I've turned purple, woohoo!Thanks to all my fans (!?!?) Now, go check out my new profile page, court...
I've turned purple, woohoo!Thanks to all my fans (!?!?) Now, go check out my new profile page, courtesy of Desolate Cash :)
Member since:18.07.2002
Reviews:33
Members who trust:31
It’s a familiar story, I’m sure we all know it well now. Someone makes a really good, if low budget, movie. The film probably never does particularly well, but everyone who does watch it thinks its great. Then along comes Hollywood, and before you know it, it’s a really crap re-make, which makes a whole load of money, but has little or no integrity. Know what I’m talking about? *cough* The Haunting, Psycho etc *cough*
Well, the plus side of this review, is that I’m reviewing the film BEFORE Hollywood have destroyed it, only just mind you, as ‘The Ring’ is due out sometime soon. The Original film ‘Ringu’ (made in 1998), a low budget Japanese film by Hideo Nakata is a brilliant film, and I’m so glad I got to see it before the re-make was thrust upon me.
So, after such a long intro, what is this all about? Well, as I mention above, this film is Japanese, and as such I should point out that it is subtitled, and badly at that, sometimes the background is the same colour as the writing, so you cant actually see what it says, which is a real shame, because the rest of this film is amazing in practically every way. But I digress. Anyone who reads my stuff a lot is probably now wondering whether this is a comedy or a horror, as all my
film reviews are one or the other. This, my friends, is the latter, and a very scary and supernatural horror it is at that.
Set (unsurprisingly) in Japan, this film works along a similar vein as ‘Urban Legend’, at least at first. The first scene is two teenage girls discussing a video. Should anyone view this video they will die within one week. According to the story, as soon as you have seen the video, the phone will ring and a voice will say “you have seen it” From there, your days are numbered. At first the girls are laughing and joking, as though discussing an urban legend, or ‘ghost story’, but then one of them becomes agitated and admits to having seen a strange video recently, while away with friends, and they too received a strange phone call. This is where you first feel a prickle of fear, only slight, barely there, but it is the beginning of something far bigger. The girls then laugh it off, pretend it is some kind of practical joke, but when the girl suddenly dies gruesomely in suspicious circumstances, and her friend is too terrified to even speak, and especially afraid of TV screens, you start to wonder what exactly is going on………….
In comes the dead girl’s aunt, Asakawa the single mother of a young boy, Yoichi, and a local journalist who coincidently was looking into the myth of this strange video. After a little digging it becomes apparent to Asakawa that her dead niece may have somehow been involved, and so begins an adventure that can only end in tragedy.
I don’t want to give away any more than that, This film is so well written, scripted and acted that anything I wrote here would only spoil the intricately woven tale that ? has produced with this film.
As I said, this film is subtitled, but this in no way hampered the unfolding of the story, so good was the acting in this film. I was unable to find out the actors names, if anyone knows, I’d be happy to update though. Asakawa was brilliantly played, the perfect mix of curiosity, common sense and character depth, so that it was rare that I watched her antics and thought ‘Why are doing that?’ You know what I mean, when the young girl runs past the front door and up the stairs to certain death, as in all the usual horror films. But there is none of that here, I could see myself doing similar things, I did sometimes wonder where she got her strange ideas, but perhaps that was more down to culture than a fault with the film? Her expressions spoke volumes, and made understanding what was going on relatively easy. Ryuji, her ex-husband, is suitably brooding and mysterious, yet with a seeming heart of gold underneath it all and worked well as the co-star. In a rare film moment, these two do not get back together at the end of the film, but there is obvious feelings with each other, just enough to gel the characters together well, make the plot believable without ruining a tense scary moment with in-appropriate snogging. I am impressed!
Now, I’m generally no great fan of child actors, that kid in 6th sense did not impress me (sorry!), but ? as Yoichi somehow won me over. Yoichi is a strange child, he seems to know more than he’s letting on, in fact for a child of no more than 9 or so, he seems to know more than everyone else around him put together. He seems to perfectly mix child like innocence with something disturbing, something dark that you keep thinking, ‘don’t be silly, he’s just a kid’, yet the chills run down your back all the same. I cant say I liked him, but I was impressed all the same, I just wouldn’t want to meet him down a dark alley, know what I mean????
So, I’ve covered the acting, the plot, the subtitles, what else do you want to know? Well, as for effects, there really aren’t very many, the film itself is grainy, screaming low budget, and the fear comes from what you don’t see, what you don’t know, more than blood splattering up walls or big monsters. There are some interesting camera effects here and there, and some of the camera angles were particularly good. This is no slasher flick, this film relies on acting, camera work and script, and it works a hundred times better than most Hollywood trite.
As for Soundtrack, I didn’t really notice a particular song, just lots of atmospheric music that compliments the ‘feel’ of the film, almost haunting in their eeriness.
This could definitely give you nightmares, but its brilliant and well worth watching, before the re-make takes over. Watch it, but don’t watch it alone……………..
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1998 - Horror - Director: Stephen Norrington - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N'Bushe Wright, Donal Logue, Udo Keir, Traci Lords, Udo Kier
Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
if the original is scarier than the hollywood remake then i'm never ever watching the original. i couldn't look in a mirror for ages after i saw the remake (due to the bit in the video where the girls mum is brushing her hair and sees the girl behind her). scaaaarrrrrreeeeeee!! emma x
Cerulean 09.10.2003 14:54
I haven't seen this yet but i have seen the original and that scared me a lot!! great op. Claire :)
fran19 16.09.2003 22:10
Not sure if I could handle to subtitles, but it sounds like it`s worth watching. Take care. Fran19
Jan 20th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
