Ring
The Ring phenomenon, spawned from a novel by Koji Suzuki, has a number of sequels, prequels and spin-offs to its name; the 2002 remake is a particularly well-known and surprisingly high quality production but the 1998 effort by Hideo Nakata wins over the competition. The concept of a cursed videotape that brings about the death of its viewers seven days afterwards, and the efforts of a newspaper journalist to discover its terrifying secret, are fairly familiar to filmgoers by now but this fact does not detract from the film’s masterful grasp of creating an atmosphere of overwhelming tension and foreboding.
The opening scene features two high school girls going about the everyday activities of chatting and relaxing without a care in the world; it is not until the viewer is subjected to a couple of false alarms in the build-up that a victim of the video’s curse is shown for the first time, to great effect. By this point you are probably on the edge of your seat already but the film then moves into ‘detective story’ mode as news reporter and relative of one of the victims, Reiko Asakawa (played to perfection by Nanako Matsushima) traces the tape’s supernatural origins with its own twists and turns. A scene halfway through the film, in which the mystery appears to be solved, is another moment of deceptive security; the notorious climatic sequence towards the end is the point at which the full terror of the curse is revealed.
This gives the film a feeling of being a rollercoaster ride but while the remake relied on sudden shocks, Nakata’s version uses a more restrained and understated method of storytelling that brings revelations gradually and with subtlety; it is the atmosphere that delivers the horror and in my opinion at least, works better. The soundtrack for instance (composed by Kenji Kawai, who was also responsible for the haunting score on the Ghost in the Shell animated movies) is minimalistic: often the silence is creepier and more effective at points. The music, when it is used, does still heighten the feeling portrayed onscreen and the footage of the video itself is suitably bizarre and unnerving.
Behind the ‘horror movie’ theme, Ring is a surprisingly clever piece that throws in a bit of social commentary as well as breaking the mould in how supernatural thrillers can be produced. Most horror films rely on haunted houses, monsters and well-known spirits of folklore; the Ring franchise takes an innocuous and ubiquitous household object - the television and VCR - and turns it into a less tangible but equally dangerous terror that claims its victims with unclear motives and methods but frightening ease and efficiency. In a country such as Japan that exhibits the surprising juxtaposition of gadget-friendliness with a strong spiritual past, the blend of technology and myth makes for a heady combination that is almost without equal in the genre; nevertheless it can still effectively translate into our equally technologically-minded culture.
In addition, the portrayal of a single parent and her child as the central characters (not to mention the disfunctional family that brought about the tape’s curse) has much to say about contemporary society and values. What makes Ring such a great film is not just the fact that it can easily scare the living daylights out of its viewers, but that it tells a clever story with its own fair share of tragedy.
In Summary
The 1998 Ring incarnation suffers from somewhat less impressive special and visual effects (such as ‘that scene’ towards its brilliantly terrifying conclusion), which is fortunately made up for by the acting performances on show, not to mention the skilled direction overall. While it is not technically superior to its Hollywood retelling, Nakata’s film is more recommendable in a number of other crucial aspects: it is a true classic of cinematic supernatural chillers.
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