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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Ring Cycle

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22:31 / 01.09.01

I've just recently watched Ring 2, so I was wondering what are anyones thoughts are about the whole cycle? Has one seen Ring 0? My impressions:

Ring - utterly genius - creepy as fuck, especially if you know nothing about the ending...

Ring 2 - nowhere near as good, despite it's write-ups. Not "that rare thing - a sequel that improves on the original" - Slighty creepy bits.

Ring 0 - by all accounts a bad TV movie.

So is that it for Hollywood Horror after the travesty of Blair Witch 2? and how long is it before they decide to remake "Ring" - inevitably sucking all of the life out of it in the process?

22:40 / 01.09.01

Christ, and here I thought you were talkiung about Wagner's operas, and not the Japanese horror films...

Molly Shortcake

04:26 / 02.09.01

I'll have to check this one out. Japan sure does deliver the goods....Hollywood horror movies sure do suck now...I blame it all on Scream....

Dontcha know that genuine shock and revulsion ain't allowed in them any more?
Someone might get upset!!! Like the Nike commercial. Or kill someone. (Not like the Nike commercial). Movies make people kill (commercials make children scared).

Rob Zombie was contracted by some Hollywood studio to make a horror film, but it ended up being way too much for them. He's currently shopping for distributors. The Broken tape by NIN is suspossed to be beyond fucked up.

[ 02-09-2001: Message edited by: Ice Honkey/Grim Rapper ]

Jamieon

07:49 / 02.09.01

Ring 2 shit me roight up guvnor, and no mistake. I watched it in a dark, secluded corner of the cinema and nearly wet myself at points. Now I know why some people didn't dig on it, but that film? On my own? You can piss off.

Don't know about 0 yet. Is it enjoying cussarama?

16:32 / 02.09.01

and here's me thinking it was the quite unbelievable latest eps of XWP complete with Xena as Valkyrie...

10:26 / 03.09.01

quote: Ring 2 - nowhere near as good, despite it's write-ups. Not "that rare thing - a sequel that improves on the original" - Slighty creepy bits.

I had that feeling the first time (I saw them back to back at the cinema). Since watching them again on DVD I disagree. Ring 2 is great because it raises more questions than it answers, and has some jaw dropping set pieces.

I’m looking forward to Ring 0 – haven’t heard the bad reports. I’m desperate to see whether Yoichi finally gets a lucky break – poor little bastard.

10:43 / 03.09.01

I have Ring 2 on video. I've never seen Ring.
Would you reccomend that I definitely watch the first film before I see the sequel? Or is it OK to watch them out of sequence?

18:23 / 03.09.01

Ring 2 opens just a few short days after the events of the first film. If you're going to be completist about this I suppose you'd have to watch them in order - a few of the major players in 2 were minor characters in 1 and there might be connections that you won't make that the filmakers take for granted.

That said, watching Ring 2 as a stand alone film without any preconceptions might make for a unique take on a movie that seems to be having a hard time fighting for critical headspace with its big sister.

Do it, I say. Be my little cinematic experiment. Watch 2 on its own and post back straight after with your crit. On one proviso, though: you've gotta watch the first film as well eventually. If you like the shit scared out of you then surely you'll like the shit scared out of you twice, only twice as much.

Please don't study that last sentence too much, it's as fragile as my ego.

Jack The Bodiless

19:08 / 03.09.01

Yeah, he flies on gossamer wings...

00:20 / 05.09.01

I’m looking forward to Ring 0 – haven’t heard the bad reports. I’m desperate to see whether Yoichi finally gets a lucky break – poor little bastard.

Don't think you're in luck there, my friend. "0"s set before the other two films, and deals with the original story of Sadako... and erm.. her mum. There's a different director for this one... and man does he suck

20:42 / 23.09.01

Ring 1 must be the scariest thing I saw in quite a while.
Number 2 did not hit me so much, because I missed much of the dialogue (that card of my japanese teacher gave me both, on a videotape).

A TV series was also made of the whole cycle, and there's a Korean remake of the movie trilogy in the works - same story in a different setting.

Looks like they do not want to put that one to sleep.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:40 / 30.09.01

Haven't seen 2 (gonna buy it tomorrow) but the first one really shat me up... especially seeing as how when she's just watched the tape for the first time, MY FUCKING PHONE RANG! Trying to explain to my best mate why I was so freaked out was kind of weird.

09:57 / 01.10.01

Oh, god yeah. Ring was just genius. Mainly because of the way it manipulated the audience's expectations of the medium, rather than just scaring you. I thought the actual tape was really, really worrying - I was trying to work out what the hell was on it all the time, and it freaked the hell out of me. Not fussed about Ring2, tbh... but if you haven't seen the first, you simply must. It's awesome.

15:21 / 07.05.02

{{um, guess I should put a SPOILER WARNING, just in case anyone hasn't seen a 5 year old film which was on TV last night, but is still interested enough to want to read about it}}

Resurrecting this thread to say: so I guess I'm not the only one who saw Ring on TV last night?

Didn't think it was as scary as all that (I actually felt kind of sorry for Sadako - y'know, deformed devil child gets bashed on the head and flung down a well at an early age - you'd probably want to do some cursing too).

But, beneath the standard horror movie "yer gonna die" storyline, it did combine loads of GRRR-EEEAAT horror themes together in a fascinating way:

ancient evil moving through technology

dirty psychic resonances

grainy, mysterious, under-explained imagery ala Blair Witch Project

THE MOTHERFUCKING SEA!

gutteral, inhuman dialects

"maybe her father .. wasn't human.."

Absolutely brilliant. As ever, I see heavy Lovecraft parallels. I look forward to watching the sequel, which I have on video but haven't watched yet..

And I think David Lynch should have words with whoever composed the music .. all that clattering and scraping .. absolutely perfect horror movie music..

15:32 / 07.05.02

Yeah I watched it again last night, think I'll actually buy it now on DVD - very good, I almost strapped my flatmate into his seat so he'd watch it, don't think he liked it though "arthouse" he thought.

Anyway Ring 2 is on next Monday night same Bat channel.

I've also heard that Ring 0 is very bad.

But as said by many we've still got the Hollywood remakes to look forward too

Tryphena Absent

16:02 / 07.05.02

Actually I watched Ring last night and it scared me so very very much. I knew it wouldn't be ok, I thought no, this isn't Hollywood. I love films that come from Japan and China, there's that beautiful structural simplicity about them. After I watched it I had to read some Banana Yoshimoto (to carry on the whole Eastern thing) and didn't sleep until 5am because I was too worried I'd been cursed by someone.

17:53 / 07.05.02

I saw Ring 0 the other week: while definitely the worst of the trilogy, it wasn't nearly as bad as reports say. Even Ring at its worst is still loads better than Hollywood trash. And the scene where the reporter is waiting for Sadako in the ruined house, and the way she enters the room... deeply fucked up.

The Natural Way

08:03 / 08.05.02

Haven't seen Ring 0 yet. Might buy it. Janina? Cursed? Yeah, me too. Had to sleep in front of a HUGE telly the night after I'd watched both films. I shat it.

Bear, I used to live w/ people who wouldn't watch stuff cause it was 'arthouse' (read: anything not made in Hollywood. ALL foreign cinema). Very annoying. I suppose the vast majority of the cinema going audience watch films in order to be reassured that everything's comfortable, predictable and familiar.... Y'know, that everything's safe and knowable, not difficult at all. Why won't people make the effort? Drives me nuts. Bloody passive consumers.

Just using yr mate as a springboard for general ranty grouching now. Sure he/she is nothing like the 2d stereotype I'm bitching about. Ignore me....

21:05 / 09.05.02

{{um, guess I should put a SPOILER WARNING, just in case anyone hasn't seen a 5 year old film which was on TV last night, but is still interested enough to want to read about it}}
- Riz

Yeah, so, um... I've had it on video since at least last September, and I only saw it today. Thursday. Four days after it was on fucking national television... sigh

I'll post mroe about it later. Sorry. I just thought the above fact was kinda funny.

21:40 / 09.05.02

well the only reason its funny is that in 7 days time you are going to DIEEEEEEEEEEE when sadako comes for you

autopilot disengaged

21:49 / 09.05.02

well, that was a bit harsh...

22:10 / 09.05.02

well hey that's what happens when record weird psychic messages/curses onto video tapes and then actually sit down to watch them!

07:28 / 10.05.02

Well think of all the poor fuckers who die just as the serquals starting on Monday then...

08:24 / 10.05.02

yeah it is inspired to show ring 2 seven days after ring...audiences everywhere will be dying in their seats... or they would be if they had recorded it instead of watching the live broadcast...

The Return Of Rothkoid

08:39 / 10.05.02

Personally, I'd be interested in reading the books that the movies (well, Ring and Ring 0, anyway) are based on. They've been translated from Japanese into Korean and Chinese (none of which I can speak, curse my shitty grasp of languages) but Kodansha don't seem to have any plans to translate them. Should we be writing letters? I think so. Apparently, the whole unfolding-coil nature of the story's a lot better-conveyed in them: apparently it's much more hinged upon recurrence and the idea of a sort of memetic virus.

Still, there's always the US remake to see how low things can go. I'm picking quasi-Lynch for the videotape. Like a playstation advert... though I still suggest that it'll have a nu-metal soundtrack.

Oh- there's a place in Camden that's selling Ring 0 on DVD for a tenner, if anyone's looking...

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:46 / 10.05.02

Ring had a few "Aaaaaaaah fuck!" moments, so maybe I'll see the sequel too.

The Natural Way

10:09 / 10.05.02

Hmmm, but there's a lot more to Ring than "it made me jump!" It's also a really nice piece of cinema.

12:11 / 10.05.02

The sleevenotes on my video of Ring 2 (can video's have sleevenotes?)
say there was an alternative followup to ring called 'Spiral' which was based directly on the sequel to the book .. but it was apparently shit, so they made Ring 2 instead as an originally-scripted sequel to the first movie.

Which seems rather confusing.

10:30 / 11.05.02

Welcome to the fucked up world that is Ring, Riz. The franchise seems to utterly overhaul its continuity whenever it changes medium (which so far runs to cinema, TV movies, TV series, books and comics). Oh and Roth: in the books it's something like a genetically engineered smallpox virus, not a memetic virus. Don't ask, I won't even pretend to understand.

At least Aeon Flux stuck to one medium, and there was not even an attempt at continuity...

22:48 / 11.05.02

Finally saw the first one (in terms of release, rather than story sequence, if you get what I mean) on Monday night. The one bit that sticks in my mind, more than any other, is the way that when we see Sadako getting twonked on the head and thrown down the well, it's all done in a silent movie-stylee, Dad turning to the camera in full-on "Bwa-ha-ha, I hope nobody saw *that*" mode. And the fact that when he hits her the sound effect actually goes twonk.

00:17 / 12.05.02

Saw Ring on TV. Thought it was very good. Sadly, I wacthed it during the day which destroyed most of it's scariness but I can see how It would have scared me had I watched late at night on my own. Very creepy. Loved how it seemed to actually be a story. Not a typical horror film at all. Loved the ending. Its all a big, scary, real-life chain letter!

And yeah, poor Yoishi.

11:46 / 12.05.02

Poor little bastard has even less luck in the sequel. Wanna start a "Give Yoichi a Happy Ending" petition?

Tryphena Absent

14:37 / 12.05.02

Well it's on channel 4 tomorrow so I'll be watching!

15:32 / 12.05.02

in the books it's something like a genetically engineered smallpox virus, not a memetic virus.

well that .. really sucks. Almost as bad as the 'George Lucas explaining the Force' malarky.

On a more gleeful note, I watched Ring 2 the other day and would like to express my opinion that it's fucking terrific. The first half was a bit neither-here-nor-there and it didn't seem to use much of the superb music of the first film (and it had a catchy pop song over the end credits, which was .. weird), but once it got going it was great .. [er, SPOILER WARNING] .. that bit where they're in the guest house and Yoichi makes Sadako's mum appear in the mirror nearly killed me with fright..

And, no, we don't want a happy ending for the kid, for as is clearly stated by his granddad in the afterlife scene - he's no longer himself - he's become a conduit for the bad energy. Why do you think he was spared? eh? eh?

19:03 / 12.05.02

Oh, no Riz: don't think that the books explain the film. Never think that with the Ring franchise. They're substantially different. Sadako is a hermaphrodite, she doesn't come through the TV, the virus/curse is of a completely different nature.

The full source for the whole loony story.

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