#rie ino'o

[may8chan]

[swdefcult]

[halloweenmoviewatchlist]

The Ring (1998)

[リング]

[mariocki]

Ringu (The Ring, 1998)

"She killed a man just by willing him dead. That's power of a different order from her mother."

"So that video..."

"It's not of this world. It's Sadako's rage. She's put a curse on us."

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/12/2023: RINGU, GOJIRA

I rewatched both of these movies in preparation for an event that my org hosted at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies has a lecture at the fest every year, and this time I got someone really great to accompany their Japanese programming. Actually, you can read the original paper that my speaker Sigmund Shen based his talk on, and I highly recommend it!:

He has something very compelling to say about how RINGU and GOJIRA (among other things) reflect the ongoing struggle to expose suppressed national histories, which inflict shame and trauma on a populace who are unable to fully process events that have been protected by censorship and taboo. Because this is a speed run season of Blogtober, I'll leave the analysis to Professor Shen--you won't be disappointed!

The film festival featured a slate of Japanese fare to coincide with a new documentary called THE J-HORROR VIRUS by Sarah Appleton and Jasper Sharp. When they were asked "Why now?" about this investigation into a mode of production that was extremely hot in the early aughts, and which has seen virtually no new growth in recent years, the answer seemed to be that only this much hindsight has clarified what it all meant--and they're right. The doc is really interesting and surprising, even to someone like me who remembers how hard J-horror hit the American festival circuit back when. The founding filmmakers share insights and inspiration that I never would have guessed at, but I have to say that my favorite part was the interview with Rie Ino'o who played Sadako in RINGU and RING 2. Despite her silent and basically faceless performance, she infused her character with a vivid personality that made Hideo Nakata insist that she return for the second film, and you can really see what made her so irreplaceable. I think I'm in love with her now. Anyway, see THE J-HORROR VIRUS if you can, it's really good.

[brody75]

Ringu (1998)

[ozu-teapot]

Ring | Hideo Nakata | 1998

Rie Ino'o

[sillymovietrailer]

Ring

Before I really start talking about this one, a mini-rant; I am not calling this one Ringu, that is a long-standing mistranslation/misunderstanding of the way kanji characters work.  I don’t care that the word as phonetically pronounced as written like that does sound a bit like Ringu, it was always meant to be called Ring.  We don’t refer to Audition as “Odishon” do we, or quite a few other Japanese films in an awkward phonetic way, so stop doing it for this one.  The original book was even specifically called Ring, as in the English word, in Japan.  It’s Ring, not Ringu, so there!  Right, rant over, good to get that one clear.

I'm quite glad that my clear out of my drafts folder means I can talk about this one. I have a lot of fondness for this movie.  I first saw it thanks to my brother when it was first relased on DVD by Tartan Video, about a year before the US version. It truly unsettled me like few films had done before, to the point that for the next month I was giving every phone and TV I saw suspicious looks. It's also a good time to talk about it as Arrow Video have just rereleased the film in a shiny new 2K restoration on blu ray, which I can say looks great up on the big screen.

The film was based on a novel by Kōji Suzuki, and this is a case I hold up whenever the topic of fidelity to source material in a film adaptation gets mentioned.  See, Ring the book has the same basic story as the film, but also a lot of problems, including really iffy characterisation (like a lead bragging about how he might be a rapist.  No, really!), tacky handling of certain topics (there’s a big shock reveal that Sadako was intersex.  Yes, in a tacky “trap” manner.  Screw you Mr Suzuki!), a lot of waffle, and a tendency to drift into weird SF territory for no need, like a vengeful ghost wasn't enough.  So in making Ring, director Hideo Nakata and screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi decided to cut all of that out, and bring it into line into being a more focused ghost story.  Oh, and in the process, they gave the story it’s most iconic image; Sadako crawling out of the TV?  That’s not in the book, the end of the curse happens off page!  So you see, sometimes tearing the guts out of a source work can be the best thing when you are adapting it.  To get an idea of what the original was a bit more like, here’s a radio version the BBC did a few years back...

Not much more I can really say to discuss the film itself which hasn’t already been said TBH; it’s a legendary title that was at the spearhead of a whole fresh wave of Japanese horror, especially in terms of its awareness in the West.  I really only have one thing to say about this trailer, what makes it suitable for “silly” status; what is with that music?  It’s from the end credits of the film, I get that, but for use there in the trailer?  Yeah, that sets the mood for the tense ghost story (which has an excellent score by Kenji Kawai) this film is.  Tomorrow though, I’m going to talk about an odd branch of this franchise, one I haven’t actually sat down and watched before getting the blu ray set, but knew already by a terrible reputation...

[acciosilver]

[Halloween Series; Halloween Hootenanny] [Sadako Yamamura and Samara Morgan from Ringu & The Ring (1998/2002); played by Rie Ino’o and Daveigh Chase]

Take your pick between the Japanese OG and the American remake, there’s nothing to sneeze at here when it comes to Sadako aka Samara, the girl from the cursed tape. Watching it brings you seven days closer to death, being marked and relentlessly haunted by your impending doom. There’s a mystery to be had here concerning that girl in the well, but please halt your baser human instincts, because helping her can only spell doom for everyone. Ringu and The Ring are both classics, a rare instance where America does J-Horror justice, and by now everyone knows that before you die you see the ring.

[justfilms]

Ringu - Hideo Nakata 1998

[freddykruegersdayoff-blog]

Rie Ino'o in Ringu (1998) | IMDB’s Creepy, Spooky Kids (11/65)🔪

[may8chan]

Sadako & Kayako

[mariocki]

Ringu 2 (The Ring 2, 1999)

"Sadako... take me... and kill me! Take me and put an end to all this!"

[stillsmybeatingheart]

[brody75]

Ringu (1998)

[ozu-teapot]

Ring | Hideo Nakata | 1998

Rie Ino'o