Ringu

                                You will die in one week.

“I saw a weird video the other day.” A log cabin. A videotape. A phone call. A message. A long-haired  girl names Sadako. Death. “Today will be one week.” The Izu Peninsula is the location. Its significance is important as to why this ghoul girl kills those who watch the infamous cursed videotape. At first, she’s all a faint image that is obscured and hard to see, a figure not defined but certainly present. No doubt, she’s a spectre with a purpose..

Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) is a journalist working on the videotape story, her relative, Tomoko(Yûko Takeuchi), a victim of the curse, the teenage girl’s funeral further motivating Asakawa to pursue the mystery of its origin.

Faces frozen in abject fear, hearts just stopping, skin white as sheets of paper, mouths open, eyes carrying an openness that explains all too well that something horrifying came a calling. I was musing to myself during a crucial scene where Asakawa holds the tape in her hands, television on (before this, she was paying for the room her sister’s daughter stayed in with three other friends (all dead) where the cursed tape is noticed, a white box, so exceptionally noticeable amongst a large shelf of colorful rentals…), and the amped music establishing how terrible it could be to watch it, that the audience was probably screaming at the screen, “No! Don’t do it!”

Nyuji (Hiroyuki Sanada) is Asakawa‘s ex, who teaches at a university, she’ll come to rely on during the week she has to find out the mysteries that lie within the videotape. There’s a subtle but effective scene where he meets his son while both are walking in different directions, holding umbrellas as the rain pours, their relationship dismal due to a lack of contact. A picture taken signifies Asakawa‘s been marked for death, her face warped and unrecognizable.

Her journey during the week is quite an adventure as her and Nyuji take the details available to them on the tape and pursue them as if conducting an investigation, pursuing leads and trying to solve the mysteries that have caused the curse. Characters surrounding Sadako (her mother, her mother’s lover, her grandfather) are brought into focus. It is all a means to an end. If they are to live past the week, Sadako is the answer. I will say that Hideo Nakata’s Ringu doesn’t have that “race against time” kind of pace, but I think if you like a flick with an absorbing plot that has intricate clues, visual and captivating, and compelling developments that unfold and lift the veil so to speak on who Sadako is and if finding her will save Asakawa, then Ringu just might fit the bill. But will finding her even be enough...that plays into the final twist that works like in a lot of slasher flicks, what seems like an end to the curse is actually not.

I remember seeing The Ring in the theater, really surprised by how unique it was, not knowing that it was inspired by another film made in Japan, Ringu. I recall a lot of viewers really bothered by the final minutes, not quite satisfied (actually confused maybe more apt) with how it all plays out. The Ring, however, was faithful to Ringu. The copying of the tape is actually quite similar to The Grudge in how the sickness of evil spreads through people, only in the case of Ringu, to escape the infection of the curse you must “pass on” to another; this is rather unsettling a resolution because, in essence, you contribute to the spread just to save your own hide. Only in Ringu, opposite The Ring, it doesn’t show the whole process, only Asakawa understanding what she must do and preparing to do so. 

While Sadako the ghoul isn’t as omnipresent as Kayako in Ju-on, her big moment exiting the well at the end, much to Nyuji’s horror, and from the television screen, are epic in their delivery. Also pretty wicked (and kind of sad) is the final discovery of Sadako as Asakawa cradles her in the well, a moment that perhaps symbolizes the only affection this girl ever had. The Ring and its sequel give a lot of excess depth to Samara (the name of her in the remake), while the details of Sadako are provided but not in such lengthy detail. In actuality, Sadako's mother and her possible father (there's another possibility presented that Sadako's pop is otherworldly!) are featured in as much depth as the ghoul.

The arguments on which is better probably come down to personal preferences and cultural sensibilities. Ringu doesn’t feature as much pure horror, preferring more story and characterization, while The Ring goes for more melancholy and scares. Of course, the Hollywood Machine does amp up the score and sound effects to further disturb and frighten the viewer...Ringu is hesitant to use such tricks. The videotape’s significance is all the rage in The Ring, but only part of the story in Ringu. Sure aspects of the tape are dissected and explored, but the film wants to go further, allowing those still alive to add details not available or too obscure. But, more or less, the films are similar in many respects. It’s the little things that separates them.