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Ring
Hideo Nakata's supernatural thriller returns to the big screen, skilfully eschewing explicit gore to send chills down the spine. Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) is a cynical TV journalist who has been asked to work on the story of a videotape which - as urban legend goes - kills the viewer exactly seven days after they watch it. Not normally one to believe in hearsay and rumour, Reiko takes a very personal interest in the case when she discovers that her teenage niece Tomiko may have been one of the videotape's victims. Tracking down the elusive tape to the holiday resort where Tomiko and three friends (now all dead) spent the summer, Reiko plucks up the courage to view the contents, and observes a series of eerie images - a woman brushing her hair, a shrouded figure pointing at the screen, a garden - all made more unsettling by swirling static. Sure enough, once the film ends, Reiko receives a telephone call informing her of impending death, and the seven-day curse begins. With no one else to turn to, Reiko calls upon her tabloid hack ex-husband Ryuiji (Hiroyuki Sanada) and implores him to help her cheat death. Ryuji rushes to her side and, being a psychic, immediately senses a presence in his ex-wife's home. Yet when he views the tape, nothing happens: no telephone call, no curse. Time is gradually ebbing away for Reiko, but there is still hope when the journalists identify the woman on the tape as Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), a respected psychic who died almost 40 years ago. As the former husband and wife team become embroiled in the quest to track down the doctor who brought Mai to Tokyo, Reiko's son Koichi (Katsuma Muramatsu) is drawn into the web of intrigue when the ghost of Tomiko tells him to watch the tape. Matsushima turns in a riveting central performance as the increasingly terrified Reiko, barely holding it all together as the physical and psychological effects of her dilemma become apparent. She is well supported by Sanada who highlights the contradictions in his character (Ryuji's psychic abilities do not extend to his own inner demons and post-marital anger). Director Nakata generates a potent sense of foreboding with the lightest of touches, employing simple tricks like changes in lighting, shadows and reflections to give his film a distorted and otherworldly lustre. Myths and folklore are an intrinsic part of the movie idiom, informing everything from A Nightmare On Elm Street and Candyman, to Urban Legend, Scream and Blair Witch. With The Ring, Nakata introduces us to a startling world of terror that brings new meaning to the term video nasty, and proves there's still life in the old horror movie dog yet.
