Yes. Which one do you prefer? The americanized one or the japanese, original, one.
Of course, I felt that the americanized one wasn’t that bad, and the effects were better. But they’ve changed the story a bit (quite a bit, if you’re looking at certain things)… So, what do you say, original or not?
oh, and were there ever a The Ring 2?
There is a Ring 2, Ring 0, and a Korean one called Ring Virus. I have Ring and Ring 2 on VCD, but haven’t had a chance to watch them yet (stupid work and classes)
Heh, you think Ring 2, 0 and Virus are bad, now there’s a TV series! :eek:
Personally, I much prefer the Japanese version (much creepier), but I’m glad they did away with the stoopid bucket thing.
I actually preferred the American version, perhaps because I saw it before I saw the Japanese version. The final “TV” scene was much creepier in the Japanese version, however, or so I thought. Otherwise, though, the video itself was creepier in the American version…and the whole room at the top of the barn thing…ugh…that vision will never leave my head, and was far more haunting to me than anything else…
Just my two cents, though. (And I agree, good thing they got rid of that stupid bucket-bailing crap…haha.)
It may have been, if they hadn’t seen fit to cut to a freakin’ driving scene in the middle of it! :mad:
I’ve been trying to find the Japanese version, but I cannot. Anyone care to point me in the right direction?
And what’s the whole deal with the bucket? Spoilers don’t bother me. I’m just curious.
Well, here’s the spoiler, then…
The part where they are searching for the girl in the well, instead of the chick falling into the well and more “accidentally” discover her, they pretty much know she’s down there, and take turns hauling up buckets of water in order to empty the well to find her body.
Personally, I liked the original better, but they are both REALLY good horror movies. The original just has a few more little aspects to it that help build suspense and make it even more creepy. Like the fact that when the phone rings, the audience only hears the same background, grating noise from the video, not some little girl’s voice going “Seven Days.” I found that REALLY creepy.
Spoiler
I didn’t like the way the remake made Samarah video like when she crawled out of the t.v. The way she would appear to be a televised image took away from the solid fact that this woman just crawled out of your t.v. and is now INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!!! That, and the girl who played Sadako in the original had some great control over her body and made her walk intensely creepy. She was much more terrifying in the original than the Americanized version.
So, yeah, I liked the original better. But the remake still scared the crap out of me 
Good sign that even after seeing the original twice before seeing the remake, I was still creeped out. Good movie.
There’s also several versions of a manga (graphic novel) based on Ring, as well as a novel(s)… I think there’s at least three of them, with one being the main story and a couple that are side-stories or prequels/sequels.
I’ve never seen the Japanese ring or any of the pre/sequels, but I have to say that I found the American version quite nerve-wracking (in a good way), and I’ve never been terribly creeped out by horror movies before.
Even though I’d already seen the Japanese version about five times and knew exactly what was going to happen, the American version still did a good job of making me jump. Sadako, otoh, was a hell of a lot creepier than Samara, and was able to freak my wife and me out without any special effects or gory makeup. I enjoyed both of them a great deal, but my vote would have to go to the original, just by a hair. A long, black one.
As for sequels, that takes some explaining.
Ring (1998) The version that the American and Korean versions were based on, and the one that started all the Ring mania. Stars Nanako Matsushima as Mom, Hiroyuki Sanada as Dad, and Miki Nakatani as Mai, Dad’s 19-year-old girlfriend.
Rasen (1998) (The Spiral) This was the movie version of author Koji Suzuki’s sequel to the book “The Ring”. The main characters are the father’s student/girlfriend Mai, and a doctor-friend of the father whom we never met in the first movie. This one isn’t so much horror as sci-fi, and got pretty weird by the end.
Ring 2 (1998) This was the ‘movie’ sequel, and it completely departs from the author’s original story (not necessarily for the worse, IMO). The main characters are Mai, Mom and the kid, and it’s much more of a horror film than “Rasen”
The stories of Ring 2 and Rasen are completely separate from each other, with characters surviving to the end in one while dying in the first ten minutes in the other. Interestingly, they both star the same actors in all the lead roles (except Sadako), and they both open with the father’s body lying on a morgue table.
Ring 0: Birthday (2000) This is a prequel to The Ring, set when Sadako is a student at college and explaining how she came to be the vengeful spirit we all know and love.
Ringu: Kanzen-ban (1995) Technically, this was the first movie (TV movie, anyway) adaptation of Suzuki’s book, but it’s pretty low quality. I’d only recommend it if you’re a big Ring fan and want to see every version, or if you’ve ever wondered what The Ring would be like if Sadako were played by a softcore porn actress (Ayane Miura) who walked around naked all the time. Serious.
There’s also a Korean version that came out the same time as the original Ring called Ring Virus. It’s supposed to be more like the book, so it deals more with the sci-fi explaination of things, and the acting’s horrible.
There were also two other television shows based off of the story, but they were both pretty off topic. One of them even had a rock video as opposed to a creepy, fucked up imagery video. Some have a thirteen day limit and a completely different type of casting (for example, like in the original book, the main character is a man as opposed to a woman).
There used to be a great webpage that had a lot of information, but in trying to open it to make a link, I’ve discovered it’s gone now. But, a google search will show some nice results if you’re really curious.
Agreed. I finally saw the Japanese version this past week and I was thinking the same things.
As for the final “TV” scene:
As El Elvis Rojo said, Sadako’s movements in the “TV” scene were much creepier. She had that look of someone whose body had been cramped in a small space for years and who now was trying to stand upright and walk.
I saw the US version first and let me just say it scared the living crap out of me. It’s been a while since a scary movie has actually scared me…haha. The stroryling was great and the cinematography was awsome as well.
Then I saw the Japanese version…great movie too but I just did not agree with the whole ‘I can read your mind’ thing throughout the movie…and yes, sadako (which coincidentally is my mom’s name) was scarier but the face of the dead was waaaaaaaay better with hollywood technology
I liked the US version better. I guess I have to watch the Japanese version again…hmnnnn…
Reoch
The Ring. Original or not?
Well, I believe Wagner based it on a series of Germanic myths…
I enjoyed the American version, a good movie and generally scary. Then I went to a double feature fo the Japanese Ring and Ring2. Very very scary. The first particularly exuded menace in a way I have not seen for years. :eek:
I am wondering, BTW, does anyone have any ideas about the plot changes in the American one, especially the whole horse breeder thing?
Well, concernin plot changes, I think a lot has to do with the lack of active volcanos in the US. I read an interview the director in Fangoria before the movie came out. At first, I was terrified of an American remake of it, because Hollywood tends to screw up a lot of really good movies, and I really liked Ring. He mentioned a lot of the changes were to help make it more socially acceptable for US markets. For some reason, he didn’t feel the whole premise of a psychic mom with a creepy daughter possibly fathered by a sea ogre and who has the ability to kill people by mere will alone would go over well with US viewers. He’s probably right. Why he made the mother the killer, though, I don’t know.
As for the corpses, I prefer the Japanes dead better. What made the deaths so odd was that the victimes “just died.” The mother in the remake even mentioned “There was nothing wrong with her.” I’m sorry, but if I find my daughter’s body hunched in the closed, grey and waterlogged and blood gushing from her mouth, “We don’t know what happened, she just died” ain’t gonna cut it for me. A body doesn’t look like that when someone’s heart just stops. I liked the simple looking dead bodies in the original, where the only clue to their death is a frozen look of absolute horror on thier face. I find that a lot more creepy, though less grotesque.
Actually, I thought the water-logged bodies was a nice change. I did like that the movies left me with a lot of questions, and therefore, I liked the idea of the water-logged corpses, as it led me to wander a little more into the “What happened that killed them?” question…the conclusion I came to was that she pretty much put them through what she’d been through, all in a split-second. And being put through that much in a split-second scared them to death. Which, to me, seemed better than them just being frightened to death.
As for why the killer was the mom in the remake, well…my question was why was the dad the killer in the original? In the book, it was “the rapist”. 
I’m one of maybe two people that think this, but I thought the American version was truly superior to the Japanese version. Perhaps if I’d seen the Japanese version first, I would have appreciated it more, but I didn’t. So Ringu didn’t have quite the scare power. In fact, it was good for a quick fright, and then you went home (scanning the shadows for any sign of Sadako). The Ring, however, continues to give me nightmares.
As far as I’m concerned, the colors, the directing, the effects, the music (which was very “watery” – listen to a dishwasher, in fact, and it sounds very much like the backdrop to the American version), and everything else was superior in the American version. In fact, the American version was wraught with symbolism, hidden connections, and everything else a truly deep movie needs. I loved the significance given to the “ring” in that it was the top of the well as Samara saw it. I wasn’t sure what the “ring” was supposed to signify in Ringu, actually, though I’ve heard it refers to the telephone ringing.
The whole American movie felt continuous to me–all of it being connected by the significance of the “Ring.” It was as everything was seen from a well, orchestrated from the well, and that whatever it was lying in that well was the source of true, complete evil. In the Japanese version, the ring had little to no significance, and the entire thing was rendered silly, even, by the “psychic powers” of two of the three main characters. This “psychic ability” was underplayed more in the American version, and I thought this made it more believable.
Also, in Ringu, it was easier to like Sadako…to see her as seeking revenge, perhaps, or as being frightened of the possibilities of her power. Perhaps she was a little girl dragged into a scientific frenzy. Samara, however…she was pure evil. There was no motive for her except that she LIKED to terrorize, and to me, this is far more frightening. When there is no other motive accept pure evil, or pure thrill, then it’s far more difficult for the human mind to process. We WANT to like Sadako. We DON’T want to like Samara. So Samara is scary.
In addition, we have basic Jungian archetypes in the American version that work to subconsciously terrorize the viewer. The director scares the hell out of us by killing everything that we recognize as safe. For instance, horses symbolize physical health in Jung’s psychodynamics. Mothers signify spiritual health. Basically, with the horses and the mother purposely killing themselves in very dramatic ways, we are watching everything we associate with kindness, beauty, goodness, and strength DIE.
I don’t want to write a book (too late), but I just had to go on record with this opinion. The Japanese Ringu was good for a fright (in fact Sadako is down right horrifying at the end of the film), but The Ring has continued to give me nightmares even now. It made me jump in the theatre, but it also makes me shiver at night.
I have a hard time choosing one over the other. I saw the Japanese version first, if that matters.
I liked the American version better for many of the reasons already mentioned. I also thought the Japanese version excelled for the same reasons already mentioned.
I’ll add a few comments on each, though. SPOILERS AHEAD!
In the final t.v. scene, I liked how you don’t see the girl’s face in the Japanese original. You only see that freaky eye through her hair. That was a whole lot scarier, to me. That whole scene was much better in the original.
I also liked how they downplayed the psychic powers in the American version; however, they shouldn’t have given any powers to the boy. It came off as trite and didn’t add to the story. The American version would have been better if Naomi Watts didn’t rush over and find his body. She wouldn’t have done that if her son didn’t tell her something was wrong.
I do think the Japanese original had too many plot holes. A lot of it didn’t make much sense.
I’ve also seen Ring 2 and Ring 0. Ring 2 was horrible, imo. (Actually, some of the American version of The Ring was taken from Ring 2. E.g., the scene in the hospital where the patients are watching television and freak out.) But Ring 2 made absolutely no sense. Not only that, but it wasn’t nearly as creepy or scary as the original.
Ring 0 was a little better, just because it was a more interesting story. But it still doesn’t compare to the original. They took that strange, contorted walk from the original and brought it to a whole new level.
OK, I feel a little guilty about bumping all the “Ring” threads, but I just saw both versions.
(spoilers below)
Points for the Japanese version:
Points for the American version: