Ringu (1998)

Some films get thoroughly noted for one particular aspect -- to the point that people who haven't already seen them wonder if there's enough else to justify actually watching them instead of hearing about them. Well, I learned with The Crying Game that there could be quite a lot more, and what people cite might not even be the best part IMO. With that in mind, I checked out this Japanese cult classic slightly more esteemed than its 2001 American remake The Ring.

The famous premise is certainly dated from a technological standpoint: a videotape that results in its viewers' death one week later. To my surprise, the movie wastes no time in establishing this premise as one teen girl tells another a rumor about someone falling victim to it. The listener gets concerned, as the creepily avant-garde-sounding video content description matches what she herself saw recently. The rumor also included a phone call to the victim (thus explaining the title), and sure enough, the phone rings now. No points for guessing the gist of what happens that night.

It just so happens that this girl's aunt is an investigative reporter, whose ex just so happens to have mild psychic powers. Compelled by the statistical evidence, they search for clues to the video's origin and how to break the curse. But first they see fit to watch it themselves.

Yyyeah. I would've destroyed the darn thing right away -- at best it's a cheap home video that no one will really miss -- but they have their own priorities. I guess this is no worse than par for the course of horror flick intelligence.

What's unusual for the genre is the low level of violence: The bodies don't have any marks on them, so the police assume no murder. The heroes suspect fright-induced heart attacks, but we come to learn that the video's maker, Sadako, was known for psychic powers strong enough to kill a man. I say "was" because she's dead, but you know how that doesn't stop many horror villains. Apparently, the world treated her so badly for having powers that she created a death trap without particularly caring who fell for it.

The highlight comes when the film actually puts a little budget into effects -- namely, when we see Sadako's exact modus operandi. Since I learned this long ago by hearsay, I might as well tell you that she comes out of the TV. She still looks rather young after decades, but that doesn't stop her from appearing "off," not least with her hair hiding her face. Cleverly, the cinematographer had the actress walk/crawl backwards and shot it in reverse to convey subtly unnatural motion.

The one other premise of note is that you can avert the curse for yourself by copying the video and sharing the copy with someone. Yep, the old chain letter trick, last seen in It Follows. It's a little annoying for making semi-villains out of would-be victims, leaving no particular moral value to the story, but I can't deny the philosophical intrigue for the audience: "Can you honestly say that you wouldn't do the same?" (Again, I like to think I'd just break the video and be done with it -- maybe that would even prevent Sadako from coming for me if I'd watched.) Presumably, Sadako set it up that way in order to spread knowledge of her tragic travails; but if so, I'm not impressed at her postmortem communication skills: The heroes had to dig pretty deep for any details.

To me, the other strength of the movie is in the score. That said, I can think of quite a few horror scores that do their job of increasing the fear factor, so maybe it's not that notable.

Was it worth seeing Ringu 17 years later? Eh, maybe. It's kind of colorful, albeit mediocre in smarts. I did learn enough to understand how Sadako could become a cult icon, and I can imagine how The Ring tried to up the ante without realizing that less is more. But it's not the type of horror to make me change my behavior for a while.