Ringu Vs The Ring

The Ring(2002) is the American remake of the Japanese film Ringu(1998). The two differ but there is a lot of intertextuality between the two films, especially the two scenes shown in the video below.

Sadako in The Ring, resembles an old woman. Her face is wrinkled, and a discoloured indigo, she also has long black hair. She is fast to get up from the ground, and the camera focuses on her wrinkled skin and feet. We can already see her face, and when she moves she also 'flashes' as in she can do some sort of transportation. She is based on western folklore of ghosts being able to disappear and then reappear again, there is also the idea that she must be see to be scary.

Whereas in Ringu Sadako's movements are slow, she spends most of her time crawling on the floor. The camera focuses on her long unconditioned hair which covers her face and upper body. It also seems that her fingernails have been pulled off, which also adds fear to the film. Her skin is a pale white colour with a slight indigo tint. She gets up considerable slowly compared to her American remake. Her there is more fear in the unknown, as we can not see her face. When we do see Sadako's face, it is shocking as she has a droopy eye. This is based on the Japanese folklore tale Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan.


Also in the American remake, we can hear the sound of water, which although it made sense since Sadako has just come out of a well, it make the film even more unrealistic to me. I think that the more silenced version, Ringu gave emphasis on small sounds. In my opinion, Ringu was much scarier than The Ring. Although I live in the western world, I found the Japanese horror to be more fearful that the American. I think that in our thriller film, we will try to incorporate aspects of oriental horror/thriller. Taking inspiration from characters like Sadako.