A major box office hit in the Far East, Hideo Nakada's Ring is a subtly creepy Japanese ghost story with an urban legend theme, based on a series of popular teen-appeal novels by Susuki Koji. Far less showy than even the restrained chills of The Blair Witch Project or The Sixth Sense, Ring has nevertheless become a mainstream blockbuster and has already been followed by Ring 2 and the prequel Ring 0. A Hollywood remake is in the works.
Investigating the inexplicable, near-simultaneous deaths of her young niece and three teenage friends, reporter Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) learns of a story about a supernaturally cursed video-tape circulating among school kids. As soon as anyone has watched the tape, allegedly recorded by mistake from a dead TV channel, the telephone rings and the viewer has exactly a week to live. Those doomed are invisibly marked, but their images are distorted if photographed. Inevitably, Asakawa gets hold of the tape and watches it. The enigmatic collage of images include a coy woman combing her hair in a mirror, an old newspaper headline about a volcanic eruption, a hooded figure ranting, people crawling and a rural well. When the phone rings (a memorably exaggerated effect), Asakawa is convinced that the curse is active and calls in her scientist ex-husband Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada) to help. He watches a copy of the video a day after Asakawa is exposed and willingly submits himself to the curse. Even more urgency is added to their quest when their young son is unwittingly duped, apparently by the mystery woman from the tape, into watching the video too, joining the queue for a supernatural death.
On the DVD: For a film made in the digital era, the letterboxed (16:9) print is in mediocre state, with a noticeable amount of scratching, though the Dolby Digital soundtrack is superb, making this a film that's as scary to listen to as it is to watch (the squeamish might find themselves covering their ears rather than their eyes in some scenes). Otherwise, there are trailers for the first two Ring films and Audition, 10 stills, filmographies for the principals, a review by Mark Kermode, blurb-like extracts from other reviews and the ominous option of playing Sadako's video after a solemn disavowal of responsibility from the distributors! --Kim Newman
(41 votes)
2.
A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist find the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.
(40 votes)
3.
Exactly one week after staying at a remote cabin, a group of Japanese teenagers all meet sudden inexplicable deaths. A cousin of one of the victims, reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), begins an investigation that leads to the discovery of a videotape containing hauntingly bizarre footage. Upon viewing the tape, Reiko receives a phone call stating that she, too, will die in one week. As the clock ticks away, Reiko enlists the help of her estranged husband, Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), who possesses limited psychic abilities. Together they attempt to discover the meaning behind the cryptic film and break the supernatural curse.
Hideo Nakata's RING, based on a novel by Kôji Suzuki, was such a hit in Japan that it spawned both a sequel and prequel, along with a huge cult following. Like a horrific version of an X-FILES episode, the dark, moody film makes the most out of the mysterious and the unknown. As any viewer will admit, the surreal, death-inducing video presented within the movie is extremely effective. And as RING's tension builds, so does its sense of mounting doom. One of the creepiest motion pictures ever made, RING culminates in an unbelievably chilling finale. Do not watch this film alone...and make sure the phone ringer is off.
(39 votes)
4.
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
(34 votes)
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