GL84 After watching a mysterious videotape, a woman finds herself cursed to die within a week afterward searches the various clues within the video to find the truth about the tape's origins and connection to a legend about a vicious woman before her time runs out and the curse consumes her.While this one had some really good stuff, overall the flaws here take centerstage. The main aspect hurts this one is the fact that the main storyline is incredibly flawed and makes little sense. As the ghost wants her body found out, the purpose of making a videotape that originates in a backcountry community that plays only on a locally-broadcasted channel that's supposed to generate interest in solving her mysterious disappearance, an event that's counterintuitive to what she really wants. Rather than bringing a discovery to her situation, placing the means of your discovery should come about rather easily rather than going for a more crowd-friendly atmosphere instead of an isolated and partially obscure part of the country is far more ideal and thus setting up the rampage to follow. Likewise, purposefully killing those who are potentially there to help makes the whole point moot as that shrinks the number of those able to potentially help the cause, really leaving the plot quite troublesome. Beyond that, the fact that the film is just so slowly-paced and lacking of ghost action that the middle segment completely eliminates the killing to focus on the investigation into the video tape's images and source. This is spent more on looking for photographs of the missing couple, visiting the different locations of the classmates such as their school or the cabin in particular where they contracted the curse or sitting around attempting to understand the concept of the curse with her boyfriend as she is getting him to believe in the curse and trying to decipher it all, and none of those are crawling with horrific ideas or concepts. These are practically non-events that while building up the mythos around the legend all tend to prevent this one from really getting going leaving this to drag on to the final twenty minutes. Granted, that's great stuff that happens here, but it comes too little too late to save the rest of the film though it somewhat evens it out to make it borderline watchable. The film's at it's best when detailing the creepy and oftentimes downright chilling atmosphere of the tape, offering up plenty of suspense as they slowly work out the cause and details of the tape. Knowing how the visuals were created and how they came to be affixed onto the tape itself offers this one it's best sense of energy and atmosphere as one-by-one all the pieces slowly work themselves together to realize how their journey ties together. From the distorted photographs leading into the idea of the island and the research they conduct their as well as the revelations about the child in the past which starts to play a prominent role in how this one ends up. From the encounter in the well with the body to the stellar and absolutely chilling sequence with the ghost making one last appearance inside their house for a truly shocking and memorable scare. Coupled with an effective ghost design that's really creepy, these hold this one up.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and intense themes of children-in-jeopardy.

labrat70 I had already seen the USA version of the film before I got around to watching the original version. I am not one that is fond of watching foreign flicks in subtitles, however, I had heard that this version is far better than the USA remake. I strongly disagree.The story line was virtually the same with only a few changes made to the USA version. It isn't hard to see how the US screenplay writers for The Ring took this more simplified plot outline and was able to just run with creativity and mold it into the great classic that it has become. The acting in Ringu is sub-par and the story tends to drift rather than keeping the viewer engaged. The language/subtitles probably hinders the impact of the story for English only speakers, so I will cut some slack there.None the less, it truly is a phenomenal story- both versions, but "The Ring" is my easy choice.

Dalbert Pringle Though the overall plot-lines of 1998's "Ringu" and 2002's "The Ring" were almost identical - (Surprise! Surprise!) - I, personally, thought that the American remake, "The Ring", was, by far, a much more effective and chilling ghost/horror story, in the long run.After reading all of the gushing raves that "Ringu" was getting from excited reviewers - I cannot believe how downright disappointing and, yes, anti-climatic this film was, for the most part.Not only did Ringu's story fail to hold and sustain any genuine suspense and terror - But, it was also very weak, visually - And, on top of that - The Japanese actors all seemed to be such amateurs who were just bland and forgettable nobodies, completely lacking in the ability to create dynamic character portrayals.Nope - For me - This was definitely one of those mighty rare instances where a remake actually surpassed the original on all counts.

gavin6942 Ruthlessly murdered by her father, the ghost of a seer's daughter kills all those who watch a weird video after seven days; unless the viewer finds the escape clause.Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood horror had largely been dominated by the slasher subgenre, which relied on on-screen violence, shock tactics, and gore. "Ring", whose release in Japan roughly coincided with the stylistically similar "The Blair Witch Project" in the United States, helped to revitalize the genre by taking a more restrained approach to horror, leaving much of the terror to the audience's imagination. The film initiated global interest in Japanese cinema in general and Japanese horror cinema in particular, a renaissance which led to the coining of the term J-Horror in the West. This "New Asian Horror" resulted in further successful releases, such as "Ju-on: The Grudge" and "Dark Water".This really is the essential modern Japanese horror film. Not only did it launch a cycle of American remakes and get more people to notice Japanese horror, but it is terrifying in its own right. Some have tried to analyze it as a metaphor on motherhood or being about traditional Japanese culture. But really, it was just scary... and still is almost 20 years later.