Cheap Ringu (DVD) (Hideo Nakata) Price

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Customer Reviews of Ringu

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). <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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.

Eerie horror as satire on mass communication
It's well known that Japan is several years ahead of the USA as far as technology, and as seen Lost in Translation, the wave of mass communication leads to absurdity. <
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>Ringu acts on the same premise but in a very different way. As you probably know from the American remake, it's about a reporter who stumbles across a videotape that kills all who watch it. The remake was a good movie, but it just didn't inspire the same primal emotions or incorporate the same wit as the original. <
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>This film is as smart as George Romero's Dawn of the Dead and as scary as Silence of the Lambs. Televisions and telephones create an ominous presence whenever appearing in a scene. The TVs are a personification of evil as effective as Hannibal Lector. After seeing the film, I actually had slight nightmares about being attacked by my TV. <
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>The mass influx of news stories in different versions lead to the depletion of information overall. The main characters struggle, even the psychic, to discover the truth about the tapes origins within the week they have left. Rumors seem true, then false, then turn out true, and no one knows who to believe. <
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>In a world where mass hysteria stems from overloaded misinformation, we are forced to ask ourselves, should I pass that chain letter and condemn the recipient to its consequences, or should I sacrifice myself to end it. This is a film that understands, as all great horror films do, that the greatest terrors lie within.