chucky.editzz 6
I've watched this movie and it's great, the acting is good, soundtrack is good, the scenes are good. Park Eun-Suh should have more films, not only The Ring Virus.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
08/09/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Another good (but why bother?) remake of Ring.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Just as great as the Japanese but way better then the American version!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A great example of how NOT to do a remake.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Ok bit of a mix some promising moments and approaches to things but felt they had messed up the story completley it didn't run smoothly and felt the scary moments were edited because of the execution of how they wanted to deliver the film visually it just didn't work.would of liked to see them not mess with the story but maybe try and top the Japanese original for scares and atmosphere sadly it delivered on neither.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The commercial and critical success of Hideo NakataÂ’s [I]Ringu[/I] in 1998, an adaptation of Koji SuzukiÂ’s novel of the same name, immediately inspired a second adaptation, this time for Korean audiences. Written and directed by Dong-bin Kim, [I]Ring Virus[/I] is wholly unnecessary, derivative, and impressively unimaginative film. All the elements from the more successful [I]Ringu[/I] are here: an enterprising female journalist, a cursed videotape, a supernatural deadline, a young woman with witch-like powers (and cascading black hair), a well, and some sly misdirection that casually subverts horror conventions. [I]Ring Virus[/I], however, adds a superfluous backstory involving the young woman, called Eun-suh here (Sadako in the Japanese version and Samara in the subsequent American film), and a subplot meant to give a semi-rational, semi-folkloric explanation for Eun-suhÂ’s extraordinary powers. This subtraction by addition does little to help KimÂ’s unsure grasp of dramatic tension and pacing, making the end result a pale, uninspired imitation of NakataÂ’s superior supernatural horror film.
[I]Ring Virus[/I] opens with a young, teenage girl, alone in a house. A cell phone rings (amplified on the soundtrack), scaring the girl, who appears to be on edge. An unseen, malevolent force quickly dispatches the girl via cardiac arrest (sheÂ’s literally frightened to death). Her aunt, Sun-ju (Eun-Kyung Shin), an investigative journalist, soon discovers that three other teenagers died simultaneously, all friends of her nieceÂ’s. Working backwards, she uncovers the cursed videotape at a holiday resort (a cabin in the woods in the other two versions). Curious, she watches the videotape, soon discovering that viewing the videotape has awakened the curse: in seven days time, sheÂ’ll be dead. The videotape, a combination of abstract images, faces, and audio, also contains the spell to break the curse (a difference without distinction in comparison to NakataÂ’s film). Unfortunately, someone in the group has taped over the last portion of the videotape.
Frightened and disturbed, Sun-ju seeks and obtains the help of an eccentric medical doctor, Dr. Choi (Jin-yeong Jeong), a former surgeon turned medical examiner (she finds him asleep on a slab in the local morgue). Despite being a doctor, Dr. Choi immediately settles on a supernatural explanation for the deaths of the four teenagers. Here and later in the film, the Choi character functions to both give the audience exposition and as a cover for several remarkable leaps in logic (leaps because theyÂ’re unsubstantiated by the events in the film, as theyÂ’re known to the principal characters). Soon, Sun-juÂ’s inquisitive daughter Boram (another difference without distinction; in NakataÂ’s version the protagonist has a son, not a daughter) watches the video and is herself cursed to die in seven days time.
As the days tick by (aided by titles at the bottom of the screen, accompanied by jarring violins), Sun-ju and Dr. Choi get closer to the truth behind the cursed videotape, a young woman with supernatural powers, Eun-suh (Du-na Bae). More leaps in logic lead to an island off the coast of Korea, and the identity of Eun-suhÂ’s mother, herself a famous clairvoyant. Eun-suhÂ’s backstory is filled in via banal, grainy black-and-white flashbacks, effectively removing the aura of supernatural mystery (and menace) present in both the Japanese and American versions of SuzukiÂ’s novel. Kim inexplicably allows the audience to see Eun-suhÂ’s face on multiple occasions. Eun-suh, it seems, is just a misunderstood teenager (i.e., similar to Stephen KingÂ’s [I]Carrie[/I]), needing love and affection. The same character in the Japanese and American versions is represented as an outcast from a lower world (or another dimension), evil distilled and personified. Making her a misunderstood teenager may make Eun-suh a more sympathetic, human figure, but it also undermines the rationale for her actions, both in creating and disseminating the cursed videotape and in hunting down her victims via the aid of a static-filled television set.
Beside the gaps in the screenplay, KimÂ’s direction of the material leaves a lot to be desired. KimÂ’s languid, by-the-numbers pacing leaves [I]Ring Virus[/I] bereft of dramatic tension. Even when the scenes are lifted straight from the novel or NakataÂ’s earlier film, Kim fails to build suspense properly, rushing through these scenes, and eliminating or diminishing their payoffs. In NakataÂ’s hands, the combination of framing, editing, length of shots, and soundtrack all led to an enjoyably visceral experience. Nakata was well aware of the need to hold and elongate shots, adding misdirection to temporarily deceive the audience (and offer them a momentÂ’s reprieve), before unveiling the next horrific encounter with Sadako. Kim, it seems, didnÂ’t study NakataÂ’s methods closely enough. Ultimately, [I]Ring Virus[/I] can only be recommended for fans of SuzukiÂ’s novel, hardcore fans of Asian horror films, or completists interested in seeing a third version of the same material willing to overlook the film's many flaws.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Read all reviews
Post a rating
>
