Ringu [Blu-ray]

Director: Hideo Nakata Hideo Nakata

Overview

In this psychological horror story from Japan, a legend circulates among teenagers that if one watches a certain video at a certain time of the night, the telephone will ring right afterward, and one week later, you will die. When Masami (Hitomi Sato) tells her friend Imako this story, she scoffs -- but a week later, Imako dies in an auto accident. Imako's aunt, a television journalist named Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), hears that not long before she died, Imako was watching a strange video with her friends -- all of whom have turned up dead. Reiko tracks down a copy of the video, and as she watches its strange, spectral images, the telephone begins to ring....The next morning, Reiko begins a desperate search to solve the mystery of the video, convinced she has only seven days to live; assisting her is Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), a mathematics expert and her former husband. Ringu was a box-office success in its native Japan, and a surprise blockbuster in Hong Kong, where it became the biggest grossing film of the first half of 1999.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/29/2019
UPC:	0760137295686
Original Release:	1998
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:35:00
Sales rank:	6,307

Special Features

Full HD 1080; Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by director of photography Junichiro Hayashi; New audio commentary by film historian David Kalat; The Ringu Legacy, a series of new interviews from crititcs and filmmakers on their memories of the Ringu series and its enduring legacy; A Vicious Circle, a new video interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger on the career of Hideo Nakata; Circumnavigating Ringu, a new video essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on the evolution of the Ringu series; Sadako's Video; Theatrical trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Nanako Matsushima	Reiko Asakawa
Miki Nakatani	Mai Takano
Hitomi Sato	Masami Kurahashi
Yuko Takeuchi	Tomoko Oishi
Yutaka Matsushige	Yoshino
Katsumi Muramatsu	Koichi Asakawa
Yoichi Numata	Takashi Yamamura
Rikiya Otaka	Yoichi Asakawa, Reiko's Son
Masako	Shizuko Yamamura
Daisuke Ban	Doctor Heihachiro Ikuma
Hiroyuki Sanada	Ryuji Takayama
Kiyoshi Risho	Omiya the Cameraman
Yurei Yanagi	Okazaki
Yoko Oshima	Reiko's Aunt
Kiriko Shimizu	Ryomi Oishi
Orie Izuno	Sadako Yamamura
Hiroyuki Watanabe	Hayatsu
Miwako Kaji	Kazue Yamamura
Yoko Kima	Junior High School Girl
Asami Nagata	Junior High School Girl
Keiko Yoshida	Senior High School Girl
Yoshiko Matsumaru	Senior High School Girl
Yoho Naose	Senior High School Girl
Maki Ikeda	Yoko Tsuji
Takashi Takayama	Takehiko Nomi
Toshihiko Takeda	Yamamura as a Teenager
Chihiro Shirai	Sadako as a Young Girl
Mantaro Koichi	Town Hall Moderator
Shinichi Noda	Press Representative
Kazufumi Nakai	Press Representative
Kenji Kawai	Composer

Technical Credits

Hiroshi Takahashi

Hideo Nakata	Director
Hiroshi Takahashi	Screenwriter
Masato Hara	Executive Producer
Takashige Ichise	Producer
Ko Kawabata	Special Effects
Shinya Kawai	Producer,Producer
Hajime Matsumoto	Special Effects
Takenori Sento	Producer
Sei Yokoyama	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Films are usually remade not because they need to be fixed but because of an audience's unprecedented love affair with the original. In the case of Hideo Nakata's Ringu, the source for Gore Verbinski's shocker The Ring, the love affair reached the level of phenomenon in Japan -- where sequels, a TV series, and unending merchandise have made Ringu the country's Blair Witch. The simple story revolves around the mystery of a videotape rumored to carry a curse; anyone who watches the tape has only seven days left to live. As a journalist, her ex-husband, and their son become encircled by the lethal lore, the haunted tape's history and meaning become more and more apparent. But is there a way to stop the curse? Ringu's frightening power comes in part from making something as plain and unexpected as a videotape the focus of absolute terror. Like The Exorcist, the movie also thrives on a tone of inescapable doom interrupted by intermittent death-throe shocks. Rarely are the scares sensational in style, but they are always sensational in effect: The most spine-tingling moments involve a smudged photo and a reflection in a TV screen (and revealing that spoils nothing), while the cursed video itself -- which we get to see in toto (gulp!) -- appears at first to be outtakes from a Marilyn Manson music video, but it's easily one of the scariest avant-garde films you'll ever see. Surprisingly, Ringu actually made its initial appearance as a TV movie in Japan, before Nakata revised it for a theatrical release.