RING queries

[M Arnold]

Well, I was finally able to catch a copy of the original Ring for rental and
I gave it a spin the other night.  I have to say, as much as I hate to admit
it, I think I enjoyed the new version more.

There are many points that are very similar between the two films--several
major segments are copied nearly to a 'T' by Dreamworks' adaptation--but
there certainly was some difference.  Actually, my attention was mostly
drawn to one major change, and now I understand why the articles and
interviews about the U.S. Ring mention this added "explanation" that was
apparently so necessary.  In the original, the (much older) ex-husband Ryuji
pulls answers right out of the air while the young mother waits for him to
do a surprising amount of the work.  It makes sense that the Dreamworks
version, which doesn't have a "psychic" ex-husband checking off the
mysteries, needed 20 more minutes to allow for more character development
and invesigation into what was happening.  The U.S. version probably has
more scary moments along the way too.

However I'm still left scratching my head by comments like the one from
Reuters on 11/5:  "[Dreamworks co-head Walter] Parkes expressed some
trepidation about how changes to a much-loved film would go down with
Japanese viewers, who are used to dealing with more ambiguity at the
movies."  I wonder if a male lead character in Nakata's film would have made
viewers more "used to" an analytical, Sherlock Holmes-type, or maybe
Furuhata Ninzaburo-type approach to the mystery.  Nevertheless, the U.S.
version still leaves many of the key issues vague, as they were in the
original.

What was the point of that Straw Dogs reference?

Michael Arnold