Continuity mistake: When the two girls are on the floor, just as the phone rings, Tomoko (the girl in green) has her right hand on Masami's (girl in red) shoulder. Cut to a different angle but now, Tomoko has her hand on Masami's arm instead of her shoulder.
Ringu (1998)
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, Nanako Matsushima, Yuko Takeuchi
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)
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
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.
Continuity mistake: When Reiko is talking to her camera man in the office, she places her left hand on top of her organizer. Cut to a different angle but now she has her left hand on the side of the organizer.
Trivia: The film is loosely based on an ongoing series of novels by Japanese author Koji Suzuki. While the film shares the basic premise of the novels, the details are vastly different. (Notably, the books feature heavy and increasing science-fiction overtones that are absent from the films.) The American remake, "The Ring," is based more directly on this film and its sequel "Ringu 2" than the novels.
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."
Trivia: Sadako's mother, Shizuko, was loosely based on a real person - Chizuko Mifune. Mifune was a self-proclaimed psychic. Just like Shizuko in the film, in real life Mifune took part in a press event to prove her abilities, but was labeled a fraud by reporters, and later committed suicide.
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.
Yoichi Asakawa: You know what, Mother?
Reiko Asakawa: Yes?
Yoichi Asakawa: Tomo-chan watched the cursed video.
Yoichi Asakawa: Tomo-chan told me to.
Question: This may be weirdly specific, but does anyone know what the two background music clips from the Region 1 DVD menu are from? There's two different songs - one is a short, creepy 5-second clip that plays when you hit "Play Movie," and the other is the general background music from the DVD menu, which is a sort-of slow, sad guitar piece. I'm assuming they're just royalty free music from a collection of some sort, but I quite enjoy them.
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.
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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