The Ring or Ringu

AngelofFire

i had difficulty making up my mind about this. but the Ring was definately more frightening than the original japaneese version. the atmosphere was very effective particularily when they are on that strange island. but i felt that the plot of Ringu was easier to follow. upon seeing the ring i had a lot of questions to ask about the plot after i left the cinema. Almost everything is explained at the end of Ringu. what do you think?

GuanYin

Originally posted by AngelofFire
i had difficulty making up my mind about this. but the Ring was definately more frightening than the original japaneese version. the atmosphere was very effective particularily when they are on that strange island. but i felt that the plot of Ringu was easier to follow. upon seeing the ring i had a lot of questions to ask about the plot after i left the cinema. Almost everything is explained at the end of Ringu. what do you think?

Ringu by a long sea mile!!

DadaKopf

The Nip version's better. Not only is it more minimal, which makes the whole film more elegant, but the whole premise is much more convincing seeing as they link it in with traditional Japanese folklore and all. By contrast, the Yankee hokum was over the top prothetic nonsense with crap names and vacuuous plot.

Dont be at yourself

The merkin version added in so much unneccessary stuff to render it much less effective, especially if you'd seen the original beforehand. Even comparing the two videos, the american version was comprised of some pretty clichéd stuff - the centipede crawling...

And then there was the kid, who was obviously trying to be a Haley Joel Osmond and was of no addition whatsoever to the story. Cringeworthy.

Oh, and the horses. And the well scene that was positively rushed through. And the absence of the brilliant closing scene of Ringu.

Tusky

im considering baning you angeloffire for even suggesting the american remake is beter :rolleyes:

koneko

AngelOfFire it sounds more like you haven't even seen the Japanese version, no offense

The American version had a few "nice" cinematography moments spliced in. Oh a lovely sunset. Oh a nice shot through some trees. It lacked atmosphere. It lacked the same claustrophobic, scary, gritty quality the original did.

Example

Near the end of the film, ex-hubby is in his apartment in the original, thinking everything is over, all is grand, then TV turns on. He sees the well. He sees Sadako climbing out of the well. He sees her walking towards him and coming out of the TV. He's in his tiny apartment, she's closing in, that's it.

American version, he's in a huge warehouse. Run for your life boy what the hell are you doing. Oh look he's dead and his face is all messed up and it's all gory.

Suspense can be better if you don't show lot of "gross" bits, to make the audience squeal. Also the story of how Samara became what she is now, and her being in the mental hospital, just ruins the whole thing.

The Japanese version doesn't feel it needs to show you maimed corpses and gross things to scare you, you can fill in the blanks. The audience, when filling in blanks, can make a film much scarier than a director ever could.

Repli

Maybe it's because I saw the american one in a cinema full of ppl with my friends... but I personally thought the jap one was a LOT scarier..

ESPECIALLY the scene where shes coming out of the tv at the end, although the american one did make me jump the way she just appeared, no climbing like the jap one

but having said that, I probably would never have ever heard of Ringu if it wasn't for the hollywood remake.. ah well