1998 Japanese horror film by Hideo Nakata
This article is about the 1998 Japanese horror film. For other uses, see Ring 👄 (disambiguation)
"Towel-Headed Man" redirects here. Not to be confused with Towelhead
Ring (リング, Ringu) is a 1998 Japanese supernatural psychological horror film 👄 directed by Hideo Nakata, based on the 1991 novel by Koji Suzuki. The film stars Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani and 👄 Hiroyuki Sanada, and follows a reporter who is racing to investigate the mystery behind a cursed video tape; whoever watches 👄 the tape dies seven days after doing so. The film is titled The Ring (stylized as the Ring) in English 👄 in Japan and released as Ringu in North America.
Production took approximately nine months.[4] Ring and its sequel Spiral were released 👄 in Japan at the same time. After its release, Ring was a huge box office success in Japan and was 👄 acclaimed by critics. It inspired numerous follow-ups in the Ring franchise, popularized Japanese horror (or "J-horror") internationally, and triggered a 👄 trend of Western remakes of J-horror films, including the 2002 American film The Ring.
Plot [ edit ]
During a sleepover, high 👄 schoolers Tomoko and Masami discuss an urban legend about a video tape that curses its viewers to die in seven 👄 days after a foreboding phone call. Tomoko then confesses that last week she and her friends watched a strange video 👄 tape and received an inexplicable phone call afterward. They receive a false alarm phone call, and then Masami goes to 👄 the toilet. Tomoko witnesses the TV turn on by itself and is killed by an unseen presence.
Reiko Asakawa, Tomoko's aunt 👄 and a journalist investigating this urban legend, attends her funeral and learns that three of Tomoko's friends, who watched the 👄 tape with her, all died at the same time she did. Reiko visits the resort cabin where the four stayed 👄 and finds an unmarked video tape. It contains brief, seemingly unrelated scenes accompanied by screeching sounds, and ends with a 👄 shot of a well. After watching, Reiko sees an apparition and receives a phone call emitting the screeching sounds from 👄 the tape. Convinced she has been cursed, Reiko takes the tape and leaves the cabin.
Reiko enlists the help of her 👄 psychic ex-husband Ryūji Takayama. Examining a copy of the tape that Reiko made, the pair find a cryptic message spoken 👄 in an Ōshima dialect and prepare to go to Ōshima. Before departing, Reiko catches Yōichi, her son with Ryūji, watching 👄 the tape after being urged by "Tomoko".
In Ōshima, Reiko and Ryūji learn about Shizuko Yamamura, the woman in the tape. 👄 Prior to her suicide, Shizuko gained notoriety following a public demonstration of her psychic ability organized by ESP researcher Dr 👄 Heihachiro Ikuma, with whom she had an affair. When confronting Shizuko's brother Takashi, the pair learn through a vision that 👄 during the demonstration, Shizuko's young daughter Sadako, whose name is hinted in the tape, psychically killed a journalist who decried 👄 Shizuko's abilities. After failing to track down Sadako, Reiko realizes that Ryūji never received a phone call after watching the 👄 tape as she did at the cabin in Izu.
Back at the cabin, Reiko and Ryūji find a sealed well in 👄 the crawlspace. Through another vision, they learn that Dr. Ikuma trapped Sadako inside the well. They conclude that Sadako remained 👄 alive and that the curse was born when a video tape "recorded" the rage she had projected. When draining the 👄 water, they find Sadako's remains. Reiko's seven-day deadline passes and she remains alive, leading them to believe the curse is 👄 broken.
The next day, Ryūji's TV turns on by itself, showing the well at the end of the tape. Sadako's vengeful 👄 spirit staggers from the well and out of the TV, advancing toward Ryūji and killing him. Reiko, who had been 👄 trying to call Ryūji at the time, hears his last moments over the phone. Guided by an apparition, Reiko realizes 👄 that she unwittingly found the actual way to survive the curse: copying the tape and showing it to someone else 👄 within seven days. Desperate to save Yōichi, Reiko drives to her father's home to show him the tape.
Cast [ edit 👄 ]
Ring was also Nanako Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada second collaboration, following their first collaboration in a 1997 TV drama Konna 👄 Koi no Hanashi. Nanako Matsushima (left) who played the role as the major protagonist, journalist Reiko Asakawa and Hiroyuki Sanada 👄 (right) who played the role as Reiko former husband and university professor, Ryūji Takayama.was also Nanako Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada 👄 second collaboration, following their first collaboration in a 1997 TV drama
Themes and interpretations [ edit ]
Critics have discussed Ring's preoccupations 👄 with Japanese tradition's collision with modernity. Colette Balmain identifies: "In the figure of Sadako, Ring [utilises the] vengeful yūrei archetype 👄 of conventional Japanese horror". She argues how this traditional Japanese figure is expressed via a video tape which "embodies contemporary 👄 anxieties, in that it is technology through which the repressed past reasserts itself".[5]
Ruth Goldberg argues that Ring expresses "ambivalence about 👄 motherhood". She reads Reiko as a mother who – due to the new potential for women's independence – neglects her 👄 "natural" role as martyred homemaker in pursuit of an independent identity, subsequently neglecting her child. Goldberg identifies a doubling effect 👄 whereby the unconscious conflicts of Reiko's family are expressed via the supernatural in the other family under Reiko's investigation.[6]
Jay McRoy 👄 reads the ending hopefully: if the characters therapeutically understand their conflicts, they can live on.[7] Balmain, however, is not optimistic; 👄 she reads the replication of the video as technology spreading, virus-like, throughout Japan.[5]
Title [ edit ]
The film's title, Ring, can 👄 be interpreted in several ways, such as alluding to the never ending cyclical nature of the ring curse/virus. Another interpretation 👄 is that "ring" relates to the phone call which warns those that view the video tape that they will die 👄 in seven days,[8] as well as to the view of the ring of light seen from the bottom of the 👄 well where Sadako's body was left to decompose.[9]
Production [ edit ]
After the moderate success of the 1991 novel Ring by 👄 Koji Suzuki, Kadokawa Shoten decided to adapt it into a motion picture.
Screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi and director Hideo Nakata collaborated to 👄 work on the script after reading Suzuki's novel and watching Fuji Television's 1995 made-for-TV film, directed by Chisui Takigawa.[10] The 👄 broadcast version of the 1995 film was re-edited and released on home video under a new title, Ring: Kanzenban ( 👄 lit. "Ring: The Complete Edition";[10] Nakata did not state which version of it he and Takahashi watched.
In their film script, 👄 Takashi and Nakata changed the protagonist's gender (from male to female), name (from Kazuyuki Asakawa to Reiko Asakawa), marital status 👄 (from married to divorced) and child's gender and name (from daughter Yoko to son Yoichi).[10]
With the budget of US$1.5 million, 👄 the entire production took nine months and one week. According to director Nakata, the script and pre-production process took three 👄 or four months, shooting five weeks and post-production four months.[4]
The special effects on the cursed video tape and some parts 👄 in the film were shot on a 35 mm film which was passed on to a laboratory in which a 👄 computer added a "grainy" effect.[4] Extended visual effects were used in the scene in which the ghost of Sadako Yamamura 👄 climbs out of the television. First, they shot the kabuki actress Rie Inoo walking backwards in a jerky, exaggerated motion. 👄 They then played the film in reverse to portray an unnatural-looking walk for Sadako.[11]
Release [ edit ]
Ring was released in 👄 Japan on January 31, 1998, where it was distributed by Toho. Upon release in Japan, Ring became the highest-grossing horror 👄 film in the country.[12] The film was shown at the 1999 Fantasia Film Festival where it won the first place 👄 award for Best Feature in the Asian films section.[13]
In the Philippines, the film was given limited releases as Ring: Circle 👄 of Evil on both December 4, 2002,[14] and January 11, 2003,[15] to coincide with the North American remake's release on 👄 January 17.
Box office [ edit ]
In Japan, the film earned a distribution income (rentals) of ¥1 billion in 1998, making 👄 it one of the top ten highest-grossing Japanese films of the year.[16] The film grossed a total Japanese box office 👄 revenue of ¥1.7 billion[17] (US$13 million).[18]
Variety stated that Ring's "most notable success" has been in Hong Kong, where it became 👄 the biggest grosser during the first half of the year, beating popular American films such as The Matrix.[19] On its 👄 1999 Hong Kong release, Ring earned HK$31.2 million (US$4.03 million) during its two-month theatrical run making it Hong Kong's highest-grossing 👄 Japanese-language film.[20] This record was later beaten by Stand By Me Doraemon in 2024.[20] In Taiwan, where it released in 👄 1999, the film grossed NT$50.83 million[21] (US$1.619 million).[22]
In France, the film sold 94,257 tickets,[23] equivalent to an estimated gross revenue 👄 of approximately €506,160[24] (US$452,737).[25] In South Korea, 56,983 tickets were sold in the capital city of Seoul,[26] equivalent to an 👄 estimated gross revenue of approximately ₩341,970,000[27] ($287,656).[25] The film also grossedR$59,001 in Chile and the United Kingdom,[28] adding up to 👄 an estimated worldwide gross revenue of approximatelyR$19,448,394.
Home media [ edit ]
Ring was released directly to home video in the United 👄 States and Canada by DreamWorks with English, Spanish, and French subtitles on March 4, 2003, under the transliterated title Ringu.[29]
In 👄 the United Kingdom, it was watched by 390,000 viewers on television during the first half of 2005, making it the 👄 sixth most-watched foreign-language film on UK television during that period. Ring 2 also drew 360,000 viewers on UK television during 👄 the same period, adding up to a combined 750,000 UK television viewership for both Ring films during the first half 👄 of 2005.[30]
To coincide with its 20th anniversary, Arrow Films under their Arrow Video imprint issued a Blu-ray Disc of Ring 👄 on March 18, 2024, in the UK and Ireland. Additionally, a Blu-ray box set featuring Ring, the sequels Spiral and 👄 Ring 2, and prequel Ring 0, was also released. The transfer features a 4K resolution restoration that was scanned from 👄 the film's original camera negative. The picture grading and restoration, which took place at Imagica Labs in Tokyo, was supervised 👄 and approved by Ring cinematographer Jun'ichirō Hayashi.[31] Both Arrow's single Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray box set were later released in 👄 the United States and Canada on October 29, again under the transliterated title Ringu.[32]
Reception [ edit ]
The review aggregator website 👄 Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 97% based on 38 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.5 👄 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Ringu combines supernatural elements with anxieties about modern technology in a truly 👄 frightening and unnerving way".[33]
Sight & Sound critic Mark Kermode praised the film's "timeless terror", with its "combination of old folk 👄 devils and contemporary moral panics" which appeal to both teen and adult audiences alike.[12] While Adam Smith of Empire Online 👄 finds the film "throttled by its over complexity, duff plotting and a distinct lack of actual action",[34] Kermode emphasizes that 👄 "one is inclined to conclude that it is the telling, rather than the content of the tale, that is all-important".[12] 👄 Variety agrees that the slow pace, with "its gradual evocation of evil lying await beneath the surface of normality", is 👄 one of the film's biggest strengths.[35] Ring was listed as the twelfth best horror film of all time by The 👄 Guardian[36] and also picked by Stuart Heritage in the same paper as the film that frightened him most.[37]
Ring was ranked 👄 No. 69 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.[38] In the early 2010s, Time Out 👄 conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for 👄 their top horror films.[39] Ring placed at number 61 on their top 100 list.[40]
Influence [ edit ]
The international success of 👄 the Japanese films launched a revival of horror filmmaking in Japan that resulted in such pictures as Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 👄 film Pulse (known as Kairo (回路, lit. "Circuit") in Japan), Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge (呪怨, Juon) (2000), Hideo Nakata's Dark 👄 Water (仄暗い水の底から, Honogurai Mizu no Soko kara, lit. "From the Depths of Dark Water"), also based on a short story 👄 by Suzuki), and Higuchinsky's Uzumaki (2000, a.k.a. Vortex, based on the Junji Ito horror manga of the same name).
Influence on 👄 Western cinema [ edit ]
Ring had some influence on Western cinema and gained cult status in the West.[41]
Throughout the 1980s 👄 and 1990s, Hollywood horror had largely been dominated by the slasher sub-genre, which relied on on-screen violence, shock tactics, and 👄 gore.[41] Ring, whose release in Japan roughly coincided with The Blair Witch Project in the United States, helped to revitalise 👄 the genre by taking a more restrained approach to horror, leaving much of the terror to the audience's imagination.[41] The 👄 film initiated global interest in Japanese cinema in general and Japanese horror cinema in particular, a renaissance which led to 👄 the coining of the term J-Horror in the West. This "New Asian Horror"[5] resulted in further successful releases, such as 👄 Ju-on: The Grudge and Dark Water.[7] In addition to Japanese productions this boom also managed to bring attention to similar 👄 films made in East Asia at the same time such as A Tale of Two Sisters from South Korea and 👄 The Eye from Hong Kong.
All of these films were later remade in English. Released in 2002, The Ring reached number 👄 1 at the box office and grossed slightly more in Japan than the original.[5] The original Ring grossed ¥1.7 billion 👄 in 1998,[17] while The Ring remake grossed ¥1.75 billion in 2002.[42]
Sequels and remakes [ edit ]
The original sequel was Spiral, 👄 released in 1998, but due to its poor reception, a new sequel, Ring 2, was released in 1999 which continued 👄 the storyline of this film. It was followed by a 2000 prequel, Ring 0: Birthday, followed by Sadako in 2024. 👄 Spiral in turn was followed by Sadako 3D in 2012 and Sadako 3D 2 in 2013. Another installment, Sadako DX, 👄 was released in 2024.
A television series, Ring: The Final Chapter, was made, with a similar storyline but many changes in 👄 characters and their backstories. A South Korean remake The Ring Virus was made in 1999, as well as an American 👄 remake, The Ring, in 2002.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Works cited [ edit ]
