Ring (1998)
(Ringu)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 95m
Director: Hideo Nakata
Cast: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Hiroyuki Sanada
Synopsis:
A journalist investigating the mysterious deaths of a group of teenagers comes upon a surreal video, the viewing of which triggers a phone message promising death in a week's time.
Review:
Following in a tradition of Japanese ghost stories (cf. Ugetsu Monogatari, Kwaidan, Empire of Passion) whose phantoms are far too real for comfort but which nevertheless give off an air of unresolved mystery, this stunningly creepy tale begins rather like an American teen horror picture but then slips into something resembling David Lynch, its use of sound particularly unsettling. It was a phenomenal success, and its scenario of a video which passes from hand to hand, spreading its curse, was entirely appropriate for an age of increasingly transmissible electronic media - and AIDS.
(Ringu)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 95m
Director: Hideo Nakata
Cast: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Hiroyuki Sanada
Synopsis:
A journalist investigating the mysterious deaths of a group of teenagers comes upon a surreal video, the viewing of which triggers a phone message promising death in a week's time.
Review:
Following in a tradition of Japanese ghost stories (cf. Ugetsu Monogatari, Kwaidan, Empire of Passion) whose phantoms are far too real for comfort but which nevertheless give off an air of unresolved mystery, this stunningly creepy tale begins rather like an American teen horror picture but then slips into something resembling David Lynch, its use of sound particularly unsettling. It was a phenomenal success, and its scenario of a video which passes from hand to hand, spreading its curse, was entirely appropriate for an age of increasingly transmissible electronic media - and AIDS.
(Ringu)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 95m
Director: Hideo Nakata
Cast: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Hiroyuki Sanada
Synopsis:
A journalist investigating the mysterious deaths of a group of teenagers comes upon a surreal video, the viewing of which triggers a phone message promising death in a week's time.
Review:
Following in a tradition of Japanese ghost stories (cf. Ugetsu Monogatari, Kwaidan, Empire of Passion) whose phantoms are far too real for comfort but which nevertheless give off an air of unresolved mystery, this stunningly creepy tale begins rather like an American teen horror picture but then slips into something resembling David Lynch, its use of sound particularly unsettling. It was a phenomenal success, and its scenario of a video which passes from hand to hand, spreading its curse, was entirely appropriate for an age of increasingly transmissible electronic media - and AIDS.