Koji Suzuki's novel "Ring" was first published in 1991, and no one could have guessed that the simple, tech-based ghost story would spawn a decades-long, worldwide media franchise that incorporates multiple movies, crossovers, comics, audio dramas, and video games. If one does a deep dive into the entire "Ring" series, one will uncover a massively complicated mythos that repeatedly peels back layers of reality to reveal an onion-like media metafiction that Marshall McLuhan would be proud of.
The premise of "Ring" is wicked and fun, and would have been all the more terrifying in 1991 when VHS was still in vogue. In the book, an investigative reporter named Asakawa finds a cursed video cassette of a surreal, 20-minute short film. At the end of the video, a captain informs him that he has seven days to live. Asakawa takes the threat seriously, as several teenage girls who watched the video have already died.
The premise of "Ring" is wicked and fun, and would have been all the more terrifying in 1991 when VHS was still in vogue. In the book, an investigative reporter named Asakawa finds a cursed video cassette of a surreal, 20-minute short film. At the end of the video, a captain informs him that he has seven days to live. Asakawa takes the threat seriously, as several teenage girls who watched the video have already died.
- 5/6/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Clockwise from left: The Departed (Warner Bros.), True Lies (20th Century Studios), Some Like It Hot (United Artists), 12 Monkeys (Universal)Graphic: The A.V. Club
Of all the challenges in the moviemaking universe, redoing a beloved foreign film for an American audience would seem pretty low on the list. You already...
Of all the challenges in the moviemaking universe, redoing a beloved foreign film for an American audience would seem pretty low on the list. You already...
- 11/2/2023
- by Ian Spelling
- avclub.com
Gore Verbinski’s The Ring led the first wave of early 2000s horror remakes that partially defined the era’s landscape alongside Saw torture-porners and other reactionary post-9/11 subgenres. Granted, remakes have always been a foundational pillar that keeps horror reinventing itself decade after decade — but the 2000s were different. Production companies like Platinum Dunes and Dark Castle Entertainment fixated on updating horror favorites from iconic slashers to Vincent Price oldies, banking on nostalgia as an added profitability measure. It’s curious though, because 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and others get referenced when conversations think back to what started The Great 2000s Remake Avalanche — The Ring somewhat forgotten in these terms.
That could be because The Ring is based on Hideo Nakata’s Japanese adaptation Ringu (aka Ring), an international ghost story less popular with domestic audiences whose first introduction to Koji Suzuki’s 1991 novel was Verbinski’s Americanization.
That could be because The Ring is based on Hideo Nakata’s Japanese adaptation Ringu (aka Ring), an international ghost story less popular with domestic audiences whose first introduction to Koji Suzuki’s 1991 novel was Verbinski’s Americanization.
- 8/10/2023
- by Matt Donato
- bloody-disgusting.com
A curse that infects people like a virus; a ghostly girl apparition with long hair — we owe these iconic J-horror images, and many other elements that are now the scary starter kit, to the creators of Ring (orig. Ringu). This year marks the 25th premiere anniversary of the supernatural thriller by Hideo Nakata, which was first released in Japan in January 2018 and then later screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July of the same year, became one of the highest-grossing Japanese horror movies, and basically charted the course for the entire J-horror tradition for many years to come. In 1991, Japanese writer Koji Suzuki published a novel called Ring, about a malevolent tape that brings a deathly curse on the head of young...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/28/2023
- Screen Anarchy
The Ringu franchise has a much more convoluted history than most people realize, with Koji Suzuki’s original novel actually being part of a genre-bending trilogy that differs greatly from the established mythology of the films. In fact, before Sadako ever made the leap to the big screen (and consequently overseas), her first live-action appearance was in an obscure TV movie that preceded Hideo Nakata’s film by 3 whole years – and that’s not even mentioning the Korean adaptation from 1999.
My point is that the Ringu films have always thrived on iteration and innovation, with each new installment adding something new to the Suzuki’s original story and helping to propel Sadako to international infamy. These updates don’t always work, like in the case of 2012’s absurd Sadako 3D, but even then, the results are still usually entertaining. The latest of these narrative refurbishings comes in the form of Hisashi Kimura’s Sadako Dx,...
My point is that the Ringu films have always thrived on iteration and innovation, with each new installment adding something new to the Suzuki’s original story and helping to propel Sadako to international infamy. These updates don’t always work, like in the case of 2012’s absurd Sadako 3D, but even then, the results are still usually entertaining. The latest of these narrative refurbishings comes in the form of Hisashi Kimura’s Sadako Dx,...
- 5/12/2023
- by Luiz H. C.
- bloody-disgusting.com
After the success of the original film, the decision was made to explore the life of the beloved protagonist Sadako from the original Ringu with some of the same individuals behind the camera. With an adaptation of several stories in Koji Suzuki's short-story collection Birthday that contained several stories to fill in the details of Sadako's history and newcomer Norio Tsuruta filling in for director Hideo Nakata, this is a fine entry that helps to cement gaps in the story from the previous films.
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Prequel to the horror film “Ringu”, this movie provides the background story of how Sadako (Yukie Nakama) later became a vengeful murdering spirit. The story starts with her as a shy, somewhat withdrawn college student who nonetheless gets involved in a drama club. The director thinks she has talent, but some of the other performers start to get jealous of the attention he gives her.
Buy This Title
Prequel to the horror film “Ringu”, this movie provides the background story of how Sadako (Yukie Nakama) later became a vengeful murdering spirit. The story starts with her as a shy, somewhat withdrawn college student who nonetheless gets involved in a drama club. The director thinks she has talent, but some of the other performers start to get jealous of the attention he gives her.
- 5/9/2023
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
George A. Romero has signed to write and direct the thriller Solitary Isle for Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment and Kadokawa Pictures. The film, based on a short story by Koji Suzuki (The Ring, Dark Water), marks the first project in a 50-50 joint venture between Hyde Park and Kadokawa in which they will co-finance horror-thriller films in the under-$25 million range. Solitary likely will be distributed by 20th Century Fox, where Hyde Park has its first-look deal. Hyde Park International will handle foreign. The story chronicles an expedition to a deserted island that turns deadly as the explorers face an unknown force.
George A. Romero has signed to write and direct the thriller Solitary Isle for Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment and Kadokawa Pictures. The film, based on a short story by Koji Suzuki (The Ring, Dark Water), marks the first project in a 50-50 joint venture between Hyde Park and Kadokawa in which they will co-finance horror-thriller films in the under-$25 million range. Solitary likely will be distributed by 20th Century Fox, where Hyde Park has its first-look deal. Hyde Park International will handle foreign. The story chronicles an expedition to a deserted island that turns deadly as the explorers face an unknown force.
Fresh from his Oscar-nominated The Motorcycle Diaries, acclaimed director Walter Salles takes the horror movie plunge with Dark Water, a psychological thriller with the accent truly on the psychological.
With his stirring visual sense very much intact here, Salles sets the creepy mood eloquently, but the picture -- based on the Japanese film by Hideo Nakata and a short story by Koji Suzuki, both of The Ring fame -- ultimately fails to reward all the little shivers with any satisfying jolts.
Although it's refreshing to have a horror script (by Fearless screenwriter Rafael Yglesias) that veers away from the usual zombies and slashers, the recurring thematic elements in Dark Water are still all too familiar to anyone who has seen any installment of The Ring cycle, not to mention the recent Amityville Horror or Hide and Seek.
That watered-down effect, combined with an unsatisfying ending that stints on the kind of audience-shocking coup de grace that translates into repeat viewings, will make for respectable but most likely not summer-worthy numbers.
There's no shortage of icky atmosphere in the picture's setup, with newly divorced mom Dahlia Williams (Jennifer Connelly) and her young daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade), renting a depressing apartment in a sprawling block of bleak concrete monoliths on bleaker Roosevelt Island.
It's the kind of joint that would make the apartment in Polanski's The Tenant look downright homey by comparison, so it's not surprising that the nasty-looking dark water stain that starts to form on the ceiling can only lead to worse stuff.
Of course, a bad leak is never really about a bad leak, especially in the Japanese thriller arena, and Salles and Yglesias plumb some murky psychological depths having much (a little too much) to do with Dahlia's own abandonment issues and big-city alienation.
By the time the inevitable deluge arrives, one can almost hear the Lennon-McCartney refrain of "Ah, look at all the lonely people" along with all that dripping and sinister whispering in the walls.
But while the story is a bit of a letdown, the performances are watertight. Connelly brings a nicely grounded and tightly coiled restraint to her role, while John C. Reilly is an absolute hoot as the smarmy con man of a complex manager who hustles Dahlia into taking the apartment.
Also effective is Pete Postlethwaite as Veeck, the building's moody janitor; Tim Roth as a sympathetic attorney who appears to work out of his car; and young Gade as Dahlia's big-eyed daughter.
There are also no complaints about the oodles of eerie atmosphere. You can almost smell the suffocating dankness in Affonso Beato's evocative, shadow-laced cinematography and production designer Therese DePrez's appropriately washed-out earth tones.
Adding to the heady textures is another elegantly off-center score by frequent David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti.
Dark Water
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Pandemonium/Vertigo Entertainment production
Credits:
Director: Walter Salles
Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias
Based on the novel Honogurai Mizuno Soko Kara by Koji Suzuki and the Hideo Nakata film Dark Water, produced by Taka Ichise
Producers: Bill Mechanic, Roy Lee and Doug Davison
Executive producer: Ashley Kramer
Director of photography: Affonso Beato
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Daniel Rezende
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Cast:
Dahlia Williams: Jennifer Connelly
Mr. Murray: John C. Reilly
Platzer: Tim Roth
Kyle: Dougray Scott
Veeck: Pete Postlethwaite
Mrs. Finkle: Camryn Manheim
Cecilia: Ariel Gade
Natasha/Young Dahlia: Perla Haney-Jardine
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes...
With his stirring visual sense very much intact here, Salles sets the creepy mood eloquently, but the picture -- based on the Japanese film by Hideo Nakata and a short story by Koji Suzuki, both of The Ring fame -- ultimately fails to reward all the little shivers with any satisfying jolts.
Although it's refreshing to have a horror script (by Fearless screenwriter Rafael Yglesias) that veers away from the usual zombies and slashers, the recurring thematic elements in Dark Water are still all too familiar to anyone who has seen any installment of The Ring cycle, not to mention the recent Amityville Horror or Hide and Seek.
That watered-down effect, combined with an unsatisfying ending that stints on the kind of audience-shocking coup de grace that translates into repeat viewings, will make for respectable but most likely not summer-worthy numbers.
There's no shortage of icky atmosphere in the picture's setup, with newly divorced mom Dahlia Williams (Jennifer Connelly) and her young daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade), renting a depressing apartment in a sprawling block of bleak concrete monoliths on bleaker Roosevelt Island.
It's the kind of joint that would make the apartment in Polanski's The Tenant look downright homey by comparison, so it's not surprising that the nasty-looking dark water stain that starts to form on the ceiling can only lead to worse stuff.
Of course, a bad leak is never really about a bad leak, especially in the Japanese thriller arena, and Salles and Yglesias plumb some murky psychological depths having much (a little too much) to do with Dahlia's own abandonment issues and big-city alienation.
By the time the inevitable deluge arrives, one can almost hear the Lennon-McCartney refrain of "Ah, look at all the lonely people" along with all that dripping and sinister whispering in the walls.
But while the story is a bit of a letdown, the performances are watertight. Connelly brings a nicely grounded and tightly coiled restraint to her role, while John C. Reilly is an absolute hoot as the smarmy con man of a complex manager who hustles Dahlia into taking the apartment.
Also effective is Pete Postlethwaite as Veeck, the building's moody janitor; Tim Roth as a sympathetic attorney who appears to work out of his car; and young Gade as Dahlia's big-eyed daughter.
There are also no complaints about the oodles of eerie atmosphere. You can almost smell the suffocating dankness in Affonso Beato's evocative, shadow-laced cinematography and production designer Therese DePrez's appropriately washed-out earth tones.
Adding to the heady textures is another elegantly off-center score by frequent David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti.
Dark Water
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Pandemonium/Vertigo Entertainment production
Credits:
Director: Walter Salles
Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias
Based on the novel Honogurai Mizuno Soko Kara by Koji Suzuki and the Hideo Nakata film Dark Water, produced by Taka Ichise
Producers: Bill Mechanic, Roy Lee and Doug Davison
Executive producer: Ashley Kramer
Director of photography: Affonso Beato
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Daniel Rezende
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Cast:
Dahlia Williams: Jennifer Connelly
Mr. Murray: John C. Reilly
Platzer: Tim Roth
Kyle: Dougray Scott
Veeck: Pete Postlethwaite
Mrs. Finkle: Camryn Manheim
Cecilia: Ariel Gade
Natasha/Young Dahlia: Perla Haney-Jardine
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes...
- 7/29/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Dimension Films has optioned film rights to Japanese author Koji Suzuki's short story Adrift from Kadokawa Pictures. Suzuki is best known for his novel Ring, which spawned several Japanese and Korean film adaptations as well as DreamWorks' adaptation The Ring, which grossed $250 million worldwide. Adrift, which was found in the library of Kadokawa Pictures, is the story of a crew of fishermen who come across an abandoned yacht only to discover that it is haunted.
- 9/28/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the theatrical release of "The Ring".
For those of us who perpetually encounter bizarre malfunctions and technological stubbornness from our VCRs, the idea of a malicious spirit taking revenge against humanity through a videotape makes perfect sense. Of course, there are evil ghosts in those damn machines! DreamWorks' "The Ring", an American version of a hugely successful Japanese horror film about a mysterious videotape, is an undeniably creepy, unnerving experience that turns mundane things -- a refrigerator door, a ringing telephone, TV static -- into moments of terrific suspense.
The supernatural elements don't always add up logically, but director Gore Verbinski is firmly in control of the film's strong visuals, and an attractive cast headed by Naomi Watts lends credibility to the scary goings-on. The film seems destined for its biggest success among teens both in theatrical venues and, oddly, video and DVD.
The original film, directed by Hideo Nakata and based on Koji Suzuki's novel "Ringu", was a phenomenon in East Asia, spawning not only two sequels but a 12-part TV adaptation in Japan. All these stories focus on a videotape that, if viewed, leads to terrifying death. Immediately after a person sees the tape, a phone rings and a voice declares that the viewer has seven days to live.
The American version takes place in rainy Washington state, where gloomy weather, an isolated island and a remote motel cabin all contribute to the eerie, nightmarish atmosphere. The mysterious deaths of four teenagers, who supposedly watched the tape, leads Seattle newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Watts), the aunt of one of the dead teens, to investigate. Initially feeling more like a murder mystery than a ghost story, the movie has Rachel backtrack through her niece's past week, leading her to a mountain cabin where the teen and her three friends spent the previous weekend. Here Rachel comes across the tape and watches it. Sure enough, the phone rings and her seven days have begun.
She turns to ex-boyfriend Noah Martin Henderson), something of a video whiz, and soon he, too, is "contaminated" by the video. But the person with the most prescient perceptions and insight into the matter is Rachel's young son Aidan David Dorfman). Not only was he close to his late cousin, but he seemingly is in contact with the spirit of a young girl, Samara (Daveigh Chase), whose untimely end is connected to the videotape.
The tape itself, a black-and-white short, has a Dali-esque quality that gives everyone the creeps. As Rachel's investigation plows ahead, the tape's surreal images, which seem so free-form and random, take concrete form: As Rachel spots this window and that lighthouse in real life, she gains more and more understanding of the tragedy that befell Samara and her only living relative, Richard Morgan (Brian Cox). Perhaps too much gets explained away. Giving literal truth to those random images robs the film of at least some of its supernatural underpinnings. The movie does recover its sense of dread and things beyond explanation by the end, however, leaving the story open to an American sequel as well.
Watts, so impressive in that other surreal mystery, David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive", anchors the film as an aggressive journalist determined to ferret out the truth no matter what the cost, forgetting that people close to her may pay the price. Henderson complements her well as her disbelieving yet nonetheless intrigued colleague. Dorfman has an extraordinary presence. The child actor's round face and large eyes seem to give off a wisdom beyond his years.
Verbinski rigidly controls his color palette, keeping even exterior day scenes dark and foreboding while playing with images that range from a fiery red maple tree alone in a desolate landscape to ordinary door knobs and faucets, which take on an unsettling malevolence. The meticulous work in Bojan Bazelli's cinematography and Tom Duffield's production design create an environment that, seemingly, plays a role in the spooky events.
THE RING
DreamWorks Pictures
A Bender-Spink Inc. production
Credits:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger
Producers: Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald
Executive producers: Mike Macari, Roy Lee, Michele Weisler
Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Craig Wood
Special makeup effects designer: Rick Baker
Visual effects supervisor: Charles Gibson
Cast:
Rachel Keller: Naomi Watts
Noah: Martin Henderson
Richard Morgan: Brian Cox
Aidan: David Dorfman
Samara: Daveigh Chase
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
For those of us who perpetually encounter bizarre malfunctions and technological stubbornness from our VCRs, the idea of a malicious spirit taking revenge against humanity through a videotape makes perfect sense. Of course, there are evil ghosts in those damn machines! DreamWorks' "The Ring", an American version of a hugely successful Japanese horror film about a mysterious videotape, is an undeniably creepy, unnerving experience that turns mundane things -- a refrigerator door, a ringing telephone, TV static -- into moments of terrific suspense.
The supernatural elements don't always add up logically, but director Gore Verbinski is firmly in control of the film's strong visuals, and an attractive cast headed by Naomi Watts lends credibility to the scary goings-on. The film seems destined for its biggest success among teens both in theatrical venues and, oddly, video and DVD.
The original film, directed by Hideo Nakata and based on Koji Suzuki's novel "Ringu", was a phenomenon in East Asia, spawning not only two sequels but a 12-part TV adaptation in Japan. All these stories focus on a videotape that, if viewed, leads to terrifying death. Immediately after a person sees the tape, a phone rings and a voice declares that the viewer has seven days to live.
The American version takes place in rainy Washington state, where gloomy weather, an isolated island and a remote motel cabin all contribute to the eerie, nightmarish atmosphere. The mysterious deaths of four teenagers, who supposedly watched the tape, leads Seattle newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Watts), the aunt of one of the dead teens, to investigate. Initially feeling more like a murder mystery than a ghost story, the movie has Rachel backtrack through her niece's past week, leading her to a mountain cabin where the teen and her three friends spent the previous weekend. Here Rachel comes across the tape and watches it. Sure enough, the phone rings and her seven days have begun.
She turns to ex-boyfriend Noah Martin Henderson), something of a video whiz, and soon he, too, is "contaminated" by the video. But the person with the most prescient perceptions and insight into the matter is Rachel's young son Aidan David Dorfman). Not only was he close to his late cousin, but he seemingly is in contact with the spirit of a young girl, Samara (Daveigh Chase), whose untimely end is connected to the videotape.
The tape itself, a black-and-white short, has a Dali-esque quality that gives everyone the creeps. As Rachel's investigation plows ahead, the tape's surreal images, which seem so free-form and random, take concrete form: As Rachel spots this window and that lighthouse in real life, she gains more and more understanding of the tragedy that befell Samara and her only living relative, Richard Morgan (Brian Cox). Perhaps too much gets explained away. Giving literal truth to those random images robs the film of at least some of its supernatural underpinnings. The movie does recover its sense of dread and things beyond explanation by the end, however, leaving the story open to an American sequel as well.
Watts, so impressive in that other surreal mystery, David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive", anchors the film as an aggressive journalist determined to ferret out the truth no matter what the cost, forgetting that people close to her may pay the price. Henderson complements her well as her disbelieving yet nonetheless intrigued colleague. Dorfman has an extraordinary presence. The child actor's round face and large eyes seem to give off a wisdom beyond his years.
Verbinski rigidly controls his color palette, keeping even exterior day scenes dark and foreboding while playing with images that range from a fiery red maple tree alone in a desolate landscape to ordinary door knobs and faucets, which take on an unsettling malevolence. The meticulous work in Bojan Bazelli's cinematography and Tom Duffield's production design create an environment that, seemingly, plays a role in the spooky events.
THE RING
DreamWorks Pictures
A Bender-Spink Inc. production
Credits:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger
Producers: Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald
Executive producers: Mike Macari, Roy Lee, Michele Weisler
Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Craig Wood
Special makeup effects designer: Rick Baker
Visual effects supervisor: Charles Gibson
Cast:
Rachel Keller: Naomi Watts
Noah: Martin Henderson
Richard Morgan: Brian Cox
Aidan: David Dorfman
Samara: Daveigh Chase
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 10/4/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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