RINGU

Hideo Nakata's horror film Ringu has become legendary among Japan-philes and horror movie buffs. Taking the irony out of modern terror-fests, Nakata, with Ringu and its quickly following sequel, thrilled and chilled audiences to huge box-office success in their native country. However, the Ringu series (there is also a prequel, Ringu 0, that Nakata was not involved with) has been ridiculously hard to get ahold of in North America, and only slightly easier to find in Europe. But I have a sneaking feeling that will all change with the inevitable American remake. So with that in mind, check out the original if you can!

The basic premise of Ringu is the stuff of urban legends. The opening scene has a couple of teenage girls alone in a house, scaring the crap out of each other by relaying the passed-on story of a cursed videotape: if you watch this mysterious video of horrific images, you will die within seven days. They laugh nervously, and one girl looks extremely uncomfortable. "Did you see it?" Uh... yeah... in fact she saw it almost exactly a week ago with three other friends. The phone rings, the TV turns itself on, strange ghostly images appear on screen, and... well, let's just chalk up Victim #1.

A reporter, Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) decides to investigate this urban legend, when her neice and the girl's friends die mysteriously on the same day, all with a look of terror frozen on their faces in death. Enlisting the help of her ex-husband Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), a professor, the couple watches the tape (oops) and suddenly find that they have seven days to figure it the mystery, or else, well, they're obviously screwed.

I had heard about this movie for at least a couple of years, from friends telling me it is the scariest thing they have ever seen. I had a lot of expectations, and had enjoyed Hideo Nakata's most recent partnership with horror writer Kôji Suzuki, the film Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara). In a way, I wish that I hadn't seen Dark Water first, as Nakata and Suzuki definitely have a style of storytelling. Nakata's films gradually build a sense of dread and mood. There is no blood and gore, just an underlying tension that is broken by a few scenes of downright disturbing nature. In fact, it could be argued that Ring is kind of slow between the shocking scenes, and it is.

However, I must give the film credit. Because you are lulled into a bit of complacency, the climax of Ringu will really throw you. Just when you think everything will be fine, the film just takes it one step further, with a whopper of a scene that is guaranteed to scare the pants off of you (just thinking about it makes me squirm uncomfortably). Believe me, you will be turning off your TV for the rest of the night when you finish this flick.