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: Can anyone tell me exactly how much the American remake follows the original Japanese film? I have seen all of the Japanese movies, but only a bit of the American remake, and for some reason, I am having trouble finding it at local video stores.
Answer: It follows it fairly closely, but removes some Japanese cultural references. All of the names are changed, the psychic powers of some characters are removed, and all references to "sea goblins" are gone. Samara is a young girl (not a grown woman like Sadako) and speaks to victims on the phone, rather than the phone call only having strange noises. The lead character is more heroic and investigatory and there are more special effects (for example, the victims' bodies are deformed).
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