Film: Ring Release date: 19th March 2001 Certificate: 15 Running time: 96 mins Director: Hideo Nakata Starring: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Yûko Takeuchi, Hitomi Satô, Yôichi Numata Genre: Horror/Mystery Studio: Tartan Format: DVD Country: Japan
Ring: the title, like the film itself, is beautifully simplistic. This Japanese cult horror has become one of the highest grossing franchises of all time, spawning a sequel, a prequel, two remakes and a TV series. The story centres around a mysterious video tape that when watched means the demise of its unlucky viewer after seven days. This may sound slightly ridiculous as agrounding for a good horror film, however, in execution, Hideo Nakata has created a true horror classic. Reiko Asakura (Nanako Matsushima) is a journalist investigating a circulating rumour on a cursed videotape, but it is only after the death of her niece that she begins to believe there could be some truth to the urban legend. Her investigation leads her to a cabin where she discovers and watches the tape.
Frightened at what may happen to her, Reiko enlists the help of her ex-husband Ryuki (Hiroyuki Sanada), who is cynical about the whole notion, and watches the tape out of curiosity. Add to this their son, Yoichi, who watches the tape by accident, and the clock is very much ticking on the entire family.
What follows is a race against time as the former married couple investigate the sources and people in the tape in order to see if they can lift their curse before their time is up. What they don’t realise is that their journey will lead them to the paranormal and murdered girl who is set on revenge…
From the very beginning, this movie is an exercise in beautiful simplicity. The tension is palpable from the start, and builds as the protagonists near their demise. Director Hideo Nakata is subtle and methodical with his work, and this is evident in Ring. There are plenty of voyeuristic shots, which unnerve. The characters, having watched the tape have someone or something hovering over them, waiting. It is hard not to feel a chill. The ambiguity leads us to wonder what it could be, and as is the case with most classic horror films, being suggestive and allowing the audience to utilise their imaginations is the best tool at the director’s disposal.
The same can be said of the acting. Nanako Matsushima gives a very measured performance. The subtleties of facial expression and body language help accentuate the quiet moments that only succeed in increasing the tension and drama.
When the horror moments do occur, and they are sporadic, they are delivered purposefully and with force. The evil paranormal child Sadako (Rie Ino’o) moves in a disjointed and painful manner. Her movement adds to her already warped back-story, and is simply terrifying in the movie’s most enduring scene: her awkward and ominous clamber from the TV screen and into Ryuki’s home. It is a truly classic horror moment.
Whilst the story overall is methodical and well-paced, there are moments that could have been used to create more drama and action. After their investigation leads them to a volcanic island, the former married couple, Reiko and Ryuki, need to get back to the mainland to stop the curse. There is a typhoon and no-one will take them on their boats as it is too dangerous, until Sadako’s father, Professor Ikuma (Daisuke Ban) turns up. Their journey is straightforward and the investigation continues. While it is important that the film maintains its tension, it will be clear to action addicts that there are a few missed opportunities for visual and physical drama, and while the film doesn’t necessarily suffer because of them, people who are expecting more action are going to be left disappointed.
The sound, or lack of it, is utilised very well to accentuate tense moments so that when the score is used it has maximum impact. The simplicity of a telephone ring is used as Sadako makes her disjointed stumble towards the screen to signify impending and inevitable doom.
Even at the very end of the movie the director is still being suggestive rather than implicit. Ambiguity allows the audience to make up their own minds, and this uncertainty is perhaps the most unnerving.
Hideo Nakata’s film Ring is a triumph of horror cinema on a shoestring budget. It is a master class in how subtlety can be utilised in such a way that makes it extremely powerful. It is clear that every aspect of the film has been well constructed and methodically thought out. The horror aspects may be few and far between but the thriller aspect builds the tension and the story development so that the audience is in the palm of his hand for when the killer blow is dealt. MMI
This is an English-language release from the master of J-horror, Hideo Nakata (Ring, Dark Water).
When five teenagers meet online, innocent friendships are forged. But soon one dysfunctional member of the group, increasingly drawn to the darker side of the online world, singles out the most vulnerable in the group and seizes the chance to erase his own past. A chance to manipulate, to make a statement: a chance to lead someone down the path of no return.
Set in both online and offline worlds, this smart psychological thriller has a poignant relevancy, exposing the chilling reality of what happens when the lines between reality and cyberspace become blurred…
Film: Chatroom Release date: 24th December 2010 Certificate: 15 Running time: 97 mins Director: Hideo Nakata Starring: Aaron Johnson, Imogen Poots, Matthew Beard, Hannah Murray, Daniel Kaluuya Genre: Drama/Thriller Studio: Revolver Format: Cinema Country: UK
Film: Dark Water Release date: 24th November 2003 Certificate: 15 Running time: 98 mins Director: Hideo Nakata Starring: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa, Fumiyo Kohinata Genre: Horror/Mystery/Drama/Thriller Studio: Tartan Format: DVD Country: Japan
Having adapted a novel by Koji Suzuki to huge international success with The Ring, the master of J-Horror, Hideo Nakata looked for similar results, adapting one of Suzuki’s short stories.
The story is deceptively simple; a recently divorced woman named Yoshimi moves into a new apartment with her 5-year-old daughter Ikuko and begins to be disturbed by a mysterious damp patch of water on the ceiling which gradually grows larger.
The landlord repeatedly ignores her complaints and we begin to wonder whether she is in fact imagining things, a result of the strain of single-parenthood. The mysterious water, continual re-emergence of a small red bag and sightings of a young girl in a yellow coat – are these the delusions of a woman struggling to cope, or is something more sinister at work?
For those expecting the full-blown horror of Ring, you may come away disappointed, as Dark Water is an altogether more restrained film. Although Nakata’s style can be recognised, the film seems much more personal and contemplative, though it certainly does lack the lingering horror and unease of his most famous horror film.
Less a straightforward horror, more a psychological study of the relationship between a mother and daughter - it is a thoughtful and disconcerting film. As he did so well in Ring, Hideo Nakata seamlessly combines family drama with more supernatural and eerie scenes - as with other Asian horror films of recent years, there is the preoccupation with family dysfunction. Yoshimi and her husband are in the middle of a messy divorce and custody battle, and she is trying desperately to prove she is capable of caring for her daughter alone, as well as balancing a career.
Nakata builds an atmosphere of isolation and dread very effectively in the first half of the film as we watch Yoshimi move into her new home and begin to notice odd things; a hair coming from the tap and, as mentioned, a small child in a yellow coat that appears and disappears constantly (reminiscent of the Venice scenes in Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now).
There are several tropes that we now recognise from J-Horror (and Asian horror in general): the obsession with water, isolation, loneliness in an urban environment, oppressive atmosphere and a young girl ghost with long lank hair, although there is no focus on the malevolence of technology. It is in many ways a more human story.
Saying that, however, the opening sequence is suitably creepy, as we see dank water swirling endlessly, set against an eerie score by Kenji Kawai and Shikao Suga. We are then immediately introduced to the main themes, as we see Ikuko standing alone waiting to be picked up by her mother from school. The tragic image of Ikuko waiting in the rain is one that recurs throughout the film. There is also an effectively sinister scene when the missing girl is spotted on CCTV in the lift, although this tactic has now been used many times, notably in Takashi Shimizu’s original Grudge film. Another scene involving a game of hide-and-seek at school when Ikuko spies the dripping ghost girl is also especially ominous.
It could be said that much of Dark Water is familiar but this does not diminish the film’s poignancy. The damp spreading and dripping throughout the apartment grows increasingly prominent and frightening, and Hitomi Kuroki does a brilliant job of playing an anxious mother, teetering on the brink of insanity. The father is unsympathetic, and Yoshimi appears completely alone in the film. The story rests on the interplay of her and Ikuko, and the scenes between the two of them are well acted and realistic, making us sympathetic towards their predicament.
The feeling you are left with after watching Dark Water is one of sadness, not terror. The final revelation about the missing girl and the denouement are devastating. Although one would hesitate to say that Dark Water is as memorable a piece of horror cinema as Ring, it is certainly affecting. CP
Film: Sleeping Bride Release date: 31st May 2010 Certificate: PG Running time: 100 mins Director: Hideo Nakata Starring: Risa Hoto, Yuki Kohara, Takaaki Enomoto, Tomoka Hayashi Genre: Romance/Comedy Studio: Palisades Tartan Format: DVD Country: Japan
The Glass Brain by prolific manga author Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy and an obsessive Walt Disney fan) provides the bizarre inspiration for J-Horror mastermind Hideo Nakata’s left of centre romantic tale (originally released as part of the Ring Trilogy).
An emergency rescue team discover a pregnant sole survivor clinging onto life amongst the sizzling wreckage of a horrific plane crash. She manages to live just long enough to give birth to a cataleptic baby daughter, Yumi (Riso Goto).
Now motherless and abandoned by a grieving father, the child is taken into the care of a medical staff that offers little hope of her ever emerging from the deep routed coma.
Seven years later, a young boy, Yuichi (Yuki Kohara), is admitted to the same hospital suffering from chronic asthma. Bored he wonders the corridors looking for and finding a distraction in the shape of the mysterious coma girl. For the remainder of his stay, armed with a vivid imagination and knowledge of the sleeping beauty fairytale, he makes a daily pilgrimage to Yumi’s room to place a single kiss on her lips and utter the words: “I am a prince, please wake up.”
A decade on, and Yuichi, now a well-liked high school pupil, is stunned as he watches a news broadcast regarding the plane crash and subsequent birth of the coma girl. His feelings for Yumi flood back, reigniting a dormant childhood obsession and forcing him, at the expense of other relationships, to return to the girl’s bedside and continue his ritual kiss, all seemingly to no avail…
Director Hideo Nakata, who gate crashed into the public’s conciseness with breakout movie Ringu and subsequent genre defining J-Horror films, tries and fails dramatically to prove to the world that he is so much more than the master of supernatural suspense. It is true to say that he had previously enjoyed a limited success in Japan with non horror films, however, these have always had a prominent dark tone at their heart (twisted kidnap flick Chaos and documentary Sadistic And Masochistic spring to mind). However, for what is basically a reimaging of an old fairytale updated for a female teen audience, he injudiciously abandons his usual well crafted stylistic methods, honed to perfection in his classic Dark Water, for an almost straightforward directing by numbers approach.
Conspicuous by their absence are Nakata’s trademark atmospheric moments of suspense, created through nothing more than interesting camera angles. Worse still, adding insult to injury, the director replaces intriguing imagery with soft-focus insipidness, while allowing emotive sounds to be drowned in an ocean of orchestral drivel. His use of colour is drab, at best, and the music score by long-time collaborator Kenji Kawai is ill judged, at times grating on the nerves, and a constant distraction.
The dialogue, closely adapted from Tezuka’s manga script by Chiaki Konaka, is so bland that it becomes a struggle to empathise with the main characters, although, admittedly, the two leads make the most of their roles, and, unlike the supporting cast, they do emerge with some credence. In particular, Riso Goto shows promise with her beguiling and somewhat quirky depiction of a stranger fascinated by her new milieu as once dormant senses begin to blossom. Another small positive is that the film itself is not totally without charm, especially in the early stages when we watch Yuichi fall for the helpless coma girl, but these scenes are stretched out to the point that it becomes a trial of stamina just to keep eyelids open. Furthermore, a benign sub-plot is unceremoniously wedged into the mix, serving little purpose other than to emphasise the blatantly obvious in a story that would have been better suited as a compact thirty minute episode of something in keeping with The Twilight Zone or Tales Of The Unexpected.
Nakata is obviously out of his comfort zone with this story, as he attempts to cater for a slightly younger audience, but even in the film’s darker moments, when Nakata should be in his element, we are subjected to a plodding substandard made for daytime TV approach. By the time the end credits roll, our tears are not those of sadness or happiness for the characters’ plight, but of relief that we can at last get our life back.
An incredibly boring and poor adaptation of a potentially interesting story by a director forsaking his unique and intelligent style to pander to the misjudged masculine idea of the demands of a female teenage audience. MG
