Ringu (Ring) (1998)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 1
Ringu combines supernatural elements with anxieties about modern technology in a truly frightening and unnerving way.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 0
Ringu combines supernatural elements with anxieties about modern technology in a truly frightening and unnerving way.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 45,302
My Rating
Movie Info
In this psychological horror story from Japan, a legend circulates among teenagers that if one watches a certain video at a certain time of the night, the telephone will ring right afterward, and one week later, you will die. When Masami (Hitomi Sato) tells her friend Imako this story, she scoffs -- but a week later, Imako dies. Imako's aunt, a television journalist named Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), hears that not long before she died, Imako was watching a strange video with her friends -- all of
Mar 4, 2003
Cast
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Nanako Matsushima
Reiko Asakawa -
Hiroyuki Sanada
Ryuji Takayama -
Miki Nakatani
Mai Takano -
-
Hitomi Sato
Masami -
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All Critics (34) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (1) | DVD (7)
As good as The Ring is, it can't top the original for sheer, shivering terror.
Top CriticThe finale, too, still feels as twisted, bizarre and down-right nightmarish as it did all those years ago.
Classically shot, with effective use of stereo sound effects, the movie is almost entirely free of visual horror and the usual Eastern ghost cliches, managing to suspend auds' disbelief in the hokey story through pure atmosphere.
Eschewing blood for a sinuous tone of Videodromic dread, Ring forces fear into every cut as a psychic telejournalist counts down the hours till a fatal visitation, while making a gung ho attempt to save her brood.
Ringu has a minimalist intensity that can stop the heart with a simple flash-cut or a well-timed fillip in the musical score.
A sure, stealthy shocker which certainly primes you for the sequel.
Director Hideo Nakata manages to strike a genuinely alarming balance between the cultural depths of Japanese folklore and the surface sheen of latter-day teen culture.
While the story is engrossing, and the acting top-notch, Hideo Nakata's direction is the primary reason to watch.
David Cronenberg could perhaps compete with Nakata but unfortunately only lesser mortals have attempted to replicate the feeling that Reiko has plunged into something with which even her psychic powers can't compete.
Ring has indescribably disturbing moments that frightened me out of my wits. But like many of the Japanese horrors that followed, it sometimes has an elliptic and confusing storytelling style that can make plot-progression muddy.
The original retains its power to chill, although in the age of the DVD and the download, the idea of a haunted video cassette seems positively archaic.
Subtly expressive faces and spooky interiors are the order of the day in this original, powerful treat.
Director Hideo Nakata's film is a minor masterpiece -- a low-budget horror gem.
A landmark in horror cinema, Japan's Ring is arguably the most chilling pieces of popular supernatural cinema of the 90s.
Bog standard horror offering with a distinct lack of action or plot.
A blockbuster in Japan, this restrained horror film crosses urban legend conventions with Asian ghost story traditions, and the results are truly spooky.
It hit something primal in me, turning me into a quivering ball of nerves; my 'fight or flight' switch was turned to flight and then broken off.
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Foreign Titles
- Ring (Ringu) (DE)
- Ring (Ringu) (UK)
It's saying something that most people would find peculiar, but I found Ringu to be very problematic and consequently inferior to Gore Verbinksi's American remake "The Ring". One of the difficulties with inspirations and remakes is you have to consider which film is superior, but sometimes it's just a matter of which film you saw first and strangely enough I couldn't decide if it was the fact that I saw 2002's The Ring before Ringu that altered the experience or whether it's down to the fact the film simply isn't as eery or atmospheric. I think the idea of Ringu is absolutely genius and inspired The Ring to go further with the premise but I felt it was more compassionate and less isolating than Verbinski's film, and it hasn't aged very well either. The remake also added some shocks to the story, Ringu has dissapointingly near to none, and I found this version ashamedly dull. I'd definetely be lying if I said that there's nothing redemptive in it whatsoever, the acting is decent, as is the script and direction, I didn't think the lighting worked very well, but if you haven't seen the 2002 version then you will probably enjoy Ringu more than I did. That said, i'd recommend it to those who haven't seen the remake as I would recommend the remake to those who haven't seen the original. It's a strange horror movie going experience when you get the weird sensation of deja vu, because the remake looked to me like it duplicated this almost entirely frame to frame. The Ring (2002) is one of the scariest films i've ever seen, maybe that's why this one didn't live up to my own personal expectations.