The Ring (Japanese Version)

The Ring is a film about a cursed, disturbing videotape that, when watched, will cause the viewer to die a week after. The Ring (Japanese: リング Ringu) is a 1998 Japanese horror mystery film by Hideo Nakata, adapted from the novel of the same name by Koji Suzuki, which draws from the Japanese folk tale Banchō Sarayashiki. The film was later remade in the United States as The Ring (2002). The film is the highest grossing horror film in Japan at 12 billion yen ($137.7 million) and is also considered the most frightening horror film in Japan.

Common Conventions:

• Using music to create tension
• Darkness and shadows
• vulnerability of women
• comfy clothes
• using an uncanny house

Mise en scene:

Set in domestic house; this is meant to make the audience feel uneasy and make the house seem uncanny as it is decorated in the right way.

There are only small pockets of light and all light is few and far between and causes shadows on people and objects. The TV is one of the main sources of light. It lets out a blue glared light to show distortion and that there’s something wrong with it. The poor lighting in general shows how they are surrounded by darkness which is symbolic to danger. This is a precursor to the audience of what will happen next.

When in the kitchen half the room is contrasted in darkness and half the room is poorly lit. This is to show the thin line between danger and safety. This again is uncanny to the audience. The darkness of the living room shows its deep like a cave.

The young girl wears a hoody and skirt; the hoody emphasises that she how casual and unprepared she is. The skirt is iconic of young women which reminds the audience just how vulnerable and weak she really is.

Sound:

As usual, the non dietetic sounds involved stringy music which sounded like broken and deformed chords that made the characters seem lost. It is also unpleasant for the audience to hear so it makes them feel uneasy.

Silence: Often during the dialogue the music and background noise is silence. This creates tension as it makes the audience feel paranoid that something will make them jump.

The girl’s whisper: The two girls whisper when they don’t need to. This again makes the audience feel paranoid that they are trying to avoid something that’s watching them.

The dialogue in general is used for normality to set the audience in false sense of security which makes the film seem more realistic.

An example of this is the ringing of the phone. This breaks the silence and the high pitched sound is irritating and makes the audience feel uneasy. The sound of the ringing also breaks the laughing of the girls making them feel uneasy and afraid. As the ringing of the phone doesn’t stop it implies that the danger won’t go away. This situation has been made very uncanny.

The TV in the living room: When it comes on it makes very distorted, un-nerving and obscure sounds. It is Incongruous and builds a lot of tension and suspense to what it is.

Editing:

The TV in the bedroom has been given a blue film to create distorted and weird shadowing on the room and characters.

Cross cuts- Goes from the characters looking to what they are looking at. This is so we have a delayed reaction of what’s going on. The cross cuts give us a panoramic view gives us a point of view of what the characters can see which makes the situation seem more real to the audience as it seems like we are in their shoes. As the cross cuts speed up this creates and increases tension.

Camera Movements/Shots/Angles:

Shots close to girls- This is to make the audience feel like were right behind them in the situation. Also the fact that we then couldn’t see behind us was to induce fear in us because we couldn’t see what was going on.

Camera moves out of TV- This shows us that this object is of upmost importance in the film and that we as the audience should be focusing on it.

Over shoulder shot- This makes it look like somebody is watching them. It could also again make the audience feel like they are in the house in the situation.

Close ups- makes us feel claustrophobic and builds up suspension. The close ups also show the emotions of fear and this is meant to be transported onto us.

The mid shots- These mean we can see the darkness and shadows behind the characters. It is suppose to make us feel paranoid that there is something in there.

Tilt shot of clock- The tilt shows distortion and makes the clock seem uncanny and having a low angle of it shows its dominance over us and the characters. That time is controlling them and has some kind of power.

High angle when TV turns on- This shows isolation and emptiness of the house. It gives an uncanny atmosphere.