R I N G

This has to be one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. Atmosphere and tension are at their peak in this superb Japanese thriller. Directed by Hideo Nakata, Ring tells the story of a modern day legend that all of the kids are talking about. A mysterious video, where if you watch it you get a strange phone call and die exactly one week later...

When Tomoko, a young teenage girl dies mysteriously, her aunt a journalist, Reiko Asakawa, investigates the stories of the video. She finds a tape in a cabin lodge where her niece and her friends (all of which have died too) watched a “strange video”. She watches it herself…and gets the phone call. Now Asakawa must figure out a way to stop the curse. She enlists help from her ex husband Ryuji, who has odd psychic ability, to help her. Its now a race against time until the week is up to decode what is hiding in the odd and disturbing images and noise that are contained in the video.

Asakawa watches the video

Nakata’s direction is superb, slowly building tension though out the film, never showing too much. Leaving everything to the imagination…until the end that is, which has to be one of the most unsettling things ever committed to celluloid, as Mark Kermode said “...It will, I guarantee you, scare the shit out of you!”…Can’t argue with that.

Asakawa and Ryuji

The video that the various characters watch is amazingly effective in its simplicity, while making you feel really uncomfortable. It’s a mish mash of blurred surreal images and screeches and wails on its soundtrack, giving you the feeling that there is more to this than meets the eye…and of course, there is. The movie has spawned a TV series spin off in Japan and two other movies; The Brilliant sequel Ring 2 and its prequel which has yet to reach these shores, Ring 0. (Note that there was also a sequel filmed at the same time as Ring Called RASEN)

On of the mysterious images contained in the video

On my Must Buy list is the Ring DVD, because as a separate option you can watch the video in its entirety, and freak yourself out till your heart’s content…Got to be fun, but you’ll shit yourself if you get a phone call right after watching it. This reassured my assumptions that Japan makes some of the most original movies ever, they have a lot of talented film makers who know how to make a movie without having to resort to CGI to get good box office (Ahem…. Hollywood) which is always a nice surprise. And what is not suprising is that Ring did top the charts in Japan, and deservedly so. Get out there and see it now. After you've seen the movie, read more about Ring and its sequels and Tv series at the brilliant fan site RINGWOLRD

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