The Ring: A Retrospective

The Ring franchise is considered a founding factor in the interest in Japanese horror in the west, or rather, creating a string of mostly unnecessary remakes. Based on a series of novels written by Koji Suzuki (also author of Dark Water), the story of a spooky cursed videotape that kills anyone after seven days, has captured or rather terrorised the imagination of readers and viewers alike. Though the first book was a mystery horror, the sequels, Spiral and Loop, were a medical mystery, and a science fiction respectively. All have engaging stories and fantastic plot twists that explore the sinister virus that originates from the videotape, rather than a haunting curse as depicted in the movies.

 The franchise reflects modern fears of society, including a fear of technology, urban legends, illnesses, unexpected pregnancy, and fear of the unknown. The main antagonist, Sadako Yamamura (aka Samara Morgan, aka Park Eun-Suh), has earned her spot in popular culture, taking inspiration from Japanese folklore and mythology. The Ring remains my favourite horror franchise, and just about the only one where I’ve read and watched every major piece of media related to it. For this, I’ll be giving mini-reviews of each film and TV serial based on the books, with obvious spoilers ahead.

Ring: Kanzenban (1995)

Ring: Kanzenban was the first attempt to adapt Ring as a TV serial, but is a poor attempt with signs of a lack of a budget. Though a close adaptation of the book, it does take bizarre liberties, and has a strange focus on being everything but a horror story. Kazuyuki Asakawa (Katsunori Takahashi), a journalist, investigates the mysterious death of niece, discovering the existence of a cursed videotape, which he watches, and learns he has seven days to live. He teams up with his friend Ryuji Takayama (Yoshio Harada), Asakawa investigates the tape’s origins, leading him to the psychic Sadako Yamamura (Ayane Miura), thrown down a well long ago. Aside from the incredibly poor quality, the TV series decides to throw in some more adult content at the expense of telling a decent mystery.

Ring: The Final Chapter (1999)

Yes, this did come out a year after the 1998 Japanese movie, but it made sense to review it before getting to the movies. Ring: The Final Chapter is one of two TV series adapting the books, with a few liberties, and inspiration from the film. Not a clue why it is called “The Final Chapter” since this is one of many chapters in The Ring’s chronicles. It follows the story of the novel and film, though the cursed videotape is reimagined as a recording of a pop idol’s music video, extending the countdown to death to roughly two weeks. Asakawa (Toshiro Yanagiba) is a lot more likeable now compared to Kanzenban’s whiny version. The series meanders quite a lot, drags its feet, and Tomoya Nagase as the weirdest portrayal of Ryuji Takayama yet. Had a limited budget, feels a little sluggish, and has pacing issues, but is a good show altogether.

Rasen: The Series (1999)

The sequel to The Final Chapter, Rasen is based on the second novel Spiral. Like the first season, it takes a lot of liberties with the story. Rasen involves a teacher, Mitsuo Ando, a bereaved father, investigating the cursed videotape (now on CD!), and the biological mysteries of Sadako’s genes, that can create clones of the dead. Okay, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that is the short version. It gives the characters some great moments of jeopardy, and hard choices to make between their loved ones and the world. By far, the best part of the series in the King of Terror subplot, a murder-mystery terrorism plot involving a sinister figure manipulating characters behind the scenes. It is fun trying to guess who this character actually is, and their origins are even more terrifying than those of Sadako Yamamura.

Ring (1998)

The synonymous Japanese horror film, Ring propelled western interest in Asian horror, leading to a string of remakes. The film was directed by Hideo Nakata, who also directed the sequel, the American sequel, and the brilliant Dark Water. Perhaps the greatest element of the movie is its chilling atmosphere and frights, projecting a constant sense of dread throughout. This sort of scare makes for a much better horror film than cheap jump scares. There is an obvious budget, but the use of special effects works fine for the time. Negative shots are used to symbolise death, etc. My one complaint is that the DVD copy I have is ridiculously dark and grainy in some places, particularly in the night scenes, making it hard to tell what's going on.

Asakawa is reimagined as a woman, Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), a workaholic journalist. She has a young psychic son named Yoichi, and Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) is her ex-husband. The film’s plot takes a lot of liberties with the novel, rewriting Sadako’s backstory too. As a child, she murdered a journalist, her mother went nuts and committed suicide by throwing herself into a volcano, and Sadako is eventually thrown down a well by her father Dr. Ikuma. The film has heavy themes of parental neglect, responsibility, and examines the climate of Japanese society at the time.

The film has a lot of chills. It is implied that the ghosts of Sadako’s victims become her slaves. The cursed videotape itself feels alien in tone, with abnormal visuals and sounds. Of course, the highlight is Sadako emerging from the television. She was played by kabuki actress Rie Ino, whose creepy movements were then played backgrounds to give Sadako an inhuman quality about her. The score was composed by Kenji Kawai, who also did the score for Ghost in the Shell. Ring is a fantastic film, and in my opinion, one of the best horror films made. The film gained a prequel, and two sequels, though the first of which was retconned.

Rasen (1998)

Not many people are aware of this film. It was originally the direct sequel to Ring, released mere weeks after the original in order to keep public interest in the franchise. Only problem was no one went to see it, or knew it was in cinemas. It is a close adaptation of the book Spiral, abandoning the more supernatural elements in favour of a medical mystery. Lacking scares and naff quality, Rasen revealed the cursed videotape contains a mutated virus which can cause heart failure, but also can cause a fast-paced mystical pregnancy in women if they conceive during their cursing. Sadako, played wonderfully by Saeki Hinako, is back from the dead and offers the hero, Mitsuo Ando, the chance to resurrect his dead son, but at the cost of spreading the videotape across the world. Though it has some interesting ideas, the film’s quality and completely differentiation from Ring made it unpopular. It was subsequently retconned and a new film, directed by Hideo Nakata, was made: Ring 2.

Ring 2 (1999)

 

The new sequel to Ring, Ring 2 is better than Rasen but does have its own share of problems. There is a lot going on in the film, bringing back the whole cast of the original, and takes place two weeks after. Ryuji Takayama is dead, Asakawa and Yoichi are missing, and her elderly father has died after watching the tape. Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), Ryuji’s student, searches for answers to his death, tracking down Asakawa and Yoichi, who has become mute and his powers are influenced by Sadako’s power. There are a lot of subplots in the film – a mad scientist hopes to master psychic energy; Sadako’s uncle has to collect her body (revealing Sadako was actually alive in the well for thirty years!); and a journalist named Okazaki dooms both himself and a teenager when he begins researching the cursed videotape and makes cowardly moves to save his own skin. The finale is certainly a weird one, but ends with a briefly touching moment where Sadako confronts the heroes as they escape the well, and gives in to her fate as being trapped forever. Ring 2 has a lot of problems, particularly with pacing, isn’t very scary aside from a couple of scenes, and deflates once the whole “Exorcist but with psychic energy and a swimming pool” subplot takes centre stage.

Ring 0 (2000)

A prequel to the first film, Ring 0 is based on the short story “The Birthday”, detailing Sadako’s time in a theatre troupe and even fell in love with a young man named Hiroshi Toyama. Ring 0 is effectively a Japanese remake of Carrie – a socially ostracized girl has immense psychic powers, finds love, something goes wrong, and she kills everybody. Though, I actually like this film more than Carrie. Sadako Yamamura is the protagonist of the film, played wonderfully by Yukie Nakama, a shy introvert who hides her shady past and just wants to be an actress. She falls in love with Toyama, the sound operator, and their romance is rather sweet. Things go to hell in the third act, involving a vengeful journalist orchestrating Sadako’s murder, but she is revived when it turns out she has an evil twin living with her father. In a wild plot twist, turns out Sadako split into two identical twins, one good and one evil, the latter tormenting the good Sadako for years. The film then goes from absolutely terrifying to tearjerking towards the end, as you know, Sadako is inevitably going to be thrown down a well and become the vengeful ghost we know and fear.

The Ring Virus (1999)

The Japanese film was such a success that South Korea decided to remake it a year after it came out. The Ring Virus is unfortunately a total dullfest. It directs the novel a little closer, mixing various elements from virtually all the past adaptations of the book, including the dodgy incest stuff from Kanzenban. The Korean version of Reiko Asakawa is emotionless and rigid, and her actress never comes off as having any interest in giving a good performance. Even when she watches the videotape, she looks bored, and somehow even makes throwing up in a toilet looked staged. Even the scene where Sadako (or Park Eun-Suh) emerges from a TV is rubbish. Why did the cinematographer think having a bright room would be a menacing setting for the iconic shot of the movie? Awful stuff.

The Ring (2002)

And now onto the other main event. The American remake of Ring is probably better known than the Japanese film, and in some ways, is better, or at least in quality. Directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, The Ring is a mostly superb adaptation, with a chilling atmosphere, likeable characters, and aside from a couple of jumpscares, has some great spooky moments. Naomi Watts carries most of the film as Rachel Keller (i.e. Asakawa), following the basic plot of the cursed videotape, etc. She has a strangely creepy son named Aidan (David Dorfman), who reminds me of Haley Joel Osment’s character in The Sixth Sense. This kid even finds out the important plot details later and decides NOT to inform his mother of these dreadful twists until its too late.

The cursed videotape is like something from David Lynch or David Cronenberg. Sadako is reworked as Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase), a delightfully creepy little girl who “never sleeps”, and has uncontrolled psychic powers that drove her foster parents crazy, murdering all their prize-winning horses after she was locked in the barn. The film rather cleverly sets up Samara as an innocent victim with powers she has no control over. But, then in the final scenes, it is implied Samara is actually a total sociopath, manipulating Rachel and the audience all along. The sombre violin-based score by Hans Zimmer is great, and the film is forever shot in this slightly blue tint, like a dated videotape. The film also pays homages to Alfred Hitchcock throughout the film. The film was followed by a short film tying the sequel to it, and then would gain another sequel in 2017.

Rings (2005 short film)

 

This decent short film is set between the first and second American movies, following a rather idiotic boy as he joins a cult that watches Samara’s videotape in turn and record what they experience. The short was directed by Jonathan Liebesman of all people, who’d direct the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. How did he go from this to that? The film does well to create a sense of mystery about the tape, studying the impact of trends and urban legends on the young. There are genuine frights in the film, it makes for a good psychological drama, with Samara at her scariest. Still, that moment when a character vomits up a giant CGI centipede takes you out of the movie.

The Ring Two (2005)

The Ring Two is a sequel that doesn’t know its own identity. Gore Verbinski was directing Pirates of the Caribbean, so Hideo Nakata was brought in to direct. The end result is a bit of a palaver, trying and failing to mix the western and eastern horror traditions together. Rachel and Aidan have moved to Oregon, but Samara somehow tracks them down with the intent on making Rachel her new mother by possessing Aidan's body. While the audience kinda figures out what’s going on, Rachel takes half the movie to. Samara breaks her own established rules in order to possess Aidan, and ends up attracting the attention of killer CGI deer. Yes, killer deer. Rachel eventually tracks down Samara’s biological mother, Evelyn, played by noneother than Sissy Spacek. The Carrie similarities have come full circle.

The attempt to blend western and eastern horror tropes just don’t work here. There’s a scene where the Samara-possessed Aidan murders a psychiatrist. But, it’s literally a two minute sequence where the characters are just sitting there, with the implication that Samara is filling the doctor’s mind with nightmarish imagery, leading her to kill herself. But, we don’t see it, and it feels really awkward to sit through. The film ends with Rachel temporarily drowning Aidan to exorcise Samara, and then is sucked through a TV into Samara’s monochromatic world. She escapes the well, pursued by Samara’s true freaky self, and Rachel traps her in the well again. The Ring Two is all over the place in terms of execution. I admire Nakata for trying to bring his signature aesthetic to the American films, but it sadly doesn’t work.

Sadako 3D (2012)

Twelve years after the last Ring film, Sadako Yamamura returned to her native country in a new 3D film that is weird to say the least, and not in a good way. In someway a soft reboot, Sadako 3D is a tacky and very silly film that felt like an excuse to just make a 3D film using an established franchise. The worst element is the titular 3D element, and constantly relies on Sadako crawling out of televisions to spook the audience. It’s like the filmmakers never watched the past movies, and only know the character from iconography alone.

It adapts one of Koji Suzuki’s newest novel “S”, focusing on a suicide video by Seiji Kashiwada (Yusuke Yamamoto), who plots to resurrect Sadako in a human host (i.e. whoever watches the video). Akane Ayukawa (Satomi Ishihara) is the designated target, having her own psychic powers. Akane and her boyfriend Takanori Ando (Koji Seto of Kamen Rider fame) flee a lot from Sadako, but she takes Takanori captive. Akane and cop Detective Nakamura team up to save him. The death scenes are hilariously bad. One character hangs himself, but his body is obviously a window shop dummy. The third act then completely jumps the shark, with Akane being chased by long-legged CGI grasshopper Sadako monsters. This film is nuts and a rubbish attempt to revive the dormant franchise. The one thing I’ll praise the film for is taking the logical route and putting Sadako on the internet. 

Sadako 2 (2014)

The sequel to Sadako 3D is slightly better, but still has a lot of problems. Akane falls pregnant and apparently dies, leaving her daughter Nagi in the care of Takanori’s sister Fuko. Nagi is a creepy girl to say the least, and it is quickly implied that she may be the reborn Sadako, murdering people. Fuko is dealing with her own trauma, having witnessed her mother’s suicide years ago, and isn’t very welcoming to death. The cursed videotape has evolved into pushing people into killing themselves, and Seiji Kashiwada has been arrested facing execution. A lot of the time, Sadako 2 has a melancholic mood, but manages to tell a relatively decent story. Unfortunately, there is a larger plot going on that is never really explained, too many unanswered questions that appear to be setting up unfulfilled sequels, and the film wastes too much time floundering around trying to figure out what to do.

Sadako vs. Kayako (2016)

A crossover between Ring and the Ju-On/The Grudge franchise. This has a lot of potential, bringing together Japan’s most scariest ghosts – Sadako and Kayako Saeko, but unfortunately wastes it. Though the film succeeds in capturing the sense of dread both prominent horror franchises have, the actual crossover event doesn’t happen until the last ten minutes. Two girls are separately cursed by the titular ghosts, eventually leading them to team up with an exorcist, who suggests being cursed twice and make Sadako and Kayako fight each other, to cancel out the curses. There are a couple of effective scenes, like when a bullied boy uses Kayako’s haunted house to get revenge on his tormentors. The fight itself between Sadako and Kayako is brief but pretty great fun, showing their conflicting powers. And the ending is equally bizarre but a set up for something awesome that we’ll probably never get to see.

Rings (2017)

The beleaguered third film in the American series, Rings, may have come a bit too late to be relevant, but it is a good film. Taking inspiration from the short film, Rings involves a young woman named Julia (Matilda Lutz) discovering her college boyfriend Holt (Alex Roe) is part of the cursed videotape cult, now reimagined as a social experiment orchestrated by Leonard off The Big Bang Theory. With Holt running out of time, Julia decides to watch Samara’s videotape herself and becomes cursed. But, her video experience is a little different from the others, viewing a new version of the tape, and gains a strange mark on her hand. It eventually becomes clear that Samara wants Julia and Holt to find and bury her mortal remains. Very continuity heavy, the film explores more of Samara’s backstory, with Vincent D’Onofrio appearing as Samara’s blind, evil, reverend father. Not exactly the backstory that I had expected, but it’s okay. The film takes a lot of visuals and influence from The Ring, using Hans Zimmer’s old score, and succeeds in making Samara scary again, even answering a couple of questions about Samara’s powers and restrictions that could be considered plot holes.