1995
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Ring
1995
6
2.0K
views
saved
In different parts of Tokyo, four young and seemingly healthy people suddenly die of heart failure at exactly the same moment. Reporter Kazuyuki Asakawa decides to investigate the deaths, and discovers that the four had stayed at a rural inn together just a week earlier. At the inn, he comes across a strange video that ends with a message saying that anyone who watches it will die exactly seven days later. Now the clock is ticking for Asakawa. Can he break the curse in time?
Countries:
JP
Languages:
Japanese
Runtime:
1hrs 30min
Status:
Released
Release date:
1995-08-11
Release format:
Streaming
— Aug 11, 1995
In the world of horror, I still have a huge gap with curse movies à la Ring, Grudge or most recently, Smile. I plan to close this hole in the coming weeks and months, starting with the Ring franchise. And since I don't do things halfway, I'll watch all entries, no matter if Japanese, Korean, or American.
First up is "Ring" from 1995, which is not to be confused with the 1998 classic. In contrast, this is a TV movie that was only released in Japan and has had no real home release. Knowing what kind of film it was, I wasn't really surprised by its cheap TV look. However, this first film adaptation of Kōji Suzuki's novel is not bad despite its limitations.
Especially in the first half of the film, it manages to build tension throughout within the framework of the investigation plot. There are also at least a few nice ideas on a visual level. In the second half, however, the film lost me a bit. Then everything became a bit too silly for me, and not all the actors delivered good performances. Furthermore, I'm already wondering how the premise is supposed to work for multiple films. Overall, though, the 1995 film is still a much better start to the series than I expected. Even though I definitely would have anticipated more horror.