I press the
PLAY button and sit back. I know what's coming, I've seen it many
times. But it's only recently that I have read the novel this
particular movie is based on, which is slightly shameful as I've had
the book for almost three years now. In my defence I have a lot of
books, I don't mean I have all the Harry Potter's, I have a lot of
book and the fact that I get free books from work reinforces my
statement. I digress, the movie is Ring or Ringu as it
is known in Japan. So why does this movie hold a place in my heart,
well I'll paint the picture. Back many years ago I took a trip to my
local video store. I'd seen a review in a obscure magazine regarding
a new Japanese horror that sounded completely different from the
stuff that was being released from America and the UK. This was the
time when western cinema was dominated by self-aware teen slasher
movies. Now I'm in no way slatting these movies, the first Scream
is very important in the history of the horror genre. It broke the
rules by being self-aware, which means that it acknowledges other
horror movies that came before it. But after the success of Scream
it was inevitable that other film makes would ride the new wave, so for
the next few years that's all we got.
The review wasn't big, it
wasn't proclaiming to have found a new voice in horror, in fact I
think it was very short. The one thing that the review did have was a
small picture of the video/DVD cover. If you have seen the cover art
then you know it is very striking, I think that may have been the
thing that caught my attention. Anyway, so I'm in the video store
looking through all the new releases, trying to find something
different when I remember the review. I rush up to the guy behind the
desk. 'Have you got a movie called Ring?'. He looked a little
confused, and then he seemed to be struck by sudden memory or had a
small stroke, I can't be sure he was a little strange looking to
start with. 'Yeah, its over there, bottom row, behind the door with 3
awful sci-fi movies in front of it. I didn't know what to expect, at
this point I hadn't seen that many subtitled movies. After 96 minutes
of solid plot that builds to a very memorable climax I was very
impressed. Being the geek that I am I did a little research and found
out that they had filmed a sequel Ringu 2, so off to the video
store I went. 'Hi, do you have Ring 2?' This time he wasn't
confused, I think he remembered me. 'No dude, but I could get it from
another store for you'.
After a
couple of days waiting I got the second movie. Now as I would come to
realise the Japanese have a tendency to really run with an idea until
it becomes totally bizarre. Ring 2 is a good movie and carries
on the story well but had a few strange ideas. To my delight they
made a third movie Ring 0. My
new friend at the video store was a little less helpful this time.
'Sorry dude, we won't be getting it, and no one has it, you are the
only person to rent these movies'. Damn I would have to buy it, so I
did. Now did I mention that the Japanese have a way of really making
something totally bizarre in a special way, well that's Ring 0.
As
I mentioned at the start these movies are very roughly based on the 3
Ring novels written by
koji Suzuki (Ring, Spiral & Loop). When I say roughly I do mean
it, the first book is about two guys, the first movie is about a
woman and son. The books do go off into the world of virus's.
So
by now I'm looking for the next J-horror and another title pops ups
Ju-on The Grudge. This
is a very clever take on the haunted house story. Which featured a
creepy cat, a ghost woman with long black hair which seems to be a
running theme and a little boy who is really, really pale skinned. As
with the Ring, The
Grudge was very successful and
spawned an American remake, probably for those who can't read
subtitles. Now most who know me in person will know this already, but
I'm not afraid to say it here, the remake scared the crap out of me.
And this is why I love these movies. Now you have to show this blog
to someone or in one week you will die by an evil spirit woman with
no local hair dressers stuffing a soaking wet cat in your mouth as a
little pale boy rebuilds a well in your back garden.
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