Ring Trilogy (DVD)

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Try and say Ring is not the greatest horror film ever made and you will be wrong. Try to say that the American remake has ruined the genius of the original and alas you would be wrong again.

There is no denying that the power if Ring has been shattered by everyone knowing the ending - so if you do not know the ending then lock yourself in a room - and watch it as the ending is outstanding. knowing the ending really does cause ...
...THE FILMS

Ring / Ring 2 and Ring 0: Birthday / Sleeping Bride

Ring generated a storm through Japan as part of the TV series - this has not been translated yet and so the TV series remains an enigma outside Japan. The film mixing the traditional ghost stories of Old Japan with the technology of New Japan is what made Ring such a great and copied film of modern times.

The Story
RING
A video ... more

Many people have seen "The Ring" - other people like me have seen "Ring" and read the book in 1998 and crow about it like it means something important.

Try and say Ring is not the greatest horror film ever made and you will be wrong. Try to say that the American remake has ruined the genius of the original and alas you would be wrong again.

There is no denying that the power if Ring has been shattered by everyone knowing the ending - so if you do not know the ending then lock yourself in a room - and watch it as the ending is outstanding. knowing the ending really does cause the film to lose its power - while the American remake, I think, is a perfectly good version and I like the slight variance of the ending compared to the original film; there is still the sense of sadness that once you know the ending - you will never be able to get that sense of fear and terror again.

I shall tell you why and I shall tell you what I think about this little box set and the randomly added extra film "Sleeping Bride"

THE FILMS

Ring / Ring 2 and Ring 0: Birthday / Sleeping Bride

Ring generated a storm through Japan as part of the TV series - this has not been translated yet and so the TV series remains an enigma outside Japan. The film mixing the traditional ghost stories of Old Japan with the technology of New Japan is what made Ring such a great and copied film of modern times.

The Story
RING
A video tape when shown leads to a phone call and the person dies on the seventh day of extreme fear. During the film (and this doesn't spoil it) it transpires that by copying the film you pass on the death curse to the next person and so the film continues to be passed around ad infinitum. Ring charts the search of a journalist investigating the deaths of a group of friends and to the eventual discovery of the story of Sadako (the ghost in the machine). If you do not know the story then I can tell you no more than this - suffice to say as many people know the ending of Ring is one of the pinnacles of modern cinema and an ending which has not been bettered in its terrifying effect on anyone and I mean ANYONE who watches.

RING 2
Continuation of the story that leads to a chase for survival of the journalist's own son who has also watched the tape. The history of Sadako is expanded and to some extent this story does contain elements of similarity to the first film. Some critics has mentioned that this is a weak sequel - AND THEY WOULD BE RIGHT - There is a film called "Spiral" which is true to the book of the same name which has also become a film in its own right (Many people believe "Spiral" is a weak version and a rip off of "Ring", but they are wrong, "Spiral" is the true film and Ring 2 is the rip off. Still that is a different review!!

Ring 0: Birthday
NOW - This where the box set annoyed me - I watched Ring 0 before and the film in this set is a completely different film with a completely different story. I was confused as I was desperately telling my 16 year old brother how good Ring 0 was.
"Birthday" charts the life of Sadako and how she is followed by a sinister twin sister. Sadako is a promising actress and various members of the cast succumb to their deaths.
Ring 0 that I saw previously featured the making of the video tape seen in the first movie and is on a par with "Ring".
The fact that Ring 0: Birthday is a completely different film should be borne in mind when buying this box set. It is still an interesting film, but not one to go out of your way to see.

Sleeping Bride
This is wholly unconnected to "Ring", but is a genuinely lovely little film that I am sure has forced many Japanese men to a girlie film night in with their girlfriends.
The film is about a young boy in hospital where one of the patients is a girl who has never awoken since being born. The boy visits her every day after reading the story of Sleeping Beauty. The girl never wakes up and many years later after seeing the girl's story on the news the boy - now a man - renews his visits to her until one day she awakes.
However - she announces that she will only be awake for one week and then fall asleep again forever. He then tries to convince her that her thoughts are just false and she will stay awake if she believes herself that she will.........
A genuinely moving and beautiful little story - that is part of "Ring" trilogy box set as a separate DVD for no apparent reason. So if you hate horror movie look out for Sleeping Bride anyway.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Mainly film notes
Making of Ring 0: Birthday
Trailers
Ring 0 Deleted scenes

To be honest there are no real items of interest on the special features, but it does have a nice moving hologram as you can see on the picture of this DVD.

VERDICT
For fans of "Ring" this is a nice box set to have, but it is a little pricey maybe for what you get. The price is now about £25 - I bought only because I had some Amazon vouchers, and the original £39.99 was a rip-off.

The interesting thing about Ring movie is that the movie is about a film that if you see you die and you need to pass it on. This is exactly what directors across the world seem to be doing themselves. Ring was made then passed to a Korean director who made a version called Ringu Virus who then passed it back to Japan where Ring 2 was made and Ring 0 then the Americans made The Ring and The Ring 2. So unless someone else makes another version America will die in seven days!!!!!

UPDATE - It turns out the Ring 0 I refer to was not called Ring 0 at all, but was called LOOP which is not out yet on DVD.  

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