Ringu (1998)

Director:

Hideo Nakata

Writers:

Kôji Suzuki (novel)
Hiroshi Takahashi (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 January 1998 (Japan)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

"One curse, one cure, one week to find it"

Plot:

A mysterious video kills whomever views it, unless that viewer can solve its mystery.

Plot Keywords:

Tokyo Japan | Japanese | Extrasensory Perception | 1990s | Scientist

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Nanako Matsushima	...	Reiko Asakawa
Miki Nakatani	...	Mai Takano
Hiroyuki Sanada	...	Ryuji Takayama
Yuko Takeuchi	...	Tomoko Oishi
Hitomi Sato	...	Masami Kurahashi
Yoichi Numata	...	Takashi Yamamura
Yutaka Matsushige	...	Yoshino
Katsumi Muramatsu	...	Koichi Asakawa
Rikiya Otaka	...	Yoichi Asakawa
Masako	...	Shizuko Yamamura
Daisuke Ban	...	Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma
Kiyoshi Risho	...	Omiya the Cameraman
Yûrei Yanagi	...	Okazaki
Yôko Ôshima	...	Reiko's Aunt
Kiriko Shimizu	...	Ryomi Oishi

Also Known As:

Ring (International: English title) (UK) (USA)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:12 | Japan:R-15 | New Zealand:R13 | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated

Company:

Omega Project

Trivia:

Yamamura Shizuko is based on a real person, Mifune Chizuko, who was born in 1886 in Kumamoto Prefecture and who was rumored to have the gift of foresight. After a demonstration in 1910, she was proclaimed a charlatan and committed suicide a year later by ingesting poison.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, the TV in Tomoko's room is on. However, in the next scene when Tomoko has a close up, it's off. Neither Masami or Tomoko had switched it off.

Quotes:

Yoichi Asakawa: You know what, Mum?
Reiko Asakawa: Yes?
Yoichi Asakawa: Tomo-chan watched the cursed video!

Movie Connections:

References Videodrome (1983)

Unsettling

Everyone knows the story by now: there's a videotape which, when played, reveals a discordant string of disturbing images including a circle of sky seen from below and a man looking down from above, the word "Eruption" written over and over again and moving of its own accord across the page, a hooded figure pointing at some unseen accused, a woman brushing her hair before a mirror and, last but not least, a well standing alone on a neglected patch of land. The video ends and the phone rings...but there is only an eerie silence on the other end. In seven days, the viewer of the video is dead, their heart having suddenly come to a stop for no apparent reason. One such victim is a seventeen year old girl, and it is up to her aunt, hotshot newspaper reporter Reiko, to solve the mystery of the strange video.

Like the American remake "The Ring," Ringu is not a perfect film. It leaves more than a couple of unanswered questions and may move too slowly in some parts to hold the attention of horror film fans who are used to a bloody slaughter scene every seven minutes. But for fans of good, spooky, old fashioned ghost stories, "Ringu" has a lot to recommend it.

One of the things I appreciated the most about this movie is the complete and utter lack of gore. There's not a drop of blood to be found in this film, which makes the sight of so many dead bodies, their faces frozen in hideous screams of horror, all the more effective. The character of Sadako also has more of an impact than the child from the remake. Sadako never speaks, her face is never seen (but for one hideous, floating eye) and her presence is solid, unlike her static-y American sister. Sadako's emergence from the TV screen in the films final moments is worth waiting through the rest of the movie to see; it is a truly creepy moment which looks to have been filmed backwards as Sadako creeps with jerky, inhuman movements across the floor and up, swiveling to face her victim. That scene haunted me (no pun intended) for two full nights of broken sleep...mostly because Sadako seemed so terribly human, as sad as she was frightening. You pity her before you see her merciless side, and this throws the balance way out of whack.

Unsettling, to say the least.

This is a film about dread, about knowing that something dark and terrible is waiting for you and not knowing how to stop it. You can only wait and hope for the best...but the wait itself is the real horror, and the unseen unknown is the most frightening monster of all.