Ringu Anthology of Terror (Rasen/Ringu/Ringu 2/Ringu 0)

Ringu Anthology of Terror (Rasen/Ringu/Ringu 2/Ringu 0)
by Hideo Nakata, J?ji Iida, Norio Tsuruta

Ringu Anthology of Terror (Rasen/Ringu/Ringu 2/Ringu 0)
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Actor: Kumiko Aso, Ry?ji Mizukami, Seiichi Tanabe, Yoshiko Tanaka, Yukie Nakama
Director: Hideo Nakata, J?ji Iida, Norio Tsuruta
Brand: Paramount
Writer: Hideo Nakata
Writer: J?ji Iida
Producer: Makoto Ishihara
Writer: Hiroshi Takahashi
Writer: K?ji Suzuki
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 389 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: DreamWorks / Universal Studios

DVD Reviews of Ringu Anthology of Terror (Rasen/Ringu/Ringu 2/Ringu 0)

DVD Review: good
Summary: 3 Stars

i ordered the item new but the case came all bent and beat up. other than that the order was great.

DVD Review: The J-Horror Movie That Spawned The Hollywood Re-Makes
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm sure we all know what these movies are about by now as Dreamworks Entertainment has done two re-makes of this terrifying trilogy(I say trilogy because the second movie Rasen was to terrible to count as part of the Ring legacy). I agree with what most reviewers have said out of this box set the truly best of the movies are Ring, Ring 2, and Ring 0 as the supposed sequel to the Ring 1 was called Rasen but they made that movie so scientific an trying to explain the curse of the tape that it actually detracted the supernatural terror from that film. Ring 0 was a nice touch because it tries to give Sadako a more humanized touch to make us feel for what happened to her and why the curse came to be. I also liked the son in the first Ring movie as the actor put more feeling in his character than the American actor did for his character Aidan in the re-make. Also don't worry about a dubbed version luckily the DreamWorks / Universal Studios team didn't do that so you just get the original voices for the set. The video is clear and sharp so don't worry about any blurriness or any distortions and the audio is very clear as well no complaints on that end either. So if you want the original J-horror movie that started the Hollywood years of re-makes I say for the price of this box set it's definitely worth it....

DVD Review: Ringu Vs. The Ring 6 Round bout. DVD features for the anthology below.
Summary: 5 Stars

Sometimes explaining that something is unexplainable can explain a lot, let me explain.

BASIC PLOT:
Director Hideo Nakata's Ringu follows a beautiful reporter Reiko Asakawa as she investigates a videotape that kills you a week after you watch it, after her niece Tomoko's death is linked to the tape. After tracking down the tape at a cabin her niece and some friends stayed at, all of which have since died, she brings it to her ex husband Ryuji played by Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai, Sunshine) to help her explain things. As the story unfolds we learn that Reiko, Ryuji, and their son Yoichi all have the power to see things, powers not as strong or evil as the mother and daughter on that tape however.

ROUND 1. The Explanation - RINGU
What I meant by my first line was that in Ringu they mention the strange girl on the tape not being from this world and they do not go into great detail of why she does the evil she does or how. The girl on the video is left more of a mystery to us which I found more effective.

ROUND 2 The Tape- RINGU
There is also no attempt in Ringu to go into some weird explanation of how the tape came to be. In Ringu it's just there it's evil and some evil can't be explained. Also in Ringu the tape is kept simpler aka less confusing, there is no ladder or dead horses or this big long back story attempting to explain every frame which adds about 30mins to The Ring which both confuses and takes away from the mystery.

ROUND 3 The Scary Kid- RINGU
The reporter's child in Ringu is just a kid, he has the power to see things like his parents but he is less gimmicky and doesn't attempt to get laughs.

ROUND 4 The Scares- RINGU
The scares in the Ring were geared to make you jump, some of them with cheap loudness or scary faces, which Ringu does as well but in a more subtle way. The Ring starts strong and probably has more attempts at "scary parts" as far as quantity but Ringu's are more effective and build up to the climax. Ringu's scares are geared to stick with you, I can imagine seeing this if you are young and how many sleepless nights it would give you. We can basically all relate to growing up and hearing urban legends. Ghosts, curses, the paranormal and certainly the unexplained are all real. Using videotape, telephones, and televisions to scare us in the places we live really hits home and is relatable. Keeping the little girl a mystery makes her all the more scary at the end.

ROUND 5 The Climax -RINGU
Overall I thought The Ring started strong and then got weaker as the film progressed. Ringu on the other hand started solid, rested for a moment, and then got stronger to the end climax. As for the ending climax and the television, in The Ring the girl is all digitized and snowy, not very effective. In Ringu the girl is a girl, very creepy, crawling out of the tv set without fake looking special effects, and the glimpse you get at her disfigured face that you never fully see is terrifying. The ending of The Ring came off corny where The ending of Ringu cements it as a great horror film.

KO! Ringu Wins!

Even though I gave high praise to RINGU in comparison I still feel The Ring has solid scares and started strong as they were following the original movie closely but then it just got confusing attempting to explain everything. All and all not bad but Ringu is great.

THE ANTHOLOGY DVD
RINGU
RAISEN - Sequel to the Ring
RINGU 2- Back cover says it reveals more truths to the haunted girl on the deadly tape and she attempts to possess a young boy, and begin a new cycle of terror.
RINGU 0 - Takes place 30 yrs before the events of RINGU, provides the shocking background story of how the girl on the video became a deadly spirit.

No special features
RINGU sells for 12.99 and I think the less we know about that girl the scarier it is, I don't think Hannibal Rising added much depth the Lecter but who knows.

DVD Review: The One That Started It All
Summary: 4 Stars

This box set contains the movies that started all that long-haired creepy moving dead girl with the curse that never ends! If you haven't watched these movies, then you're missing something.

These movies has almost no CGIs and the scoring is minimal but effectively creepy and scary.

Overall i love all three films (Ringu, Ringu 2 and Ringu 0) but Rasen is totally non-sadako type. But buying the boxed set is worth it.

I live in the Philippines and buying this from amazon in a separate shipment cost me half an arm and half a leg with customs and duty taxes but i think having the collection has quench whatever horror thirst i had!

A MUST SEE AND A MUST BUY!

DVD Review: I was...underwhelmed.
Summary: 2 Stars

I love J-horror and I loved Ringu but this set is not worth buying.
There are no bonus features, no commentary, no theatrical trailers or making-of featurettes.

Its simply a bare-bones set of the four Ringu movies in a snazzy looking case. Lame.

Description of Ringu Anthology of Terror (Rasen/Ringu/Ringu 2/Ringu 0)

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Rating: Nr
The release of Ringu - Anthology of Terror is a pretty shrewd marketing move. Even though the four discs are bare bones in content (no special features at all), the set is bound to be a must-have for completists who've gone ga-ga over the Asian horror craze -- not to mention anybody else looking for a terrific entr?e to the genre. In case you're unaware, Ringu was the Japanese phenomenon that spawned the Hollywood thrillers, The Ring and The Ring Two. The Japanese hit also led the way for a slew of other Japanese and Korean movies that gave global prominence to a unique style emphasizing psycho chills over blood, guts, and the overt scare tactics that have pretty much defined Western horror movies in the modern era. The four entries in the Ringu cycle are a little uneven, but legitimate DVD library mainstays for anyone with even a passing interest in classics of horror.

Ringu -- The granddaddy of Asian horror, or J-horror, was based on a bestselling novel by Koji Suzuki (as are all the movies in this set) and directed by Hideo Nakata, both of whom have become icons of the genre. Unlike the Americanized version, Ringu is perhaps more nerve wracking for the psychological tension it develops in the mystery of a cursed videotape, Sadako, the tormented girl dead for 30 years at the bottom of a well, and a little boy and his mother who must unravel the secret before the curse catches up with them. The details of life in modern Japan become all the more sinister as routine is upended by unfathomable madness.

Rasen -- This weakest entry in the set is a direct sequel to "Ringu," and tries to weave a plot thread about a virus that infects any person who watches the cursed video. Though it adheres to some of the genre standards, the thrills are few and far between. Even for a story where a high level of suspension of disbelief is required, the plot line of a doctor trying to solve a mystery that clearly has no scientific basis just feels wrong. There are also precious few innovations of style in what comes off as little more than a perfunctory exercise.

Ringu 2 -- Back in style, form, and disturbing content, this more apt sequel again finds director Hideo Nakata at the reigns (as he was for the much different take of Hollywood's The Ring Two). The story follows the young research assistant of Ryuji, one of Sadako's victims from the first film, as she becomes involved in the mystery of the tape. Ringu 2 intriguingly expands on the themes of the original film while resurrecting some of its characters and introducing new terrors. It also expands the stylistic limits of how horror movies can be all the more effective for stressing subtlety, intelligence, and uniqueness of vision.

Ringu ? -- Perhaps the most absorbing of the four, this prequel to the Ringu saga takes place 30 years in the past. It reveals the origin of Sadako's miserable journey to becoming a hateful spirit seething with wrath, rotting at the bottom of an old well waiting to reap vengeance on those who cast their gaze in the wrong direction. Full of inventive visual flair, there are some seriously creepy moments and ingenious sequences in the story of an acting troupe whose members mysteriously vanish or go insane. Sadako may or may not be behind it all, but the bloody finale makes clear that she'll have her revenge, whether she is to blame or not. --Ted Fry

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