RING queries

[Zeni]

I have thought to the differences between the two movies too, but I must
said that I enjoyed the japanese one more than the american version.
But both versions are more or less quite enjoyable.
For me, the american version has two main interesting points. Firstly, the
childhood and secondly the explanations.
May be Ryuji was quite "psychic" but it appears that rachel's child, Aidan,
is just as psychic, if not more. The childhood appears both in the Aidan
character and in Samaro character. It allows to give more precises
explanations (why seven days, why the tape, ...).
About explanations, there are far more clear in the american movie and I was
very disapointed by all the psychiatricplot in the movie which is just a way
to set things more "logic" / believable..
But what disapointed me the most is that the american movie is just not
scary at all. Why victims look like zombies ? Why this boring music (the
sound in Ringu is just amazing) ? Why this aesthetic which gives a strange
atmosphere but fails to really be scary ?
They had money and they used it. Well, Ringu could have been better with
more money but my opinion is that Gore Verbinski is just a good worker, not
a movie maker.

Stephane Perrin.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of M Arnold
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 6:13 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: RING queries


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