Ring

Japanese horror (or J-Horror) was able to carve out its own identity within the genre thanks to its striking look, the apparent ties to its own culture through distinct spiritual designs and expansive mythology, and an atmosphere that was more subdued and stress-inducing in contrast to the ‘’jump-out-of-your-seat’’ vibe usually associated with Western horror. While there’ve been several films in Japan’s cinematic lifespan that adopted these attributes, arguably the most famous was the 1998 supernatural psychological film, Ring (otherwise titled Ringu). Based on a 1991 novel written by Koji Suzuki, the story of a cursed V/H/S tape that kills anyone who watches it in seven days quickly became one of the iconic horror set ups, and was so successful from both a critical and commercial standpoint (even becoming the highest grossing Japanese film ever at the time), that Western filmmakers noticed the hype and decided to jump on the bandwagon by remaking Japanese horror films in their own style, effectively revitalizing the genre in Japan and sparking a new onslaught of supernatural-based horror films both in and out of country. Spawning a franchise that resulted in multiple sequels, (the first sequel, Spiral, was released the same year as the first), television shows, manga adaptations, video game appearances, and its own American version which had its own follow-ups, Ring may have come from small beginnings, but it birthed something truly gigantic.

Reiko Asakawa (played by Nanako Matsushima) is a journalist who has been investigating the mysterious deaths of three teenage girls who appear to be tied to an urban legend surrounding a cursed tape that kills someone seven days after they have view it. Upon realizing that all three teenagers (as well as her recently deceased niece whom she just attended a funeral for) watched this very tape, she travels to the location they stayed at and watches it for herself, placing her and her son, Yōichi (played by Rikiya Ōtaka) in the sights of the curse. Now on a time limit, Reiko along with her ex-husband, Ryuji (played by Hiroyuki Sanada), will need to uncover the truth behind this mysterious tape and who is the one causing these deaths, before Reiko becomes another victim.

While Ring is certainly an influential film and you can feel its impact on the genre through its presentation, pacing and atmosphere, it sadly feels a little dull in comparison to what it inspired. It has solid moments and clearly earned its classic status, but it isn’t a picturesque feature.

The film made a lot of changes from the original novel, with the most notable being switching the genders of the lead from man to woman and altering some of the details surrounding the film’s main antagonist and ghostly spectre, Sadako. While these don’t feel like drastic changes as the plot remain relatively untouched, there’s much more potential with this premise by making the lead a woman, or more specifically a mother. Having a divorced working mother be forced to deal with the vengeful spirit of a dead girl brings clear parental element to the story, with many believing the story now acts as a cautionary view on women avoiding their ‘’domestic necessity’’ in order to enter the workspace (which sounds a little sexist but probably is included in their somewhere). The screenplay written by Hiroshi Takahashi does a mostly good job transforming this narrative into a different form while still keeping it quick-to-grasp, and while there isn’t a lot of depth to its dialogue, characters or even themes, it seems to be perfectly comfortable existing a simple spooky ghost story, which it does that pretty well. Even with its lack of interest in exploring themes, this isn’t to say no form of commentary was able to come out of it, as while clearly not a technological horror film as the threat is clearly supernatural, the aspect of it emerging from a television definitely references the real-world fear of early technology and the myths that came from that uncertainty. While not addressed in a major way, this clash between remnants of the past and the rapid progression of the future is a nice ingredient for this story to have, and because the premise is very bare-bones yet still very memorable, future copycats are able to take what they like from this premise and expand upon it in their own way, so it’s not surprise it’s consider a staple of  J-Horror.

The story doesn’t have much to work with in the first half, which can be felt by how slow and meandering everything feels. The movie isn’t positioned to have a lot of dramatic moments, and the scares are more cryptically haunting rather than flashy screen-shouters, so it’s going to be much slower, more methodical, and base its scare more on subtle suspenseful build-up rather than big jump scares. While this is good in theory and on occasion, the uncomfortable silence can be a little chilling, the lack of any actual creepy payoff prevents it from feeling like cutting tension and instead spotlights the prodding dullness all the more. Thankfully, the latter stages of the film are better handled, provide a decently interesting backstory for the ghostly threat, and while the scripting is still fairly generic and makes some bizarre leaps to get around some expository moments, the directing by relatively fresh filmmaker, Hideo Nakata, is strong enough that you are willing to stick through moments even when they are a little slow.

Since the script doesn’t offer much depth and the narrative is basically a ghost story (which are meant to scare people for a brief moment with a memorable hook, yet don’t require a lot of elaborate characters or story beats), these characters also aren’t going to be anything that fulfilling. Ironically because the film is trying in some areas to be more than just a standard ‘’boo’’ experience and at least capture some weight and emotional attachment, it can’t coast on providing a cinematic thrill ride where characters die off left and right, leaving them as mostly harmless but not very fleshed out roles. With that said, even if they are boring, no one is necessarily bad and some of the acting does allow them to at least feel connectable enough. There can be an occasional overdramatic reaction that feels a little silly in a tone that is supposed to be serious, but for the most part, the actors are able to convey that needed element of depressive uncertainty that a story like this requires, making them feel like regular people but with just an extra hint of theatrical flair to fit in this genre. Nanako Matsushima is fairly decent as the lead, being able to effectively convey the fact that she is a working mother who might unknowingly be neglecting her son, but the film sadly doesn’t tackle that issue as much as it could’ve. There is a hint of an awareness there and it does feel like the character is missing some pieces not only due to being reworked from the book but also from losing that inner monologue that comes with any written material, but there could’ve been a really great character here if she was more fleshed out and utilized the parental element more (especially in regards to what they do with Sadako)

Hiroyuki Sarada does just feel like an exposition sponge meant to explain away some of the specifics of the plot (which even then is bizarrely told, as the only reason he’s aware of certain information is because he’s sporadically psychic), and you don’t really get any form of chemistry between him and Matsushima, but he doesn’t do anything wrong either and while most of the supporting characters are miscellaneous, but people like Yōichi Numata, Yuko Takeuchi and Katsumi Muramatsu act their smaller parts fine. The character of Sadako is sadly not very interesting, and while the image of her with long black hair covering her eyes soaking wet wearing a white gown emerging from a well, will always be an iconic image in the horror genre, the role feels more like an anonymous ghostly figure rather than a character exacting vengeance (the American remake honestly does this part a little bit better). With that said, her final reveal is still pretty cool, and the character’s jagged and unnatural movements are portrayed pretty well by kabuki actor, Rie Inō, and through the movie reversing the footage to truly make things feel unnatural.

The film had quite a small budget of only $1.5 million, didn’t have any big names attached, and was part of a genre that while certainly popular, wasn’t doing incredibly well at the time, so it isn’t any surprise that it cuts some corners. One of the clearest examples of this is that since this story is about a ghost who kills people in a manner that is undisclosed but leaves no physical mark outside of a horrified expression, it limits the kind of ways characters can be killed off, so any moment that does feature a death is mostly kept off screen or is as simple as ‘’falling down’’. The film doesn’t need to go crazy with its kills as the more somber atmosphere is what helped make it feel ghostly and oppressive, but since it mostly just consists of people walking slowly around houses and starring fearfully at something, there’s only so much of that you can take. Once and a while, there’s a nicely framed shot from cinematographer, Junichiro Hayashi, which presents otherwise generic imagery in a way that feels slightly cinematic and even a little unnerving through how simultaneously empty and confining a place can feel, and the film in general has a sketchy, normalized look which makes the spectral components which feel ripped right out of a folktale, all the more uncomfortable and stranger. The musical score by Kenji Kawai doesn’t show up too often due to the aforementioned frequent bouts of silence, but when it is heard, it sounds pretty good and even more fruitful than you’d expect in a typical horror piece. It has the somber quality which comes through the stirring violins and gusty wind chimes, there’s a techno element which adds a funky vibe which strangely doesn’t feel out of place, and the metal-esque sound that picks up whenever something creepy or unsettling happens is effectively cringe-inducing and eerie.

Whether intentional or not, Ring has a lot of similarities to the classic Universal movie monsters of Hollywood old, as they’re not the richest in terms of character, plot or depth, and many films after their release have expanded upon their ideas and made movies that have dramatically altered how we perceive horror, but when you look at them in a vacuum, the influence they’ve had on cinema and on horror have also been extremely impactful, so even if they’re simple, they are very memorable pictures that take advantage of their ideas and present them in a completely timeless manner that can be appreciated at any time. This 1998 film arguably isn’t that much different from the American version that would come later (even down to the cons and most of the pros), but for being the one to start it all, it deserves a hint more praise for what it achieved. With serviceable characters, visuals and direction, Ring may not be all the rage now, but certainly had people glued to their screens originally.