Ringu and The Ring

A

Ark

Adventurer
Hi thar,

I first saw the American version of The Ring in 2003. It disturbed the crap out of me then. Only a couple of weeks later I saw the Japanese original when it premiered on C4. I didn't really give a lot of thought to either film but recently I rewatched the American version and found it really powerful this time round other than just being scary. However looking around the internet the majority of people seem to prefer the Japanese one so I thought I'd revisit that version as well.

WTF?

This was much worse than I remembered it. It's not scary, it's rushed and it's really really corney on a number of different levels. There were parts where I actually laughed.

Why does it get so much praise, especially when being compared to the US version?
 
I haven't watched the US remake but I don't recognise your criticism of the Japanese version.

It loses its power when you watch it and know the story but it's still well-made and not rushed at all.
 
I personally enjoyed both. I think though i started to find Ringu more annoying when they went to Ringu 2. Ringu got the right aspects of the book, though i believe there was a few alterations if i remember from reading the novel, americanised did exactly the same, but it still was a good scary movie. But yeah, my gripes where with the sequels, not the originals.

Apparently there is an adaptation of the Spiral and Loop novels which make up the trilogy as well, but i haven't seen them about.
 
You have to a) like Genkina Hito says, go into it a bit "colder" to fully appreciate it and b) be looking for a Japanese/Asian style of horror movie/story in the first place, otherwise yeah it's not as good.
 
Genkina Hito said:
I haven't watched the US remake but I don't recognise your criticism of the Japanese version.

It loses its power when you watch it and know the story but it's still well-made and not rushed at all.
Click to expand...

I think it appeared rushed to me because in the U.S. version finding the Island where the villain was born and revealing her back story took a lot of time. Especially since no one has any psychic powers in the U.S. version. That was actually one of the aspects of the original I found corney.

I get what you say about watching it for the first time without any foreknowledge but that's part of my point. The U.S. version is still gripping and powerful after you've watched it multiple times and aren't really scared anymore. To me that's what makes great horror movies. I still love watching Psycho, Cape Fear and The Wicker Maneven though they don't scare me anymore in the least. The US Ring has themes of grief and tragedy and explores the relationship between parents and children. It's not just straight horror. I didn't get that from the original at all.
 
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