the same moral to the story:

Curiosity killed the Cat.

Rating:
Summary: The American Is 100x Better
Review: The only reason why I give this movie 2 stars is just the fact that some great person actually came up with this awesome idea. The concept of the Ring is soooo good, so i have to give them credit for that but its nothing compared to the American version. This a really really cheap version. It only cost 1 million to make and BARBERSHOP cost 10 million. That has got to tell u something....The story is different in the Japenese. It is a lot worse. Who ever said the Japenese version was way scarier than the America has something way wrong! Go rent or buy the America Ring! Its soooo good compared to this ...

Rating:
Summary: Ringu is no match for The Ring
Review: I've probably watched more horror films than most people. Time and time again I'm disappointed in how bad most of them are. There have been a few recent exceptions including The Others and Frailty, but for the most part horror has been awful. I was incredibly impressed with The Ring. Sure, it has a few lose ends, but for pure creep-factor, it ranks up there among the best horror films I've ever seen. After seing The Ring three times, I managed to secure bootlegs of the original Ringu trilogy. Boy, are these ever awful! Kudos to whoever was able to look at these and create The Ring from them. The original Japanease films are virtually unwatchable (especially the 2 sequels). Do yourself a favor and avoid these at all cost! The film that's supposed to kill you in the original Ringu lasts for about 25 seconds and is totally lame. The reporter figures everything out incredibly quickly. The only good part is the creepy ending, which was done much better in the remake. See the remake, skip the original.

Rating:
Summary: Fans of atmospheric horror, take note!
Review: Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998)

Welcome to the world of Japanese New Horror (JNH), a concerted attempt by a number of Japanese filmmakers to get away from the excesses of Hideshi Hino and his Guinea Pig films on one side and the emotional manipulation that passes for drama on the other. JNH filmmakers want to do nothing but tell good, solid, scary stories. As a result of stripping away the other layers, such things as emotional manipulation are cast to the wind, leaving spare frameworks within which the directors can weave what artistry they have. Because there have now been remakes from two countries (Korea and the United States), Ringu towers over other JNH films in terms of worldwide popularity. And while it may best serve as a gateway into the neophyte who wants to discover the world of JNH, it serves that purpose well.

The basic story is simple: an urban legend exists that there is a videotape which will kill you seven days after you see it. A reporter whose cousin died under very mysterious circumstances discovers that the urban legend is real, and the tape seems to have killed her cousin; she then sees it herself, and comes to the conclusion that deciphering the dadaesque series of images on the tape will keep her alive past the seven-day deadline.

Nakata does his job exceptionally well. The casting is perfect, and the characters are astoundingly believable, given that the premise itself has enough holes in it to rival a five-pound block of swiss cheese. This isn't about realism, though, as much as it is about artistry; the realism herein is injected solely by the characters, and they do a pretty fine job of it.

Nakata breaks the JNH mold slightly by beginning the film with something of a teaser, but then slips right back into lockstep with his fellow directors by laying off the horror angle and concentrating on the story of the reporter and her quest to solve the mystery. The story has enough of its own dramatic tension, and so (like many other brilliant films miscategorized as horror) Ringu ends up coming off as more of a straight mystery than it does a horror film for the first hour and a quarter of its existence. Again, as with every JNH film I've seen, however, once the horror starts, it's Katy-bar-the-door. The last few scenes of Ringu are not necessarily as explicit as the storied excesses of Hino's movies, but they're more graphic than most things you're going to see in modern gore films (and because the horrific aspects have less to do with fountains of blood and weaponry and more with subtle touches of makeup, the nastiness in Ringu is definitely of the creep-out factor type, rather than the 'oh, boy, here's a guy in a mask chopping up teens again').

Special mention must be made of the subject of the film itself, the videotape known in film circles as 'the curse film.' It is a nightmarish, dada masterpiece, a series of short gut-punches that are about the closest thing film has to an actual successor to Bunuel and Dali's Un Chien Andalou, but an Andlusian dog worked on as well by Guillaume Apollinaire and Rene Char. Ringu is worth tracking down and seeing just to catch the repeated viewings of the curse film.

Ringu is a wonderfully crafted little gem, and certainly deserving of its worldwide success. (Not to say that many other JNH films aren't; hopefully, they'll make it across the pond in the same way Ringu and Audition have.) Well worth the extra time it will require to track down for fans of atmospheric horror tales, but be warned: there are more than a few shocks awaiting you once the film builds to its climax. **** ½

Rating:
Summary: Endless Cycle
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most unsettling finales ever
Review: I'm glad to see that some of the reviews posted here point out that both "Ringu" and "The Ring" are very successful, and that to compare them is to be ignore the merits of both pictures.

Since more readers will have seen the remake, I do want to encourage viewers who haven't caught "Ringu" to do so for three major reasons: first, the spirit's motivations and roots are clearer while still maintaining the story's eerie ambiguity. It moves beyond the "Just because she's evil" realm. Second, the last choice made by the main character (dropped in the remake, my guess because it was thought too disturbing for an American audience) is brilliantly horrifying, and brings to life human frailty and the lengths desperation will take us. And finally, because the finale, in which spirit and human meet face to face, is one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen in a film ... and I love being unsettled, so I've seen a lot of unsettling scenes. The remake's version is also plenty effective, but the way the scene is filmed here - with something to suggest stop motion - will stay with me forever ... as will those fingernails.

A great film, not to be missed by genre fans.

Rating:
Summary: Sadako Is Much Scarier Than Samara!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: 'The Ring' is better
Review: 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.