Ringu
Cast
Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa
Miki Nakatani as Mai Takano
Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryuji Takayama
Yuko Takeuchi as Tomoko Oishi
Hitomi Sato as Masami Kurahashi
Directed by
Hideo Nakata
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
10/10. The original movie that the Hollywood-based hit The Ring is based on,
Ringu is tons creepier and scarier, with better acting, better
production, better script, and better everything.
Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) is a newspaper reporter who is learning
about a cursed videotape: after viewing an odd video, a phone rings,
and the person on the other end says, "You have one week to live."
After her niece dies from, presumably, the tape, she decides to
investigate, so she gets a hold of the video and watches it. She,
along with her husband/boyfriend Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), dissects
the tape frame by frame and tries to figure out the mystery.
This is the only movie that kept me up at night and had me terrified
at night, which is odd because the American remake is basically the
same, except that Ringu is in every way better. The video is shorter,
and many things, such as flies, bloody noses, drawing rings, and
shading faces, are not in this version, mainly because it wasn't
necessary. Those were just to American-ize it. Also, the character
played by Brian Cox in the remake has a larger role in this one. I
did not "jump" once, while in The Ring, that seemed to be most of the
scares. This one got its thrills naturally, not cheaply.
Hollywood movies seem to have booming music throughout the entire
films, while Ringu only had music during the suspenseful scenes,
which is odd, since, to me, the entire film was completely
suspenseful. The ending, with the TV, was the same as The Ring, but
it still gave us more answers than the remake, and didn't give us any
unnecessary information (such as the horses dying). It did not seem
over the top, in fact, it actually seemed plausible. It had to have
palpable dread to get me this scared. There also was a lot with ESP,
while there was none with the remake, which I unfortunately had to
see first.
Matsushima was very good, she really acted well. I hope that Ringu 2
and Ringu 0 get released here in America so I can see more of her
work, since she was very good. Sanada was also very good, and another
standout is Rikiya Otaka (Yoichi, Reiko's son). He seemed to have ESP
too, and was great. His role seemed very demanding for such a young
age.
I would recommend seeing Ringu before The Ring because: it's better,
the ending would be more of a surprise, and it's scarier. One more
point: why is it called Ringu if there isn't a ring in the video? You
won't notice if you're constantly biting your nails when watching,
which is what you'll do.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #5
Has Not Seen Movie.
Not Rated.
Running time: 96 minutes
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