Ringu Blu-Ray Arrow Collection: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 03:50, 5 February 2020

Ringu Blu-Ray Arrow Collection cover

The Ringu Blu-Ray Arrow Collection is a Blu-Ray Movie Boxset by Arrow Video. The Boxset includes the original Japanese films Ringu, Ringu 2, the prequel Ringu 0 and the ignored sequel Rasen as a bonus feature on the Ringu 2 movie disc. It also comes with a booklet that has pictures and contents of the films. All three films are Region A for America and have English Subtitles and it first released in October 2019.

Films

Ringu

Two high schoolers, Masami and Tomoko, talk about a videotape that was allegedly recorded in Izu and also bears a curse that kills the viewer in one week. Tomoko reveals that a week ago, she and three of her friends watched a strange tape and received a call after watching. The two are interrupted by a phone call, but it turns out to only be Tomoko's mother. However, as soon as Masami returns upstairs, Tomoko witnesses her TV turn on by itself. She later hears startling noises and turns around, only to be killed by an unseen force.

At Tomoko's funeral, her maternal aunt Reiko Asakawa, a reporter investigating the popularity of the cursed video, discovers that three of her friends also died on the same night, with their faces twisted in fear. While investigating Tomoko's room, she notices a photo receipt and goes to pick up the photo copies. Looking through Tomoko's photos, Reiko finds that the four teenagers stayed in a rental cabin in Izu, and that one of the photos shows their faces are blurred. Eventually, Reiko heads off to the cabin, but not before her young son, Yoichi, claims Tomoko saw the cursed tape.

Reiko arrives at the cabin in Izu, and eventually attempts to get information from the clerk. In the process, Reiko notices an unlabeled tape on the rental shelf, and picks up the tape to see for herself. The tape shows a series of seemingly unrelated and disturbing images. As the tape ends, she sees a mysterious reflection in the television and receives a phone call. However, there are only screeching sounds from the tape. Fearing that her days are now numbered, Reiko quickly leaves the cabin with the tape.

Her ex-husband, Ryūji Takayama is soon enlisted to investigate the tape's origin. The next morning, Ryuji discovers that Reiko's face is blurred in a photo, much like those of the teenagers were. Despite Reiko's objections, Ryūji watches the tape and tells her to make him a copy, which they start reviewing the next day, aside from a brief interruption from Ryuji's student Mai Tokano. Studying further, the two find a hidden message embedded within the tape saying "frolic in brine, goblins be thine". The next morning, Ryuji has found that the message is in the form of a dialect from Izu Ōshima Island. Two nights later, while the two are staying with Reiko's father, Reiko catches Yoichi watching the videotape, claiming the ghost of Tomoko asked him to do so.

Reiko and Ryūji sail for Ōshima and discover the history of the great psychic Shizuko Yamamura. They stay in an inn run by Takashi, Shizuko's brother. Ryūji discovers that Takashi exposed Shizuko to the media, hoping to make money from the situation. The media attention attracted Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, who, besides researching ESP, had an affair with Shizuko. Dr. Ikuma held a demonstration, where Shizuko successfully displayed her psychic abilities. However, one journalist spitefully denounced her as a fraud, inciting his other colleagues to do the same. In retaliation, Shizuko's daughter, Sadako, psychokinetically killed the journalist, with his face twisted like Tomoko's and her friends'. Shortly after, a series of slanderous reports drove Shizuko to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Dr. Ikuma was fired and took Sadako to an unknown location.

Reiko and Ryūji deduce that Sadako psionically created the cursed videotape to express her fury against the world. After an epiphany, the two go back to Izu and uncover a well underneath the cabin. Through a vision, they discover that Dr. Ikuma murdered Sadako and threw her body into the well. They try to find Sadako's body in an attempt to appease her spirit. Minutes before her seven days are up, Reiko finds Sadako's corpse, and they return home, relieved that the curse is seemingly broken.

The next day, however, when Ryūji is at home, his TV switches on by itself and shows the image of a well. The vengeful ghost of Sadako crawls out of the well, out of Ryūji's TV set and frightens him into a state of shock, killing him. Immediately before his death, Reiko had tried to call Ryuji; so she hears his last minutes over the phone and finds out only she is free from the curse. Desperate to save Yoichi, Reiko realizes that copying the tape and showing it to someone else was what saved her. So with a VCR, Reiko drives to her father's house, where she plans to let her son copy the tape and show it to her father.

Ringu 2

After the body of Sadako Yamamura is retrieved from a well, her uncle Takashi is summoned by police to identify her. Detective Omuta explains to Takashi that forensics concluded Sadako may have survived in the well for thirty years. Forensics experts reconstruct her body, giving it to Takashi, who gives his niece a burial at sea, hoping to be free from the guilt he has carried since her mother Shizuko committed suicide because of his actions. The police search for Reiko Asakawa following the sudden death of her ex-husband Ryuji Takayama and her father Koichi a week later. Mai Takano, Ryuji's university assistant, investigates his death, visiting Reiko's news office where her colleague Okazaki joins Mai in her search for answers. They find a burnt out videotape in Reiko's apartment, Mai sensing Reiko's father died the same way as Ryuji.

Investigating the urban legend of the cursed videotape, Okazaki meets a high school student Kanae Sawaguchi, who gives him a copy of the tape but admits she watched it herself. She begs Okazaki to watch the tape before the week is up, but he chickens out and hides his copy in his desk drawer at work.

Mai and Okazaki go to a mental hospital to speak to Masami Kurahashi, a friend of Reiko's niece Tomoko, but learn she is both mute and has a phobia of televisions, having witnessed Tomoko's death. They meet Doctor Oisho Kawajiri, Masami's doctor, and a paranormal researcher, who is trying to expel the psychic energy within Masami through experimentation. Mai steps out for some air, encountering Masami, whose presence causes Sadako to materialise on a television and terrify the patients.

Mai finds Reiko's son Yoichi alone in a shopping mall before his mother appears. Mai learns Yoichi has been mute since his father and grandfather's deaths and his psychic abilities intensified, and Reiko asks if Kawajiri can help. Returning to the hospital, Mai, Okazaki, and Detective Omuta observe Kawajiri's experiment to exorcise the psychic energy from Masami by projecting her mental imagery onto a blank tape. However, it causes the cursed videotape's imagery to appear, killing Masami, and Mai destroys the recording. Upon learning Kanae has died from the curse, Mai surrenders Reiko and Yoichi to the authorities. Realising the two are to be separated, Mai telepathically warns Yoichi, who escapes with Reiko, who is consequentially hit by a truck. Okazaki attempts to delete his interview with Kanae, only for her ghost to materialise and haunt him.

Mai and Yoichi travel to Oshima Island and stay in the Yamamura Inn. Yoichi has a nightmare, causing Shizuko's and a young Sadako's ghosts to appear before Mai wards them away. Dr. Kawajiri arrives in the night, offering to exorcise Yoichi as he tried with Masami, with Mai volunteering to act as a conduit to expel Sadako's hatred into a swimming pool, water being able to neutralise the energy. However, the attempt turns frightening, Sadako's coffin appearing in the pool. Takashi drowns himself to stop Sadako, while Kawajiri goes insane and commits suicide by diving into the pool carrying electrical equipment.

Mai and Yoichi fall into the water, appearing inside the well. Ryuji's ghost appears, absorbing Sadako's rage from his son, and summons a rope that will guide Mai to safety as long as she doesn't look down. Mai ends up doing so, causing Sadako's ghost to appear, who scales the well only to cryptically ask, “Why is it only you were saved?”, before falling back into the well. Mai and Yoichi emerge in the pool, free of their fear. While Okazaki is institutionalised, a nurse takes a picture of him. As she leaves the room she notices something in the photo, seemingly shocked; behind Okazaki is Kanae's laughing spirit looking for revenge.

Ringu 0

In her merged form, Sadako kills all the troupe members, including Toyama. Akiko and Etsuko manage to flee and hide in Ikuma's house but Sadako corners them and forces Akiko to shoot Etsuko before forcing her to shoot herself.

Sadako eventually recovers and tearfully mourns her own actions. However, Ikuma, albeit reluctantly, drugs and chases her to a nearby well, where he apologizes to her before throwing her down the well. Sadako briefly has a dream of meeting with Toyama again before cutting down to the present. She looks up and screams as the well stone is slid to its place, trapping her inside.

Cast

Ringu cast

Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa, a journalist who investigates her niece's death and finds the cursed videotape.

Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryūji Takayama, Reiko's ex-husband, a former medical student turned university professor. He has a degree of sixth sense that detects supernatural auras.
Rikiya Ōtaka as Yōichi Asakawa, Reiko's young son who also has a sixth sense like his father.
Miki Nakatani as Mai Takano, Ryuji's student.
Yūko Takeuchi as Tomoko Ōishi, Reiko's niece who watches the cursed videotape and is amongst its first victims.
Hitomi Satō as Masami Kurahashi, Tomoko's best friend.
Daisuke Ban as Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, Sadako's father who threw her down a well.
Rie Inō as Sadako Yamamura, a girl with psychic powers who was thrown down a well where she died; her spirit lived on within a videotape.
Masako as Shizuko Yamamura, Sadako's mother. She too had psychic powers but a disastrous press demonstration led to her suicide.
Yōichi Numata as Takashi Yamamura, Sadako's uncle who runs an inn on Oshima Island.
Yutaka Matsushige as Yoshino, a journalist associate of Reiko.
Katsumi Muramatsu as Kōichi Asakawa, Reiko's father.

Ringu 2 cast

Miki Nakatani as Mai Takano

Rikiya Otaka as Yoichi Asakawa
Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa
Yoichi Numata as Takashi Yamamura
Rie Inō as Yamamura Sadako
- Mebuki Tsuchida as young Yamamura Sadako
Kyoko Fukada as Kanae Sawaguchi
Yūrei Yanagi as Okazaki
Hitomi Satō as Masami Kurahashi
Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryuji Takayama
Fumiyo Kohinata as Ishi Kawajiri
Kenjirō Ishimaru as Detective Keiji Omuta
Masako as Shizuko Yamamura

Ringu 0 cast

Yukie Nakama as Sadako Yamamura

Seiichi Tanabe as Hiroshi Toyama
Kumiko Asō as Etsuko Tachihara
Takeshi Wakamatsu as Yusaku Shigemori
Ryushi Mizukami as Wataru Kuno
Kaoru Okunuki as Aiko Hazuki
Yasuji Kimura Togashi
Daisuke Ban as Heihachiro Ikuma
Masako as Shizuko Yamamura
Mahito Ōba as Takashi Yamamura
Kazue Tsunogae as Mrs. Sudo
Atsuko Takahata as Kaoru Arima
Yoshiko Tanaka as Akiko Miyaji

References

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/ringu_collection_limited_edition/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwi9pYarvqvnAhVB7qwKHRDAC_8QFjABegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw2epjKsOLHkeuPoUVPHzJYu https://cinemaretro.com/index.php%3F/archives/10636-REVIEW-RINGU-COLLECTION-199819992000%3B-Directed-by-Hideo-Nakata%3B-George-Iida%3B-Norio-Tsuruta%3B-ARROW-BLU-RAY-RELEASE.html&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiKx5fLy6vnAhUDrVkKHZXqDC0QFjAMegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1_cHVg9F7bg7T2_L019vim https://www.tohokingdom.com/blu-ray/ringu_collection_arrow_films19.html https://www.horrordna.com/movies/the-ringu-collection-blu-ray-review http://10kbullets.com/reviews/r/the-ringu-collection-the-ring-collection-12.arrow-video-usa-bluray/collection-blu-ray

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 ===Ringu 0===
+In her merged form, Sadako kills all the troupe members, including Toyama. Akiko and Etsuko manage to flee and hide in Ikuma's house but Sadako corners them and forces Akiko to shoot Etsuko before forcing her to shoot herself.
-Thirty years before the events of ''[[Ring (film)|Ringu]]'', Akiko Miyaji, a reporter whose fiancé and fellow reporter was killed during Shizuko Yamamura's publicized ESP demonstration years before, interviews Sudo, an elementary school principal and a former teacher of Shizuko's daughter, Sadako, attempting to gain information and evidence that Sadako inherited her mother's [[nensha]] powers. Meanwhile, a 19-year-old Sadako joins an acting troupe as an [[understudy]] as a therapy to her nightmares suggested by her doctor. Sadako has natural beauty and charisma for the play, infuriating her senior, Aiko Hazuki, whose relationship with the troupe director, Yusaku Shigemori, sours due to the latter's newfound favor for the young trainee. Aiko is later found murdered by a figure in white, thus Sadako takes her place for the upcoming play as the lead character. Sadako attracts and reciprocates the attention of the troupe sound director, Hiroshi Toyama, much to the disappointment of costume designer and Toyama's girlfriend, Etsuko Tachihara. While praised by Shigemori and Toyama, other troupe members grow to distrust and fear Sadako, as they suspect that she is the one who caused Aiko's death and other supernatural occurrences, including strange dreams pertaining to a well and an apparition of a girl in white with long hair very similar to Sadako.
-Meanwhile, Akiko is told by Sudo that though initially pleasant, Shizuko descended to madness before her suicide ever since her moving to live with Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, and that Sudo heard strange childlike noises in the attic. Etsuko, wanting to discover Sadako's origins, contacts Sadako's psychiatrist, but he refuses to answer and throws away Sadako's résumé; the résumé is taken by Akiko's assistant, allowing him and Akiko to locate Sadako in the troupe. When they start to photograph her, she telekinetically breaks the camera; the two later discover that all photographs contain ghostly faces and a girl with long hair, confirming Akiko's suspicion of the existence of "two" Sadakos. Shigemori, having been obsessed with Sadako, says that he knows of her dark past and tells that he will kill her if she tries to kill him so they could be together. However, Toyama interrupts the process and Shigemori is killed through a cut that also wounds Toyama. However, Sadako manages to heal him just by touching him and later is able to make a disabled man regain his ability to walk. The two confess their love for each other and promise to leave the troupe and live together after finishing their last play.
-The play is a disaster as Sadako, influenced by recordings of her mother's demonstration played by Etsuko, sees visions of her mother and other reporters during the demonstration and kills her psychiatrist. The troupe members, except Toyama, beat her to death, though is informed by Akiko that their job is not yet done. They visit Ikuma who tells them that Sadako, once a single individual, split into two beings resembling each of her parents; the malevolent one who resembled her unknown father is kept from growing by Ikuma in the attic. Before they can kill it, both Sadakos merge with each other and escape with Toyama. In her merged form, Sadako kills all the troupe members, including Toyama. Akiko and Etsuko manage to flee and hide in Ikuma's house but Sadako corners them and forces Akiko to shoot Etsuko before forcing her to shoot herself.
 Sadako eventually recovers and tearfully mourns her own actions. However, Ikuma, albeit reluctantly, drugs and chases her to a nearby well, where he apologizes to her before throwing her down the well. Sadako briefly has a dream of meeting with Toyama again before cutting down to the present. She looks up and screams as the well stone is slid to its place, trapping her inside.