Sorry about the Sunday Night Movie feature, upon its return, being a day late. Last night I had a nasty migraine start up — reminds me I need ot log that — and while the treximet took care of the headache nicely, it was severe enough to pack me off to bed rather early. So, a day late, but not a dollar short because this is free, here is this week’s film.

Ringu is the Japanese Horror film that was adapted into the American film The Ring, starring Naomi Watts. Ringu is based upon a novel, also Japanese, titled Ringu or The Ring. I first saw the american film, but not in theaters as the premise seemed too silly for my tastes. A killer video tape? really? I was sorry I had missed it in the theaters as The Ring turned out to be a very good horror film. A fairly low body count, and very little violence, this was not a butcher’s bill of hormone addled teenagers being watched for their sins, not was this a torture-porn of pure sadism, this was a film about knowing your end is coming and having no options to avoid it. The horror evolved from the characters and the nature of their dilemma not from how gruesome the murders were.

Having enjoyed The Ring I was determined to hunt down the source material. I purchased a collection off Amazon of 4 Ringu films on DVD. The movie had been enough of a success in Japan to spawn a sequel, a prequel and then a  revised prequel that retconned elements tha fan objected to in the previous prequel. (Ahh if only we could get Lucas to listen to us.) I also tracked down the original novel, albeit an English translation as I do not read Japanese.

Ringu is a throughly enjoyable horror film. If you have seen The Ring then you will recognized the major elements of sweep of Ringu, however there are differences that make each film throughly unique. In The Ring there is no explanation for why Rachel’s son, Aidan, is such an odd child. In Ringu there is an entire element, taken from the novel, dealing with ESP and psionic ability that explained why the main characters react the way they do and just what is at the heart of Sada’s curse. Also the Japanese film plays with a more explicit supernatural element than the American movie. Both versions abandon sub-plots from the novel, including the explanation for why the curse works in the manner it does. (it deals with if I remember correctly the polio virus and was never a satisfactory element for my tastes.)

Interestingly all film versions replace the male protagonist with a female protagonist. I find it interesting that the switch occurred though I suspect the American and Korean (yes, there is a Korean version as well) well simply following the Japanese film more than the novel.

Ringu is well acted, directed, and photographed, playing for a subtle horror that ignore the temptation of special effects make=up in favor of strong performances and suspenseful scenes.

For anyone who enjoys horror and for whom subtitles are not a barrier to suspension of disbelief, Ringu is a film I heartily recommend.