Film of the Week #36 - Ring (リング)

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178868/

This film is nothing short of astonishing. In my opinion it was in no small way the saviour of the horror genre, considering it came about at the time when we were drowning in Scream clones, 'ironic' teen slasher flicks that simply weren't scary in the least. When Ring came out, there was simple nothing like it.

It was a brooding, supremely atmospheric, understated, slow burning film that built tension instead of relying on cheap scares, like something jumping out suddenly. Everything in the film is present almost in monochrome, the ugly oppressive feeling throughout is something few films have come close to matching. "That" scence (You know what I'm talking about! ) was possibly one of the most chilling experiences of my life, I was literally edge back in my seat without realising it.

I do fear the film might have lost some of it's impact now, considering the amount of sequels, remakes, clones and imitators it's spawned. Don't get me wrong, I think there's quite a few fantastic horror films that have clearly been inspired by Ring, take The Eye and A Tale Of Two Sisters for example, but it sadly may not have the same impact as it did when it first came out.

Still, with that said, it's well recommended.

Discuss.

Dont be at yourself

I agree with much of the above sentiment, in that it was a real breath of fresh air in a stagnating genre, and that its name has been somewhat tarnished by the slew of 'Asian Horror' rubbish that followed in its wake.

The Eye was rubbish, though.

Karl Hungus

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

The Eye was rubbish, though.

Really? I very much enjoyed it. Obviously nowhere near as good as Ring, but compared to a lot of the other Asian horrors, it was one of the better ones.

Dont be at yourself

Really? I very much enjoyed it. Obviously nowhere near as good as Ring, but compared to a lot of the other Asian horrors, it was one of the better ones.

This is perhaps a discussion for another day, but I felt that the film completely failed to build any dramatic tension. We had a few creepy scenes, and the rest just fell flat. It was incredibly hyped at the time as well, which didn't help.

But anyway: The Ring. A great film, and along with Battle Royale, probably the cornerstone of the explosion of interest in Asian cinema over the last decade or so.

Karl Hungus

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

It was incredibly hyped at the time as well, which didn't help.

Hmm, I'd agree with you there. At the time I saw it, right when it came out there was very little hype, and I liked it a lot, but there definetly was a bit of hype for the film after that.

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

But anyway: The Ring. A great film, and along with Battle Royale, probably the cornerstone of the explosion of interest in Asian cinema over the last decade or so.

Agreed. Two exceptional films, it has to be said.

johnny_ultimate

I remember my cousin telling me about this film one night when I was about 13 - the description alone scared the bejeezez out of me. I had the misfortunte of seeing the remake in the cinema before this, but was pretty terrified by it. As far as remakes go, it is not the worst.

Saw the actual film a month or two after the remake. While pretty much knowing the plot inside out at that point, and the scares being signifigantly muted as a result of the Naomi Watts version. But I could still appreciate the superior plot (the volcano business is more interesting than the horse plot) and the terrific scare mongering on their own terms.

Probably my first taste of Asian cinema (I actually cant think of many earlier ones) and a great one at that.

PS: I also despised the Eye. That film was all kinds of awful. Tale of Two Sisters is terrific though, even if I think it works more as a Lynchian head trip than a horror.

Eirebear

yep, the ring is one of the films i credit with bringing the goold old fashioned "ghost story" back to horror movies.
Along with Tale of two sisters and The Devils backbone, it took away the ususual pointless hack and slash fare and actually gave the scariness a reason for being wilst leaving enough mystery about it to make it frightening.

I agree on The Eye, i didnt like it.

koneko

I also saw The Eye before there was any hype and enjoyed it, that might make a big difference to that film. Agree that it is not anywhere near as good as Ringu though. I saw Ringu before there was hype about that aswell, I had no idea what to expect and was blown away, scariest film I'd seen in a very long time.

monkeyfudge

I remember when Ring first came to the IFI and I just missed out on seeing it.

Luckily it was available on DVD soon after and I was able to pick up a copy. I really didn't know much about it as it wasn't well known at all back then. I actually thought it was a Japanese take on films like Scream... But I was immensely impressed with it... Ring and The Shining are probably the only two films that I've found genuinely disturbing.

Soon became obsessed with all things Ring related.

In my collection I have the Japanese films Ring, Ring 2 and Rasen and Ring 0. Rasen was the proper sequel based on the second book, but it had a different director and was a very dull and boring affair and didn't perform too well so they got Hideo Nakata back to direct a film that was a sequel to the first film and not based on the second book at all. I thought Ring 2 was still pretty good at delivering the scares but the plot was a bit all over the place... some great moments in it though. I really liked Ring 0, it details Sada's life before she went down the well... not too many scares in it, except towards the end... but it's actually a very good drama with an excellent performance from the actress play Sada.

I also have The Ring Virus on DVD... which is the Korean adaptation of the book. It's pretty mediocre but it sticks closer to the plot of the book than any other version made so far. I've also read the book by the way... and it's pretty good, although it's hard to relate to the main characters as they have some questionable moral values. The main thing that Hideo Nakata did that is a vast improvement over the book is making the main character female... it makes for a far more interesting dynamic than the two male leads in the book.

Then there is of course the US version... They did a far better job adapting it than I thought they would and sitting watching the late showing in a packed Savoy Screen 1 on the Friday it came out was a great experience. I gave the sequel a miss when it came out in the cinema as I think my interest in Ring was waning by that stage... I picked it up on DVD eventually and tried to watch it but just could get through it... it's very weak.

I also had the gay porno version, but sadly the disc got broken. It was called The Hole I believe... and if you see the video tape you turn gay in 7 days.

Does anyone know if Bollywood ever got their hands on the Ring franchise on it? That would be awesome.

There are actually 3 books by the way... The first two have already been adapted into films and the 3rd one was turned into an atrocious survival horror game for the Dreamcast.

Paligulus

Karl Hungus wrote:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178868/

This film is nothing short of astonishing. In my opinion it was in no small way the saviour of the horror genre, considering it came about at the time when we were drowning in Scream clones, 'ironic' teen slasher flicks that simply weren't scary in the least. When Ring came out, there was simple nothing like it.

Well put. In my humble opinion, you cannot underestimate the impact of this film. It definately left an impression on me!!! I also enjoyed the myth surrounding the stories, which lead me to get into the books etc...

I even enjoyed the American remake (!!). I dont think you can compare them to the Japaneese equivalents but when you compare them to other Hollywood Horror films (as Karl says), it really was a great tense film.

Even though the American sequal butchered, at the time it was a film I really looked forward too. Something I havn't really done in a long time sine. So for that reason alone I liked it.

Good choice!!!!

Karl Hungus

Oh god! Thanks for reminding me of that supremely creepy line, Monkeyfudge...

Frolic in brine, goblins be thine...

Paligulus

Also, if anyone's intersted in finding out about the whole Ring franchise, here's a really good website that give info on all the films, books, documentaries and even gives a bit of background to its relevance in Japaneese culture:

http://www.theringworld.com/

The timelines are really good too!!!

Retr0gamer

It really is an outstanding film in the horror genre and there is nothing quite like it. The pacing is just wonderful. Apart from the scare at the start the film is more like a creepy detective film with not much going. It lulls the viewer into a false sense of security before unleashing one of the scariest scenes in a film ever. The remake while being a decent film is inferior to the original it's based on. The remake has too many cheap scares that cheapen it and the ending losses a lot of it's impact as a result. I feel the remake ruins the original for people who haven't seen it since you know what to expect at the end while in the original it's a huge shock.

Thought the Eye was woeful as well. Tale of Two Sisters on the other hand is a wonderful film.

Edit: I'm trying to hold in the laughter here after reading about 'The Hole'. Thank you Monkeyfudge.

Necronomicon

Deserved and highly influential winner - not only did it practically spawn the American remake obsession, but it really put the concept of the 'creepy long-haired girl' on the radar of modern horror, leading to countless subsequent movies with the same premise (Ju-on etc)

The one scene that sticks out for me, as well as most people I'd imagine, is

the famous part where Sadako crawls out of the tv

- a real hair standing on end moment.

I enjoyed the sequel as well, but it didn't quite live up to the first - it was less of a slow-burner and had more 'scares', but imo, the scene I mentioned above was creepier the first time around than any that followed in the sequels.

Let's keep the horror going in FoTW

johnny_ultimate

Hmm must check out the sequels / prequels actually.
Although if the proper sequel is anything like the abomination that was Ring 2: The American hunk o'garbage, I might give it a miss.

monkeyfudge

Rasen really isn't worth watching at all. There's a very good reason that the Japanese made a Ring 2 that had nothing to do with the book.

The novel Rasen reads more like a medical thriller than a horror novel.

Ring 0 is really worth a watch though... I may stick that on later actually as I haven't watched it in years.

And I love that "Frolic in brine, goblins be thine" line too.... Whoever was doing the subtitles the first time around really did a good job with that as it's no where near a literal translation of what is said in Japanese, but is a tremendously foreboding phrase.

Creature

Outstanding film, really original and very engrossing. I didn't really think much of the sequels though, or the American remakes. Actually I though the American films were crap, whereas the Japanese sequels just bored the hell out of me.

Karl Hungus

Retr0gamer wrote:

It really is an outstanding film in the horror genre and there is nothing quite like it. The pacing is just wonderful. Apart from the scare at the start the film is more like a creepy detective film with not much going. It lulls the viewer into a false sense of security before unleashing one of the scariest scenes in a film ever. The remake while being a decent film is inferior to the original it's based on. The remake has too many cheap scares that cheapen it and the ending losses a lot of it's impact as a result. I feel the remake ruins the original for people who haven't seen it since you know what to expect at the end while in the original it's a huge shock.

I agree, but aswell as that I think a lot of what was wrong with the remake was the fact that there was a exciting scenes that killed the mood of the film, such as the crap with the horses, and the scene where

Samara comes out of the TV. In the original when Sadako came out of the TV, it was one extremely long front on shot that was quite easily the creepiest ****ing thing ever. The remake interjected it with the Naomi Watts character racing to the scene in her car. Utterly destroying any tension the scene had.

And another thing that bothered me was the origins. In the remake

Samara was adopted and there was all this vague nonsense about her, and how she doesn't know how to stop what she's doing. Whereas in the original, it's not really spelled out for the viewer, but I think it's clear when we see the scene where Sadako's mother is giving a psycic display and Sadako kills one of the journalists, she's a very powerful psycic and that's how she imprints the curse onto the videotape and kills people.

I always felt that with Samara, it was a case of *Shrug* "Dunno, the evil **** just happens!" whereas with Sadako, there was a true malevolence at work and reason behind everything that happens.

johnny_ultimate

Just rewatched it there - empty house, sound blocking headphones, lights off. That is the way to watch a horror film. Knowing what happens kind of diminished it's impact (like, duh), but I really noticed the terrific sound design - really first rate music and sound effects. Love the visuals too - grainy, simple and effective. Also

the ending is excellent. Such a sense of foreboding as she drives to her father's house and the storm clouds gather overhead

. A truly unsettling, disturbing film.

Rented out the sequel and prequel too so will give them a watch soon.

koneko

The only compliment I have for the remake is that some of the cinematography is good, some shots/frames are fantastic, there were a few bits I still remember that were visually impressive.

Other than that I can't think of anything good to say, it took what was a claustrophobic, unnerving, scary film and turned it into a dull by-the-numbers film where the scares are obvious "ohmygod look at how gross that corpse is" moments. It wasn't unsettling and it didn't make you scared of being in the house on your own in the dark, which the original did. The sequel to the remake was just painfully bad (what were you thinking, Nakata?).

ixoy

Good choice to represent horror movies for FotW. I just missed out on the Ringu double-showing in the IFI a few years ago but managed to catch it on C4.

It's got one of the neatest concepts for a horror movie I've ever seen (I was watching a video tape of it) and a great use for lingering tension. It's hard to remember almost that this is the film that popularised the creepy school girl, given how many have followed that since, but it's a testament to its legacy. Also, yes, that scene is indeed one of the scariest I've seen - I recall taking malicious delight when my bf and I went to see the US remake, anticipating what was to come (and yes, the dramatic tension was dulled somewhat by the racing car scene which nipped the creeping doom).
The sequel and prequel - Ring 2 and Ring 0 - are also worthy additions to the franchise.

Oh and can I also add my voice of dissent - 'The Eye' was over-rated and very disappointing. However, 'A Tale of Two Sisters' was excellent and a highlight of the Tartan Asian Film Festival so far (along with 'Save the Green Planet').

monkeyfudge

In the remake I did like how they did the staticy thing where Samara was suddenly on top of him. But her face was no where near as creepy as the big eyes in the Japanese one.

They pulled of the great creepy effect in the Japanese one by getting a traditional kabuki actor to walk backwards and then they ran the tape backwards.

The Bollox

Ringu is a definite for anyone who loves horror films. slow paced and unnerving and with a magnificent climax that scared the bejasus out of me, and I knew what was going to happen (thanks a lot Scary Movie x :rolleyes:).

I have been meaning to check it out for myself, but apparently if you go to the special features to see the Ring video and select 'no' after a few minutes it shows the video anyway. the guy who told me said it was the freakiest moment of his entire life. said it was late at night, just after watching the movie, and that he was shaken up by the climax only to be greeted by the video coming on all by itself.

it could be bull****, but I'd love to see for myself

johnny_ultimate

Well watched the sequel and prequel there.
Ring 0 is actually a pretty good little film. It is not the most original film on the block, but it works well as a horror-drama. Some of the moments towards the end are indeed pretty creepy, but overall it's a very different thriller. It doesn't really have that much in common with the other films in terms of style, but it is a refreshing take on the story from a new director. Worth a watch.

Ring 2 doesn't hold up as well. The plot is muddled and overly complex. The major issue I would have with it though is that it just wasn't particularly scary. 0 isn't either, but it has more going for it in terms of story than this does. There are some positive points admittedly - Nakata is surprisingly harsh on major characters from the first film, while the finale at the pool is well done, if a little OTT. The best that can be said of it is that it is superior to the American sequel, but sure that wouldn't be too hard.

Neither come close to the atmosphere or effectiveness of part one, but 0 is certainly a worthy prequel.

Karl Hungus

I have to say, I'm rather suprised by the dislike of The Eye. Sure, it's nowhere near as good as Ring, or for that matter, A Tale Of Two Sisters, but I'm still of the opinion it was a good one.

Johnny_ultimate, you know I hadn't seen Ring 2 in a long time, but as far as I remember there was one excellent scene in it

where sadako was climbing out of the well

, that was supremely creepy. I might actually give it another look tbh, I'm rather fuzzy as to what exactly happened.

Retr0gamer

Karl Hungus wrote:

I have to say, I'm rather suprised by the dislike of The Eye. Sure, it's nowhere near as good as Ring, or for that matter, A Tale Of Two Sisters, but I'm still of the opinion it was a good one.

I just found it really tame, it wasn't scary at all, it didn't even have a Glenda Gilsons eyebrows level of creepiness. The story dull and I thought the hyped finale wasn't anything special.

monkeyfudge

Karl Hungus wrote:

Johnny_ultimate, you know I hadn't seen Ring 2 in a long time, but as far as I remember there was one excellent scene in it

where sadako was climbing out of the well

, that was supremely creepy. I might actually give it another look tbh, I'm rather fuzzy as to what exactly happened.

Some of the scenes in the hospital were pretty good too and were even incorporated into the US remake of the original.

Necronomicon

I really liked The Eye. I thought there was plenty of suspense, and some great scenes

like the elavator scene, which made the hair on my arm stand tall

Karl Hungus wrote:

I hadn't seen Ring 2 in a long time, but as far as I remember there was one excellent scene in it

where sadako was climbing out of the well

, that was supremely creepy.

Yeah that scene creeped the hell out of me,

Sadako looked totally disjointed, almost like a spider the way she climbed up the wall.

I think they did that in the sequel of the American remake as well, and iirc it's one of the things that was actually done well.