After record-breaking box office attendance in Japan, critical hyperbole and a lot of hype, along with a dedicated fan-base, Ring (known in Japan as Ringu) has spread from being a national phenomenon into a global success. The central character of Sadako has even been absorbed into popular culture, appearing in adverts and at theme parks!
Based on a series of best-selling novels by Kôji Suzuki, Ring was first brought to the Japanese public's attention by a TV series which featured many of the actors which went on to appear in the rest of the trilogy. The series proved incredibly popular, and from there, Nakata (already established as a leading horror film director after his success with Joyuu-rei) wrote the film screenplay, along with Hayashi Junichiro and Takahashi Nobuyukia. He assembled an incredibly well-respected cast of actors from stage, screen and also kabuki theatre, and the rest, as they say, is history…
Tomoko's aunt, a single mother and reporter named Asakawa Reiko (played outstandingly by Matsushima Nanako), is actually doing a report for TV about the popularity of the video curse myth, and becomes suspicious about Tomoko's death in light of the fact that her three friends died at exactly the same time. She decides to investigate what happened to the teenagers, and eventually discovers that all four of them stayed in a resort in Izu, and there they found a strange video which they all watched together…
Some critics have complained that the film is difficult and convoluted in its plot, and in many ways, there are many questions left unanswered right up until the release of the third film in the cycle (actually the fourth, if you count Rasen, Ring's much maligned original sequel) in 2001, Ringu 0: Baasudei (aka Ring 0: Birthday). But that only seems to add to its charm; Ring has its own mysterious world contained within it, and some questions are better left unanswered… The atmosphere of the film is also greatly enhanced by a fantastic soundtrack featuring the work of the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (also featured in such classic horror films as The Shining and The Exorcist), and also original music by Kenji Kawai, who has been making movie soundtracks since 1986.
Rasen (aka The Spiral, aka (confusingly) Ring 2), directed by Iida Jôji, is the second film in the Ring series, and the original sequel to the phenomenally successful Nakata Hideo movie. The film was released in 1998 at the same time as Ring, presumably to give the audience who loved the first movie an instant sequel and rake in the money off the back of Ring's major box-office success. However, things didn't quite work out that way: Rasen bombed at the box-office and people stayed away from the movie in droves. In fact, the film flopped so hideously that Asmik-Ace (the production company behind the series) hastily buried the movie and simply pretended it had never happened. That should give you some idea of how maligned this film is.
Of course, Asmik-Ace decided to call Nakata Hideo back in, along with all the original cast from Ring (many of whom actually refused to take part in Rasen), ditch the entire Rasen storyline outright, and eventually the "official" sequel Ring 2 appeared... and the rest, as they say, is history. My guess is that audiences reacted badly to Rasen for one major reason: it's not Ring. Nothing could have come close to the magic of the original film, and to blame that completely on Iida Jôji is at best unfair, particularly since neither Ring 2, Ring 0: Birthday and Ring Virus aren't Ring either, and none of them match up to the power of the original.
However, you cannot un-make a movie (no matter how hard Asmik-Ace tried), and to this day, Rasen remains one of the hardest movies to find with English subtitles, although Tartan Video are soon set to release a subtitled version later in the year. Yes, it's not a classic film by any stretch of the imagination. But it's not a terrible movie, either, compared to some others on the Asian horror market right now that haven't taken half the abuse and battering that Rasen has been subjected to. For the true Ring-freak, it's an essential part of the cycle, an entirely parallel film that seems to bear very little in common with the original and certainly nothing at all with Ring 2. And despite its huge shortcomings, eg not actually being at all scary - not even a little bit, not particularly beautiful on the eyes either, not to mention the fairly poor acting quality and dull-as-a-wet-weekend-in-Skegness dialogue, in my opinion it remains an essential part of the cycle.
Why, you might well ask? Well, it's a vital missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. The story is more closely linked and true to the Suzuki Koji books than Nakata's self-invention of Ring 2. It explains an awful lot about many themes which weren't fully explored in the original, and which would remain unknown to non-Japanese speakers who couldn't read the books. However, Rasen does have the annoying habit of simply omitting things from the original Ring story which don't fit neatly into its own plotline; for instance, the creepy image of the curse victims lying dead with their faces distorted with horror is just left out, which is especially irritating in the case of Rasen's main protagonist, Professor Takayama - surely the viewers just might remember seeing him after Ring's infamous final scene with his face set in a ghastly rictus of a death-scream? Iida doesn't seem to think that might have been quite an important theme in the original, hence the glaring omissions throughout the movie.
If you take the film out of context of the series, though, it's almost completely incomprehensible, and despite its annoying rewrites of Ring history, relies heavily on having seen the original. On its own merits, however, and not even attempting to compare it with the original, it's an interestingly apocalyptic medical thriller, which has a complex and fascinating plot full of bizarre twists, that often seem a bit nonsensical and unreal, but actually quite well thought-out, in the most part.
Rasen takes up the story of Ring on the same day that Professor Takayama Ryuji (Sanada Hiroyuki) is found dead in his apartment, a victim of the Yamamura Sadako curse video given to him by his ex-wife Asakawa Reiko. As we know from the end of Ring, his corpse is discovered lying on the floor of his apartment by his girlfriend and teaching assistant, Takano Mai (Nakatani Miki), a serious, shy young lady who knows the true power of Sadako's curse. She is unwilling to share her knowledge with the police, who are baffled by Takayama's death, presuming it must have been suicide or murder, due to its suddenness.
Takayama's body is removed from the crime scene to the forensic pathology lab for an autopsy, since he died in mysterious circumstances. Unfortunately, the presiding forensic doctor just happens to be Takayama's old friend from medical school, Mitsuo Ando (Koichi Sato) - Takayama had originally intended to study medicine before transferring to mathematics, and he and Ando had shared an intellectual relationship, inventing ciphers for each other to try and decipher; even though the codes were extremely hard to break, Ando eventually managed to work out that Takayama's ciphers were based on the Amider system of DNA, and the very fact of Ando's intellectual superiority to most of the other students was enough to cement their friendship.
However, Ando has been battling his own demons for a long time, trying to cope with severe psychological trauma after failing to save his little son Takanori from drowning two years ago, a terrible tragedy for which he blames himself and which frequently drives him to the point of making suicide attempts. He is understandably extremely upset to find out his old friend is dead, but still proceeds to do the post-mortem because it's his job. However, after having removed all of Takayama's internal organs, Ando has a horrible vision: he sees Takayama opening his eyes, sitting up on the slab, and not merely speaking to him but teasing him. Ando is shocked and shrieks out loud, but when he looks back at the slab again, Takayama of course is still lying there, silent and dead.
After the autopsy, the detective assigned to the case, Maekawa, talks to Ando about the mysteries surrounding Takayama's death; Takayama had made a phone call to Reiko just before he died, and she had disappeared and fled to her parents' house with their son Yoichi. Maekawa had already investigated Asakawa's parents, who lied to him and told him that they had never been there...
Maekawa takes Ando along with him to talk to Takano Mai, who is sitting in the hospital lobby, waiting to be interviewed about her witness report of Takayama's death; but she won't tell the detective anything, despite all his bullying tactics. On the other hand, the only person she will talk to is Ando, as he was after all an old friend of her boyfriend's. She tells him all about the cursed videotape that kills people a week after they watch it, including the original four victims of the curse. And at first, Ando laughs off this story, refusing to believe such an incredible tale...
... but the weird vision of Takayama that Ando had in the mortuary is not a one-off. Ando is now having all kinds of weird visions, with Takayama popping up all over the place, and scenes from his own son's death, whereas Mai sees scenes from the professor's death, over and over again.
In the meanwhile, Miyashita has been analysing the results of the post-mortem, and tells Ando that Takayama's death was definitely from a massive heart attack, caused by the strange throat tumour; but the tumour appears to be puzzlingly benign. Miyashita, completely baffled, had asked his old university doctor to examine the tumour, and when he receives the results, he is even more baffled: it was indeed caused by a kind of smallpox virus... but how can that be, when that disease died out a good thirty years or so ago? He discusses the results with Ando, who now has two theories about Takayama's death to think about: Miyashita's viral infection, or Mai's crazy idea about a curse video...
However, just as the pair are laughing at the very idea of a curse video, a call for Ando comes in from Detective Maekawa: Asakawa Reiko and Yoichi have been killed outright in a car accident, after leaving her parents' house. Not only that, but Reiko's father had hanged himself, leaving a cryptic final message telling Reiko "... don't worry about the videotape, I've taken care of it". And when Ando arrives at the scene just as the paramedics are removing the two corpses from the wreck, he meets one of Reiko's newspaper colleagues, Yoshino, who was also called to the scene. They look inside the car... and find a videotape on the front seat, smashed in half.
The next day, Ando goes to find Mai and tell her about the death of Reiko and Yoichi, and mentions to her that the police think that Yoichi was already dead before the accident happened, of yet another fatal heart attack caused by a tumour; at which point, Mai tells him that Yoichi (as we saw in Ring) had also watched Sadako's curse video. Ando still refuses to listen, despite having seen the smashed video in the car-wreck...
... until later, when Yoshino turns up at the hospital to talk to Ando, and gives him a filofax containing all the information that Asakawa Reiko had noted down regarding the curse video... including all the details of the story of Yamamura Sadako (Hinako Saeki), who had transferred her curse to a videotape by means of nensha (psychokinesis), as a kind of revenge attack for her short life's terrible suffering which culminated in her tragic murder, thirty years beforehand.
And more than this: Yoshino even hands Ando an old, damaged photograph of Sadako while she was still alive and studying drama in a troupe in Tokyo (as seen in Ring 0: Baasudei)... not to mention Reiko's spare copy of the curse video. And when Ando takes the videotape from Yoshino's hand, he sees another vision of Takayama, standing in the distance, watching them. But Yoshino swears blind that he hasn't watched the video himself, out of fear...
So Ando, being a scientist and therefore a non-believer in all things paranormal (despite his visions of ghosts), decides to watch the video; and the moment the tape runs out, he has a terrifying experience. He sees a vision, through Sadako's own eyes, of the brutal attack by her father, Doctor Ikuma, and her unconscious body consequently being dumped in the well... and a few moments afterwards, Ando receives a very.... personal visit from the great lady herself, although this time, she does not come to kill him as she does with her usual victims, but instead to have sex with him. (Sorry to disappoint all you titillation fans, but this is actually fairly important to the plot, and you only get to see Hinako-san nekkid for a couple of seconds ;-D)
And following on from this rather... unusual experience which has completely converted him to belief in the terrible power of the curse video, and having finally worked out what he thinks the meaning of the professor's odd encoded message to him is, Ando decides that Takayama's last wish was for him to hunt out and destroy all the remaining copies of the video on the planet... and to sacrifice his own life, to atone for the death of his son.
But if that's correct, why doesn't Ando die a week after watching the video, like all the other victims? Why is Takano Mai suddenly acting very out-of-character? And was that truly Takayama's last wish, or did he have an entirely different purpose for Ando other than smashing up videotapes?
I feel very strongly that Rasen was severely mishandled, and that's the point at which I lay the blame firmly at Iida's feet. The cinematography is as flat as a pancake, Hinako Saeki seriously sucks ass as Sadako (I'm sorry, but no matter how non-gratuitous and important to the plot it is, I will never be able to accept a pretty, young, stark-naked Sadako drooling all over someone and attempting to lick them to death), which I don't really think is entirely her fault, given the bizarre rewrite of the character; and even the great Sanada Hiroyuki can't make anything of his reprised Takayama Ryuji role as it stands. Nakatani Miki looks as if she'd rather be anywhere else but in this film. Matsushima Nanako didn't even bother to turn up, and so her role is replaced with intercut bits of old scenes from Ring instead.
And it's a great shame: with a more deft director, with a more visual cinematographer, and with an entirely different script-writer, Rasen could have been equally beautiful as Ring; its story is certainly more coherent and satisfying than the slightly-lame, inconsequential and rather stupid 'mad science' of Ring 2. I would certainly have loved to see what the genius Kurosawa Kiyoshi could have made of this film... or indeed, Nakata Hideo, had he been allowed to handle the original sequel with its infinitely richer storyline. And yet it must be said that the plotholes are so enormous that it would have taken a far better director than Iida to try and find ways around them.
In short, I have to agree though that Rasen simply isn't a good film. It's certainly no classic, but it's not outrageously crappy either. It's just dull, visually unappealing, unscary and poorly executed. Having said all that, it is one you should definitely buy if you're a Ring fan. Sounds like weird advice? Well, that's because it is - I don't usually recommend buying poor movies (unless I thought they were excellent and everyone else disagrees, that is ;-D). From an entirely completist standpoint, it truly is an essential part of the collection, and a fascinating look at just how the rest of the series might have gone if Nakata hadn't been called back in to create Ring 2. And don't get me wrong: I enjoyed the purity and the profundity of the storyline a lot better than the daffy plot of Ring 2.
However, whilst Rasen followed along the plot of Kôji's original novel quite closely, Nakata saw no real need to be quite so faithful to the story; many of the traditional horror elements became replaced with slightly dodgy sci-fi and some slightly incredible factoids instead. Set a mere week after the events of Ring, though, Ring 2 does give the viewer a nice sense of continuity.
That said, the film is still a very enjoyable experience (although if you watch it without having seen Ring, you won't understand any of it), and there are plenty of really chilling scenes that more than make up for the mad-scientist parts.
The film opens in a hospital mortuary, a week after the body of Sadako has been recovered. Shizuko's cousin, Yamamura Takashi (played by Numata Yoichi), is called in by the police to throw some light on the mysterious events surrounding Sadako's death.
So as a result of her own grief and concern for Reiko and Yoichi, Mai decides to investigate. She knows the story of the cursed video, but not the reasons behind it. Her first lead takes her to the newspaper office where Reiko used to work, and there she teams up with another reporter, Okazaki (Yanagi Yuurei) who also wants to track Reiko down and learn more about what's been going on.
Together, they decide to see if they can visit Tomoko's friend Kurahashi Masami (Sato Hitomi) who is still locked up in a secure mental health facility, having gone crazy after the death of Tomoko which happened in front of her. Masami also cannot speak, and seems to have developed some pretty intense psychic powers of her own. At the hospital, Okazaki and Mai meet a doctor who was a friend of Ryuji's, and who is treating Masami. This doctor has a theory: that psychic power (nensha in Japanese) can be released and dissipated by water.
Intrigued by the idea, Okazaki interviews some teenagers about the video, and finds one, Kanae, who has seen it, and gives him a copy of it on the provision that he should watch it within a week. He locks it away with no intention of watching it, consigning Kanae to a horrible death.
In the meanwhile, Mai carries on the investigation with the doctor, hoping that what she learns might be able to help Yoichi, if she ever finds him… but she only has seven days in which to try and find them and break the ring forever…
As the second part of the sequence, Ring 2 really isn't so awful. The weird-science scenes are a bit risible, but Nakata makes a pretty damn good job of carrying on in much the same vein as the first movie. My one criticism would be that there is a lot of explanation and very little action, and the feeling of the film is a bit hokey and non-sequitur at times. But there are quite a few scenes that are genuinely affecting and downright disturbing, and these alone make Ring 2 worth watching if you're a fan of the original film, although you do wonder if Nakata is setting the scene to make Ring 3...
Ring 0 is an odd film: neither true horror or costume drama, it comprises elements from both genres with ease and style. Tsuruta has held pretty closely to Nakata's style of film-making, which gives the movie some nice atmospheres and cinematography; the story really is more of a tragedy, though, with a few spooky bits thrown in along the way.
Lacking the chilling edge of Ring, Ring 0 excels instead in melancholy and drama, and sticks closely to the original story by Suzuki Kôji. All the questions raised by the two previous movies are answered here, and whilst in some ways that provides enlightenment, in others it's a little bit like a magician explaining a complicated trick - all illusions are shattered. But it's a lovely film, nonetheless, and in many ways, a better one than Ring 2.
As previously noted, most of the film is set in the 1960's, when Yamamura Sadako (Nakama Yukie) is roughly in her late teens. After the suicide of her mother Shizuko (played by Masako), Sadako was raised by Ikuma Heihachiro (Daisuke Ban), but by this time, she has left her home and moved to Tokyo in order to join a professional drama troupe as an apprentice. This was a move partly encouraged by the doctor provided for her by Ikuma, who has been treating her for "psychogenic disorders" and "hallucinations" - he believes that acting can help Sadako to forget about her mental trauma caused by her mother's horrible ruination by the press and subsequent death.
During an ill-fated rehearsal of the company's latest play, written by the director Shigemori (Wakamatsu Takeshi), Aiko, who is playing the lead female role, sees a vision of a little girl in white walking towards her, which no-one else can see. At the same time, a horrible, inexplicable squealing noise comes through the reel-to-reel tape recorder of the company's soundman, Tôyama (Seiichi Tanabe). This is an early version of the video curse, long before videotapes were ever invented. Just a few minutes after this strange event, Aiko is found dead in her chair from unknown causes, her face contorted in a silent scream. Of course, this makes the troupe even more uneasy about Sadako's presence in the company, which isn't really helped when Shigemori decides to cast Sadako in the lead female role in Aiko's place. This annoys Etsuko (Kumiko Aso), Tôyama's girlfriend, who was the next in line to play the part; but she's already pretty annoyed about the fact that Tôyama and Sadako seem to be getting romantically involved.
Later that evening, whilst sitting backstage and altering the white Victorian costume Sadako will wear in her role, Etsuko also experiences a frightening vision of a small girl walking past her, and fears for her life. When she comes round, she discovers Sadako hiding in the wings, holding the dress she had just been repairing. She accuses her of killing Aiko and threatening her as well; Sadako denies, and tells both Etsuko and Tôyama that she sometimes doesn't remember doing things. She also says that she is constantly followed by evil spirits, a factor that will reveal a great deal later on…
In the meantime, unbeknownst to Sadako, a journalist called Miyaji (Tanako Yoshika) whose fiancé was the reporter killed by Sadako at Shizuko's public ESP demonstration, is investigating her, supposedly in order to write an article about her, but in reality, seeking vengeance for her lover's murder.
Ring 0 sheds new light on many of the characters from the previous films, which, although changing many of them beyond recognition, is a positive move, humanising Sadako, explaining her tragic life ruined by circumstances, and showing the shy, sweet, improbable side of her character. Another fine example of this is how Ikuma is portrayed: not as a evil child-murderer, but rather as a broken and ruined man, at the end of his tether, who can see no other way to break the awful chain of events he unwittingly began with his public exposure of Shizuko and their doomed romance. In many respects, Ring 0 gives the characters extra depth and a more three-dimensional aspect than in the previous two films. Nakama Yukie gives a stunning performance, and the acting quality is good throughout.
More of a Shakespearian-style tragedy than a horror film, it nevertheless still manages to maintain tension, uneasiness and some creepy moments occasionally; but the overall emotional reaction you might experience during Ring 0 is not to hide behind your sofa with a cushion over your head, but to rush and find something to blow your nose and wipe your eyes on.
Ring Virus (also known as Ring) was released just a year after the release of Nakata's Ring in Japan, a hastily-made remake for the Korean market. Oddly, the storyline is closer to the original Suzuki Kôji novel, but other than that, the film is a poor companion to the tense, creepy Nakata original, and yet it is only differing from the Japanese version in one major aspect which forms a central part of the plot, but that's a spoiler so I'm not going to post it ;-)
The story is pretty faithful to both the book and the original Japanese film (sometimes too faithful, replicating shots and even camera angles at times). A reporter, this time called Sun-Joo (played by Eun-Kyung Shin, who also appeared in Uzumaki as a reporter!), hears that her cousin Sang-mi has died in mysterious circumstances, along with three of her friends.
She becomes curious and seeks help from a doctor called Choi (Jin-young Jeong) who made a mystical pronouncement at the scene of one of the deaths about "supernatural forces" having been at work. And this is where the film starts to get a bit confused, so bear with me. Somehow she knows about the cursed videotape (it's not an urban legend as in the Japanese version), partly by reading a weird pager message sent to the late Sang-mi by her boyfriend who died along with her.
From there, the story follows the Japanese version pretty well, with Sun-Joo watching the cursed video at the resort, and then having to find out who and what is behind the video. Of course, with Choi's "help" (he's not very helpful at all) she soon discovers the tragic story of Eun-Suh (played by Du-na Bae), a young psychic with amazing powers, who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
However, Eun-Suh is not Sadako, and it really shows. Frankly, she's about as scary as cold rice pudding. She is, however, a mystical character with a strange secret which you'll have to find out for yourself!
There's no fear, no tension projected by any of the actors, even the ones under Eun-Suh's death sentence, which kills off any possible atmosphere - if they don't care, we're unlikely to care either.
With bright colours and lighting, a confused (and confusing) convoluted plot, dull locations and lack of atmosphere, this film is really only of any worth to hardcore fans of the Japanese series - mainly because it assumes you have already seen the Nakata original. Hence, the story is confused and foreshortened - there are no explanations as to what is happening - so if you haven't seen the Nakata film, you won't be able to follow the plot of this film. Even the last scene is insipid, ineffective and uninspired.
So, then, here it is: finally, the much trumpeted American remake of Ringu. And on paper the signs aren't all that good. Directed by an unheralded director, screenwritten by the woman who did Stuart Little, the whole thing smells of tacky Hollwood cash-in. After all, the major studios have never been slow on the uptake on co-opting foreign hit movies and "adapting" them for US audiences. And by adapting I mean, sadly, seriously dumbing down. And the fears were that, sourced from an intelligent, thoughtful work by Hideo Nakata, the end result would be a teen slasher in the Jason vs Freddie mould.
In terms of structure, The Ring is broadly very similar to Ringu. Two teenagers, Becca and Katie, alone at home one night, discuss typical teenage concerns: boys, drugs, weird videotapes which cause you to die exactly a week after watching... Katie, in the Tomoko role, eventually confesses to having seen the tape a week previously with some of her friends in a lodge they were staying in. At ten exactly, the TV turns itself on, there's water all over the floor, and Becca finds Katie dead in a closet...
At Katie's funeral, her journalist aunt Rachel Keller (a somewhat overwrought Naomi Watts) is persuaded by Katie's mum to investigate what happened; how can a previously healthy sixteen year old girl suddenly die from heart failure? Equally, Rachel's precocious son Aidan is already displaying strange signs of obsession with Katie's death. It's stated that the two of them were very close, though clearly Verbinski wanted to hint that Aidan has some sort of psychic ability by the way, without being told, he singles out the TV in Katie's bedroom that was the last one to flicker on before she died. Rachel promises to investigate, and in Katie's room finds a roll of undeveloped film. This she has processed; they're photos Katie took at the lodge, and not only does this provide Rachel's first concrete lead, but the faces of Katie and her companions are all blurred. Equally, at the funeral, she finds out about a mythical videotape, which, a week after having seen, kills you. All Katie's friends at the lodge have died in mysterious circumstances too... So Rachel takes a trip to the lodge, and, in a most bizarre scene with an amateur magician of an owner, discovers that guests can choose videotapes from the lodge's collection to view in their rooms. She spots an unmarked tape, and, renting out the same cabin as Katie and her friends, borrows this tape and views it.
Examining the tape in more detail, Rachel sees not only a fly emerge from the screen and make infinity loops on the TV, but also sees a lighthouse right on the edge of the picture which she identifies as being on Moesko island; she also finds out there have been mysterious goings-on on the island involving one particular family, the Morgans: their horses have been dying, and the mother of the family, Anna, lost her life in strange circumstances. Rachel is now getting more scared; she's been having nosebleeds and has coughed up a medical electrode, complete with cord. She's also been grabbed by a figure of a girl in a chair, giving her a burn on her arm.
To her horror, one evening she discovers her cherished Aidan viewing the cursed tape, giving her yet more impetus to solve the puzzle. And off to Moesko island she heads (via an unsettling experience with a freaked out stallion on the ferry over there) while leaving Aidan to do more legwork. What will she find there? Who is the long haired little girl? And what's going on in that videotape?
A key criticism of the movie is that it lacks the subtlety of the original. There's a couple of jump scenes which are just cheap, and which make you hate the movie for startling you for nothing. Equally, Naomi Watts lacks the emotional control of Matsushima Nanako (Reiko, the Rachel character in Ringu) and has an irritating habit of screaming for no apparent reason. At the same time David Dorfman just irritates in a nasty Sixth Sense type way, though it's a flaw of the screenplay that Aidan does not reveal crucial information about Samara to Rachel until it's far too late.
Visually, though, it's a tour de force. It's got far more flair than Ringu (as you'd expect, given the comparative budgets) and throughout has a murky yet washed-out grey-blue tint a little reminiscent of Uzumaki. The use of CGI is often imperceptible and, when noticeable, does not intrude. That said, there are some terrible visual bloopers in it that we'll probably put up as a separate page at some stage. Yet, despite its flashy visuals, the movie has little if any of the atmosphere of Ringu. While that movie slowly and quietly built up an overwhelming sense of dread as the plot developed, The Ring seems to lurch from set-piece to set-piece with the remaining scenes little more than necessary exposition. But never mind, you'll get a good scare in the next ten minutes or so! It's as if it were designed for people with low attention spans, and certainly in the middle section lacks a good deal of plausibility.
So, then, a decent addition to the series, but not an essential one. It'll be interesting how they extend the plotline in the (inevitable) sequel, due October 2004, in which a brand new story will be portrayed...
So, farewell then Gore Verbinski. Off you toddle to your pirates and letting Johnny Depp get away with a bad Keith Richards impression, and let's have the US iteration of our favourite horror franchise get a steadying hand, away from your CGI visual trickery and cheap jump shots. So please may we introduce... Mr Nakata? Is that really you?
It's around six months since the events of The Ring, even though Aidan seems to have aged about three years. Rachel Keller and her son have relocated from Seattle to the small seaside town of Astoria. Rachel's taken a job at the local paper and, if anything, Aidan seems to have got weirder – the bug-eyed look still remains, and the focus of his attention this time, rather than Airfix models, stamp collecting or WWE Wrestling, like any normal kid, is digital photography, placing each of his works in a obsessively organised album.
Unbeknownst to them, though, Samara's curse continues. High-school student Jake (last seen in Rings) has finally managed to get piece of hot totty Emily round to his place. She's certain they're going to cop off; his only motive, of course, is to get her to see the tape. As the deadline of 11pm quickly approaches, she finally agrees to see it (providing they can cop off afterwards, of course) and, bizarrely, Jake retreats to the kitchen to wait it out. As water starts pouring under the door her realises something's gone horribly wrong, and as he rushes back to Emily he's sucked into the TV, into Samara's world...
That night, Aidan's woken by the TV. As he goes down to investigate, he finds Samara's well on screen, and as he tries to escape the water now flooding into the house, he's grabbed by Samara and dragged into the TV. What happens next is unclear, but he wakes up the next morning with a start, soaked, and claiming to Rachel (who he irritatingly, but significantly, still addresses as Rachel) he's had a nightmare and nothing really happened. However, as the day develops, things start to happen; Samara appears to him in both a mirror and his digital photos, not least, as well as a bizarre attack on Rachel's car by a herd of deer. (Why? Only because, apparently, screenwriter Ehren Kruger thinks deer are scary. Well, if he'd ever seen the ones that nibble Apple Towers ' garden on a regular basis, he'd think again, I'm sure.)
By now though Aidan's temperature has dropped to hypothermic levels, and Rachel, once home, calls for urgent medical help. When none is immediately forthcoming, she goes to tend to Aidan herself, only to hear a bizarre scratching noise as she enters his attic bedroom, finding an empty bed and Samara scratching the wall with her fingernails, only then to be replaced by a now ashen Aidan lit solely by the light of a nensha tree in the shape of the one in Samara's barn bedroom on the Morgan ranch quickly being burned into the wallpaper...
Max is determined to take Aidan to hospital – he's close to death from hypothermia now, and on his admission Rachel is basically accused of having abused him, and is forbidden from seeing her son. So, having explained what's going on to Max, she sets out to track the history of Samara, from her adoption by the Morgans onwards, to see how she can close the circle and get her son back...
Lots was written about The Ring Two immediately after its release about how much of a disappointment it was - indeed, many fan reviews were extremely negative. Yes, it's by no means as strong as The Ring – which, don't forget, was pretty much a straight copy, both in the story, thematically and visually of the original four Japanese movies, with a bit of cribbing from Nakata's Dark Water chucked in for good measure. The problem with The Ring Two is really that Kruger and (to an extent) Nakata have tried to take the story into a completely new direction, one that's actually quite cerebral, without thinking through the implications thoroughly and – here's the rub – trying to work fully in the formulaic structure of a mainstream Hollywood horror-thriller.
Visually, The Ring Two lacks the flair that Verbinski showed in the first movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as some of The Ring was, in places, quite gimmicky. There's no blue tone here, for example, and, while the colours can be quite washed out in key places, the visuals never get in the way of the story. Yes, some of the CGI is dire – a watery Samara flooding into a bathtub, for example, or a really bad stag (resembling Scooby Doo, no less) floating about three feet above the road before crashing into Rachel's car. It needs to be said though that Nakata's movies have never been flashy – he's much more of a storyteller than a visual artist, and this is totally reflected in this movie. Just like some of Nakata's other movies – and Dark Water really springs to mind - The Ring Two is a real slow burner. It takes well over an hour for things to really get going, and you get the feeling that the early jump scenes were put there solely at the studio's insistence that something scary had to happen to keep audiences satisfied – this being a mainstream horror movie, don't forget, with a franchise at stake. That said, there's no cheap scares of the "Noah filing" type of the first movie – each is thoroughly justifiable in terms of the plot.
The tension really starts to build as the true narrative – Samara's history, and her lost mother – is revealed. Ideally for me, this is where the majority of the story should have been concentrated, relegating the, frankly, rather tedious "oh my God, Samara's back" antics to just a few key scenes. Sadly, though, after some deft work on Nakata's part to increase the anxiety of all concerned, it's lost in the final, climactic scene where Rachel utters a line so wholly out of character it renders the entire scene – even the entire movie – totally ridiculous. It's a kick yourself, did-she-really-just-say-that moment, and one which in the cinema I saw the movie in, resulted in some not inconsiderable giggles from the audience. Either it is a (very) ill-advised attempt at humour in what is a pretty sombre piece, or such an ill conceived reaction that surely some studio executive, or even Nakata himself, really should have picked up on it.
In terms of performances, Naomi Watts as Rachel Keller repeats the overwrought performance she gave in The Ring. She is really way too over the top in places, especially when required to bring emotion into her role. She's fine at looking scared, but is unconvincing when trying to show the determination to either protect her son or destroy the demon Samara. David Dorfman as Aidan is even weirder than he was in the previous movie, but even this isn't really enough to convince that he's truly possessed by Samara.
Really, though, this is the Rasen of the US Ring series. There's enough new ideas here (why Samara doesn't sleep, her background, and the hint that Samara's curse has been around for some time before the Kellers became involved) to keep the series going for a while, despite a gaping plothole. Equally, there's nice references to the Japanese series throughout – both in the script where one doctor referenced is a Dr Koji, as well as visually when a couple of scenes recall sequences in both Ring 2 and Ring 0. At the same time, to get the most out of this movie you'll need to have a pretty good knowledge of The Ring as well – some key plot points are glossed over (such as the nensha tree) and there are some shots which again echo the first instalment. It would also have been good to see the idea of the Cult of Samara, hinted at in Rings, developed further rather than dropped outright. The one gaping plothole – which I'm not going to divulge – does give necessary space for subsequent movies to fill, but it does create the intriguing possibility that Samara herself is not the root of the curse, but that there's some other power that is...
So yes, The Ring Two does have some fairly serious flaws. But it's not a bad movie by any means (and still way better than The Grudge), and I think when the DVD comes out it'll give a necessary chance for multiple repeated views. Nakata has created something which, as usual, needs to be thought about, while working within the framework of a mainstream Hollywood horror film – which creates a movie where neither side wins. If he'd sided with the popcorn crowd, we'd have had a movie much like One Missed Call, with crowd-pleasing set pieces and a formulaic conclusion. In The Ring Two though he's created a fascinating mess of a movie, unsure of its own identity, much like his own Ring 2. I guess we'll just have to wait to see how it ages... (Snowblood Apple)
No comments:
Post a Comment