The Ring

[M Arnold]

I made it to an early screening of The Ring (USA) last Saturday night.  It
was interesting.  It's definitely a bit slicker than the original version,
but as far as script goes it is very close to the Japanese film.  The big
Seattle suburb theater was probably close to half full, and the audience did
react fairly well to the movie.  I bet it won't do half bad at the box
office here... but in Japan?  It has been 4 years, so I assume there are a
lot teenagers now who haven't seen Nakata's original series yet.  Heck, I
was pretty spooked out even though I knew what was hiding around the corner.

I hope nobody decides to remake Honogurai mizu no soko kara though.  If the
Nakata/Suzuki boom is boiling down to that sort of story I think I'd rather
just stick to the horror of network soap operas.

Back to the Ring, the movie is rated PG-13 here and there's nothing
incredibly gory or violent in it.  There is one part that worried me a
little though.  The advertisements say something like, "you will see the
ring before you die."  Well, I did see the ring, flashed very briefly on the
screen, squeezed in on maybe one or two frames at the end of a scene in the
second half of the film.  I wondered if this was a contest, "Spot the ring
and win a free poster!" or something to that effect, but so far I haven't
been able to find any information.  So if I don't send any more e-mail after
this weekend you'll know what happened to me...

Michael Arnold