"THE RING" ('RINGU')
a review by R.L. Strong
4½ out of 5 stars
FINE LINE PICTURES PRESENTS A KODAKAWA SHOTEN PUBLISHING COMPANY. LTD.PRODUCTION Staring NANAKO MATSUSHIMA HIROYUKI SANADA MIKI NAKATANI Original Score by KENJI KAWAI Executive Producer MASATO HARA Edited by NOBUYUKI TAKAHASHI Director of Photography JUNICHIRO HAYASHI Based on the Novel by KOJI SUZUKI Produced by TAKASHIGE ICHISE SHINYA KAWAI TAKANORI SENTO Screenplay HIROSHI TAKAHASHI Directed by HIDEO NAKATA
The state of the Horror genre in American films has been in dire straits for the past 20 years. Several films have been heralded as the savior of the genre. Films such as Wes Craven's "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" really did nothing to revive the format. It wasn't until last year with the release of "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Sixth Sense" that horror films came back to the land of box-office success and audience acceptance. But the trend was actually started back a year earlier with a small little film from the Island of Japan.
Yes, you heard right the same country that gave us rubber monsters, samurais masquerading as Italian cowboys, and Laser Discs. But there has always been a tradition of lyrical and hypnotic horror from the Island nation. Such regarded films as "Kaiden" and "Onibaba" both revel in their story telling and ominous portrayal of dread. But for the past 30 years, audiences have been fed so much carnage that it's refreshing to find a film that deals in the subliminal and the sublime.
"The Ring" (Japanese title: "Ringu") is such a film. Telling its tale of supernatural revenge and atonement with a leisurely pace and atmosphere that almost cries out terror. This is not the school of revulsion. Far from it, this is the realm of bad dreams and bad deaths that come at you with inexorable finality. This is sublime terror that cannot be withstood.
The film opens with Tomiko and her friend, two teenage girls spending the evening together while Tomiko's parents are at a baseball game. Tomiko's friend relates the story of a young boy, who had watched a strange videotape, wherein a old woman, pointing her finger at him said he would die within a week. Tomiko remains silent as he friend details the aftermath in which the boy received a phone call immediately after viewing the tape. The voice on the phone said the same thing. Tomiko asks her friend what happened to the boy. She replies, "His parents found him dead. His mouth wide open, like he was screaming". Tomiko lays down on the floor, her discomfort palpable. Suddenly, her friend starts to laugh claiming the story is a joke. Tomiko turns the tables on her friend claiming to have had the exact same experience while on a camping trip. As her friend starts to succumb to the fear inherent in the situation, Tomiko breaks down laughing, replaying the joke.
Suddenly the phone rings! The two girls stop laughing and run down stairs to answer it. Tomiko's friend picks up the receiver. The call turns out to be from Tomiko's Mother. The baseball game is going into extra innings and they won't be home until late. Tomiko's friend runs off to use the bathroom. Tomiko hangs up the phone, when the television in the living room suddenly turns itself on. Tomiko slowly walks into the room to turn the set off. Returning to the kitchen to pour herself a drink, Tomiko feels something oppressive in the room. She turns towards the television; her eyes grow wide in terror. She screams.
Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) is a journalist working on a story for her television station concerning the urban legend of the cursed videotape. Interviewing a group of schoolgirls, Reiko becomes immersed
in the tale. Returning home to her son, Koichi (Katsumi Muramatsu), Reiko gets ready to visit her parents for the funeral of her niece Tomiko!
The tale of the curse videotape, formerly only an urban legend has now become a personal issue for Reiko. Talking with some of Tomiko's friends outside the home, it is learned that the girl visiting her that night that she dies is now hospitalized in shock. Hearing that two of Tomiko's friends died in a car the same evening, Reiko investigates further. She searches Tomiko's room, finding a roll of film from her camping trip. Taking the film for developing, Reiko finds the resort the teenagers had stayed at. But another anomaly is found on one of the photos. A group shot of all four teens, innocent enough, except that faces are all distorted and warped.
Investigating the resort, Reiko finds the unlabeled videotape behind the front desk. She asks the desk clerk about the four teens, but without any real recollection other than they did not stay the night they had paid for, there was nothing else strange about them. Reiko goes to the cabin that her niece had stayed with her boyfriend and watches the video. The television is first rife with static. But then, smeared images of a woman brushing her hair in a mirror, someone with a cloth covering their head, their finger pointing down towards the bottom of the screen. Numerous other bizarre unconnected images concluding with a view of a well in a small garden. Reiko turns off the video. As she does the phone rings!!
Reiko returns home to her son. She is disturbed and uncomfortable. She calls her ex-husband, Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) a reporter for a tabloid and a practicing psychic. Ryuji arrives at Reiko's home. He stops outside as his son in going off to school. The two stand in front of each other for a moment, without exchanging a word. Koichi goes on his way. Inside the home, Ryuji feels an ominous presence. Skeptical about the urban legend, he asks to view the video. Reiko produces the tape (having stolen it from the hotel). As Ryuji watches, Reiko steps outside unable or unwilling to experience it again. Ryuji steps outside and tells her, "It's over.. It's been five minutes. No phone call."
Taking the tape to the Reiko's office, they examine it frame by frame on a digital editor. Researching the image of the woman on the video, they find that it is Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani). The only problem is that Takano, a noted psychic died in the early 60's. The investigation continues, leading to the Doctor who brought Takano to Tokyo to validate her claims of being a true psychic. With only days left before Reiko may fall prey to the curse, the search for a way to dispel the curse becomes even more serious when Koichi is urged to view the video by the ghost of his cousin, Tomiko.
"The Ring" is a luxurious horror film. Director Hideo Nakata is to be commended for constructing such a chilling and thought provoking film. The imagery and use of space in the film continually closes in on the viewer, giving one a continual feeling of claustrophobia. Almost subliminally, reflections, shadows, and spectral visions abound in the periphery of the film. There is so much depth that one is immediately pulled into the terror.
Nanako Matsushima as Reiko is just marvelous. This is one of the finest performances I have seen this year. Her decent into terror is too palpable to be ignored. As she is in almost every scene, she must carry not only the plot of the film but its emotional depth. Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryuji is also remarkably good, having to play the bitter ex-husband part. His dissatisfaction with his marriage and his family is frightening in and of itself. A loner blames everyone for it. In essence, he is a psychic that cannot see into his own heart.
The script by Hiroshi Takahashi is such dark poetry that from the first frame of the film to the final denouncement, the feelings of dread never let up. The characters are written with such detail to their lives and relationships that they seem to be real people. The film becomes almost a document, a diary if you would of these bizarre and unfathomable circumstances. The structure of the film plays almost like a dark detective story or supernatural noir, with clues being found and dug out of the most desperate of places. The central idea of an urban legend being true is nothing new, but in the hands of Takahashi the material is raised to level of suspense and unease that one cannot really appreciate until after the film has ended.
"The Ring" is without a doubt one of the most unique and frightening films since "Night of the Living Dead". Unlike that film and other horror films for the past 30 years, it does so without any gratuitous scenes of violence of gore. There are a few brief moments of the grotesque, but they are not handled in a manner that could be considered exploitative. The subtlety of technique and story telling make this film closer to Val Lewton territory than anything else in memory. However, Lewton's films were never this disturbingly real or close to home. By all cost see this film, this is the true beginning of a renaissance, and a harbinger of horror films that we can honestly enjoy and respect. With Fine Line films releasing "The Ring" sometime this year, it has my vote for one of this years best films.
Copyright © 2000 R. L. Strong Nothing in this article may be reproduced or altered in any way without the expressed written permission of the author. Visit The Cornucopia of Film web site email at Areles@geocities.com
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