Revealing mistake: Near the end (DVD), when Sadako comes out of the TV, you can see where her finger extensions have been placed (you can see the join between her real finger and the fake one). (01:22:50)
Ringu (1998)
1 review
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, Nanako Matsushima, Yuko Takeuchi
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(3 votes)
Based loosely on the novels of Koji Suzuki, director Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" remains one of the most effective and unsettling of the J-Horror genre even twenty years after its initial release.
In this thriller, a reporter probes a mysterious string of deaths after they hit close to home. She soon comes to discover that one thing ties them all together - a treacherous video-tape from local urban legends containing haunting images and subliminal messages, that kills all who see it in seven days. After she views the tape and realises the curse is all too real, it becomes a race against time as she must try and solve the mystery of the video and the malevolent force that created it.
While the film may have been overshadowed in western markets by its bigger-budgeted American remake, the fact is the original film is absolutely phenomenal. It's a prime example of slow-burn terror that makes effective use of atmosphere and minimalistic thrills. Despite dealing with bigger-than-life supernatural forces, the film always feels grounded and intimate, and has a nice sense of realism. And it never relies on cheap tricks or jumps to scare its audiences - it simply has a consistent eerie tone of dread that permeates throughout the entire experience.
Director Nakata's deliberate visual guidance is absolutely sublime, as are the performances of our leads Nanako Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada. I also highly admired the sparse but unsettling musical score by Kenji Kawai. All in all, it really is just a perfect little creepshow, and all horror fans should definitely check it out!
And it easily earns a perfect 5 out of 5.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: She's not wearing finger extensions. There are small prosthetics to make it look like her fingernails are missing, but her fingers are normal length.
Yoichi Asakawa: Tomo-chan told me to.
Trivia: Sadako's mother, Shizuko, was loosely based on a real person - Chizuko Mifune. Mifune was a self-proclaimed psychic. Just like Shizuko in the film, in real life Mifune took part in a press event to prove her abilities, but was labeled a fraud by reporters, and later committed suicide.
Question: This may be weirdly specific, but does anyone know what the two background music clips from the Region 1 DVD menu are from? There's two different songs - one is a short, creepy 5-second clip that plays when you hit "Play Movie," and the other is the general background music from the DVD menu, which is a sort-of slow, sad guitar piece. I'm assuming they're just royalty free music from a collection of some sort, but I quite enjoy them.
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