Every 14 Days...(29)

Ring/Spiral/Loop (Koji Suzuki)

Recently, there's been a lot of talk among the film festival circuit of Hideo Nakata's new release 'Ghost Theatre', after years of not really being talked about. Completely coincidentally, I decided to re-read the 'Ringu' trilogy (well, re-read two-thirds; read for the first time one-third) that inspired the film that shot not only him, but many other 'Asia Extreme' directors to international fame.

'Ring' is an interesting one in the 'book vs. film debate,' with the majority of people typically claiming the book is better to give the vain veneer of being mildly intellectual (larks!). For me the film overshadows the book that gave birth to it. Nakata changed certain elements for the film version: changing the lead to a female, stating that females are more believable in being frightened; the very cinematic ending, that probably wouldn't have worked in book form. These changes improve Koji Suzuki's story, removing some of the stranger elements towards the first book's conclusion that spawn into the sequels.

'Ring', the first book in the trilogy is by far the strongest piece, starting with a detailed discovery by journalist Asakawa that his niece's mysterious and sudden death is linked to three others that happened at the exact same time. Investigating this lead, he visits the Villa Log Cabin where the four dead youths stayed a week before their deaths. There he finds a strange video that will change his life, for seven days, at least.

The idea and the story is a good one, and perhaps a 1990 satire on modern media leaving us all brain dead, who knows?! Enlisting the help of his friend, Ryuji, he searches for an answer to the 'charm' (it is continually referred to as) to lift the video's curse, and thus not die in seven day's time.

Much like the film, however, the two sequels are where things start to go wrong. 'Spiral' takes the theme to a new character, Ando, a doctor that carried out an autopsy on *spoiler-alert* Ryuiji's body. Ando, for some reason, seems to believe that Ryuji is trying to leave him a message in his DNA structure, using random code-breaking techniques from his college days to form a rather unlikely, and largely meaningless, message. This leads Ando to go through the same journey as Asakawa, only with less information, with DNA investigations, re-births and the 'virus' switching to book form following.

The third in the trilogy, that I hadn't previously read, 'Loop' gets even more far-fetched, with third main character, Kaoru, a student doctor, using some random thing he looked at as a child to try and solve the mystery of the new cancerous virus that is spreading across the world.   

I first read 'Ring' and 'Spiral' when I was a student, a good decade ago, when I was definitely less well-read. One problem of being slightly more well-read is that I have recently read 'Robin Ince's Bad Book Club', particularly the thrillers chapter. Ince's description of thrillers is that they are overly long, filled with unnecessary descriptions of clothing and naked breasts, designed more to just keep the reader amused rather than provoke thought. They are simply written, with everything explained, re-explained and again, to make a lengthy book to justify your buying it. All three of these books are long, particularly 'Loop', and - while this may be due to the translation - are quite simply written, particularly 'Loop'. 'Spiral' features an entire chapter that summarises 'Ring', and 'Loop' in turn has chapter dedicated to summarising 'Ring' and 'Spiral', as you go round-and-round - how possibly intentional?!

I enjoyed 'Ring', was less enthused by 'Spiral', and was just bored by 'Loop'. Things are just taken a bit too far here and it becomes a little over-indulgent. The 'Ringu' trilogy is about a video that spawned a book that lead to a major virus. The reality is that this was a book that spawned a film that spawned a DVD empire in the West, that lead to endless over-indulgent copy-cats, that quickly saw companies fold.

As with the first book, 'Ring', making copies only leads to problems, and turning a good book into a trilogy only serves to spoil the original. It should probably have just been left at that.

Ring

Days to read: 18

Days per book: 14.7

Spiral

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 14.7

Loop

Days to read: 15

Days per book: 14.7   

Sadako 3D

Wow, we have a new format. Quick, let’s exploit it by remaking/rereleasing an old film in said new format and millions will be made.

Now, ‘Ringu’ is a film that actually might work with the 3D format…except that it isn’t. ‘Ringu’ is largely a suspense film, as a reporter seeks to unravel the mystery behind the deaths of some local students. The film is very darkly shot and uses slow, moody shots, before one final moment at the end that would be made that bit more special in 3D. Therefore, to justify making a film based on Koji Suzuki’s original novel ‘Ring’ and ripping-off Hideo Nakata’s film adaptation in 3D format, there needs to be a lot more thrown in to make it seem worthwhile.

ShiBOOya

With this the case, the suspense, intrigue and fear created by ‘Ringu’ is thrown out the window for endless moments designed simply to make you jump by adding unnecessary bangs and people walking up behind someone to make their pulse race. It’s the 21^st Century, so video is thrown out for viral content on the Internet and the cast all seem younger and more attractive (sorry Yurei Yanagi, you look like a monkey), and as such are much worse actors.

Being in Nihon-go, I couldn’t fully understand the plot, not that that was particularly necessary. People try to watch a video online, if they succeed they die soon after. Simple.  The ending, however, becomes farcical, again trying to justify the 3D format further and is neither scary nor good. The best part of the film is the end credits, for more than one reason.

With two trailers before it for the new ‘MIB 3’ (do we need this?!) and the new ‘Amazing Spiderman’ – a character necessary to remake with a new lead actor as there have only been at least three Spiderman films made in the last decade – it seems that films are merely going to be lazy remakes of old stories in a new format, displaying a lack of creativity or substance, from here on in. So, just like the cinema of the last ten years then…