So much better than the bland, emotionless Japanese original

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2003)

I thought I'd take the advice of the pretentious minority one this one, those who highly recommended watching the Japanese film, 'Ringu', before watching the clearly superior American re-make. After watching the generally unimpressive original, I truly wasn't expecting alot from this film - after all, 'The Ring' didn't benefit from being a sexy foreign film, it must have been dumbed down to appeal to mainstream, borderline retarded American crowds, and most of the element of surprise had been wasted by my watching Ringu - right?
Remember, Japanese audiences flock by the hysterical thousands to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt sing.
Period, point blank, and that's the bottom line - 'The Ring' is superior to the original in every conceivable way - and it managed to thoroughly compel me while seriously freaking me out. Sometimes the book is better than the movie, sometimes a bands first album really is their best, and sometimes that guy blabbering on about not watching TV really doesn't watch TV. But in this case, feel free to ignore anyone telling you that 'The Ring' just can't hold a candle to the always superior foreign film.
Forget about some very impressive special effects and remarkable cinematography that come with an obviously bigger budget (and when I say 'forget', I mean for the sake of comparison, not for the sake of enjoying the film). Compare the character development. Compare the attentions to detail. Compare the ambience, the general mood captured by 'The Ring' that was so lacking in 'Ringu'. And leave out the need to tell anyone who prefers the american film that they "just don't understand" the japanese version - I understand it just fine.
***Potential spoilers, I guess.....
Why in god's name should I like Ryuji, Reiko or their son (so unimportant and underplayed that I won't even bother to remember what his name was)? Call it a cultural difference if you like, but Ryuji is downright repulsive as a character, and Reiko was frustratingly weak and irrelevant. Conversely, Aidan is actually developed as an intriguing individual within a few minutes of the film. Kinda important, eh? Aren't I supposed to care one way or the other about his mother's eventually tireless quest to save his life? The relationship between all three Kellers was infinitely more interesting than the poor presentation of the same in 'Ringu'. Ryuji-Reiko? No chemistry, no real look into their past, no invitation to wonder about anything between the two beyond the faux finish of the film. Noah and Rachel actually had me believing they were once together, and more importantly had me wanting them to finish that way despite knowing it wasn't gonna happen ahead of time. Reiko and son? Forget it. I guess for the foreign film fan, it's preferable to just assume that a mother loves her son, so let's not bother with actually developing that on screen. Rachel and Aidan had some serious tension between them. And Ryuji-son? Nothing! No, I don't mean almost nothing, I mean LITERALLY NOTHING. Noah and Aidan managed to build something of interest in two minutes of meaningful dialogue.
As for comparing Sadako/Samara - not even close. A Ringu proponent on this website actually said that samara was all wrong because she has thick black hair and only Japanese girls can have a mop like that? Jeez, just another example of the pretentious artsy fartsies reaching for straws. Samara was genuinely evil, but that revelation was done so well. She was a legitimate child of the Morgans, but something went wrong as they pressed fate in an attempt to have a child. She tortured her mother with her ability to 'imprint', caused her suicide, and eventually managed to imprint again beyond the grave. Sorry, but Sadako being extremely psychic because her mother was and maybe her father was not of this world is just not as compelling a story.
I used to play in a terrible band called Deus Ex Machina - saw the term in the dictionary and thought it sounded cool. Basically, it's a term to describe a method of filling in a plot hole. In 'Ringu', there are Machina's galore, the most blatant being that Ryuki has frikkin' ESP, yes ladies and gentlemen, he has real psychic powers. Need to find out what really happened to Samara/Sadako? In 'The Ring', it actually requires some detective work, finding a tape from a psychiatric hospital, following clues left by Samara, pestering her father. In 'Ringu', things are much easier - just touch someone's head and the entire plot is explained! Wanna find her final resting place? In 'The Ring', the Kellers follow a serious of clues, left from Samara's ability to imprint, that lead them in spite of the fact that they don't truly understand why they are being led. In 'Ringu', Ryuji actually knows he's in a horror film! "If we find her body and release her soul, the curse will be lifted", and "let's start digging here, because I'm psychic and the director couldn't come up with a plausible way for us to legitimately find the well". Rubbish.
Opening scene? 'The Ring' had me running for a fresh pair of Haines, despite the fact that I knew what was going to happen. 'Ringu' rushed through it as though they were trying to conserve film.
The money shot? I thought 'Ringu' was just fine here, very frightening, hence the very similar scene in the American version. I liked the touch of fingernail close-ups in Ringu, the special effects and the fact that Samara looked like someone who died in a well in 'The Ring'. Fact is, though, that I was alright with Ryuji getting his at the end - I wasn't so cool with it happening to Noah, and that makes a world of difference.
I really could keep going on. So much more depth to 'the Ring', and so much patchwork holding 'Ringu' together. Props to the original for making a nice flick from a novel on a limited budget, but calling it a superior film to 'The Ring' is just utter nonsense. Yes, the American version did follow the original closely in some spots - all the right spots if you ask me. And it strayed from the original in all the right ways as well (get it? as WELL). Verbinski took a mediocre B-movie and made it an unforgettable cinematic experience.