RING

With every advance in technology, horror writers will inevitably exploit that advance, crafting a terror tale around a haunted spaceship or fax machine. On the surface, the original Japanese film Ring, on which the current Hollywood pic is based, appears to be just such a tale, as its driving device is a cursed video recording. However, Ring is much more – a delicately crafted film that builds up tension to the breaking point, drawing you in.

An urban legend is going around among Japanese teens about a cursed videotape, supposedly recorded accidentally by a man visiting Indonesia, which shows a strange woman. If anyone watches the tape, immediately after they’ll receive a telephone call, which tells them that they’ll die in one week. And everyone who receives the message dies in exactly seven days. As legends go, it’s just the right mix of mysterious and stupid to be acceptable. Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) is a television journalist working on a story about the legend whose investigations uncover a string of deaths, though she’s unable to make a definite connection. Her break comes tragically – her young niece Tomoko (Yuko Takeuchi) dies unexpectedly, and at the wake she finds out from Tomoko’s friends that several others in her group died the same night, from no apparent cause. Rumor has it that the cursed video is responsible, all of them having watched it together on a weekend trip. Checking up on the trip, she chances upon the tape they watched, which was left in their cabin, and of course she watches it. And of course, the phone rings right after. Her investigation becomes a race against time as evidence mounts supporting the curse’s reality, and she desperately tries to put together the clues provided by the tape. Her college professor ex-husband Ryuji Takayama (Henry Sanada) joins her, and their efforts become really desperate after their young son Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka) sees the tape as well.

Based on a story by Koji Suzuki, Ring was first adapted as a 1995 TV movie that was so popular that it was released to theaters, and this theatrical film was made two years later. Ring became a smash hit in Japan, spawning sequels, Korean and American remakes, and a television series - and deservedly so. It combines the puzzle solving suspense of thrillers like Blow Up, with subtly creepy atmosphere found in ordinary surroundings, growing tension as the doom clock ticks down, and some of the best shocks since Hitchcock. The viewer can’t help but feel the curse settle in every time the bizarre tape is shown – especially when you notice that it’s never quite the same twice. A nightmare-inducing masterpiece, it also taps into how recorded imagery affects everyone that sees it, from a downloaded video file back to the first cave painting.

Ring also happens to be the premiere cautionary tale against video piracy – though in practice, it’s had the opposite effect. Due to its unavailability in America (so far), caused by Toho Studio’s reluctance to market their films in the States and the new Hollywood remake, Ring and its sequels have become some of the most copied videos in North America. Its spell gains an extra dimension on home video… especially if someone sends you a blurry dub in the mail with no return address. For those with multi-region DVD players, this disc release from Tartan is the best way to go. There was a Chinese release as well from Ocean Shores, but its English subtitles translate the Chinese language version, changing all the character names and some of the meaning in the dialogue. The sound quality is good, though hopefully the eventual U.S. release will have better image quality – the dark areas are a bit indistinct, and the video matte doesn’t reach the borders on the frame. The disc also contains the cursed video separately as an extra – but you might want to disconnect all your phones before watching it.