Ringu (Ring) (1998)
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97% of critics liked it
(34 reviews) -
66% want to see it
(29,488 ratings)
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 --… More 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. 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. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Hideo Nakata
- Written By
- Hiroshi Takahashi
- Genres
- Drama, Horror
Critic Reviews
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Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
As good as The Ring is, it can't top the original for sheer, shivering terror.
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David Jenkins, Time Out
The finale, too, still feels as twisted, bizarre and down-right nightmarish as it did all those years ago.
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Variety Staff, Variety
Classically shot, with effective use of stereo sound effects, the movie is almost entirely free of visual horror and the usual Eastern ghost cliches, managing to suspend auds' disbelief in the hokey story through pure atmosphere.
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Edward Crouse, Village Voice
Eschewing blood for a sinuous tone of Videodromic dread, Ring forces fear into every cut as a psychic telejournalist counts down the hours till a fatal visitation, while making a gung ho attempt to save her brood.
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Scott Tobias, AV Club
Ringu has a minimalist intensity that can stop the heart with a simple flash-cut or a well-timed fillip in the musical score.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Nanako Matsushima
as Reiko Asakawa
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Hiroyuki Sanada
as Ryuji Takayama
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Miki Nakatani
as Mai Takano
- Yuko Takeuchi
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Hitomi Sato
as Masami
- Yoichi Namata
