Revealing mistake: Near the end (DVD), when Sadako comes out of the TV, you can see where her finger extensions have been placed (you can see the join between her real finger and the fake one). (01:22:50)
Ringu (1998)
1 review
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, Nanako Matsushima, Yuko Takeuchi
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Based loosely on the novels of Koji Suzuki, director Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" remains one of the most effective and unsettling of the J-Horror genre even twenty years after its initial release.
In this thriller, a reporter probes a mysterious string of deaths after they hit close to home. She soon comes to discover that one thing ties them all together - a treacherous video-tape from local urban legends containing haunting images and subliminal messages, that kills all who see it in seven days. After she views the tape and realises the curse is all too real, it becomes a race against time as she must try and solve the mystery of the video and the malevolent force that created it.
While the film may have been overshadowed in western markets by its bigger-budgeted American remake, the fact is the original film is absolutely phenomenal. It's a prime example of slow-burn terror that makes effective use of atmosphere and minimalistic thrills. Despite dealing with bigger-than-life supernatural forces, the film always feels grounded and intimate, and has a nice sense of realism. And it never relies on cheap tricks or jumps to scare its audiences - it simply has a consistent eerie tone of dread that permeates throughout the entire experience.
Director Nakata's deliberate visual guidance is absolutely sublime, as are the performances of our leads Nanako Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada. I also highly admired the sparse but unsettling musical score by Kenji Kawai. All in all, it really is just a perfect little creepshow, and all horror fans should definitely check it out!
And it easily earns a perfect 5 out of 5.
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Suggested correction: She's not wearing finger extensions. There are small prosthetics to make it look like her fingernails are missing, but her fingers are normal length.
Reiko Asakawa: So that video is.
Ryuji Takayama: It's not of this world. It's Sadako's fury. And she's put a curse on us.
Trivia: During the climax, Sadako's unnatural movement was accomplished with a very simple in-camera effect - the actress performed the scene backwards. The footage was then reversed, which gave her movements an uncanny feeling, since they weren't quite "right." In addition, to further aid in giving her an uncanny appearance, the closeup of her eyeball in the final scenes of the film were actually shot with a male actor's eye... again to subtly make it feel not quite "right."
Question: There is a scene in Sadako's video (ie. the death tape) which features some people crawling backwards. I have watched this film millions of times and cannot work out what it means. Does anyone know what it means or if relates to anything in the film? Does it even have a meaning?
Answer: The other answer is not correct, although you could take it that way if you wanted. The novel upon which "Ring 0" is based was not even out at the time, nor was the prequel even planned at the time this movie came out. So that's not really the answer, although you could retroactively try to connect the two. As for the actual question: the crawling figures are typically viewed as being representations of the victims of the volcanic eruption that Shizuko (Sadako's mother) predicted. Especially as they appear right after words like "eruption" appear onscreen. Or they can be viewed somewhat more nebulously as representations of Sadako's pain, or the pain her victim's feel.
Answer: It may relate to a scene in Ringu 0, which goes a bit more into Sadako's origins; in that film, Sadako is a normal girl trying to hold back the evil spirit within her. A large group of people chase Sadako past the well, but the evil spirit breaks out and Sadako kills them all; the crawling people could be them as they were dying.
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