Ringu

Alright, so someone at my work told me that I should check out Ringu, the Japanese movie that The Ring was based on, because it was a) totally different and b) better.

Neither of these were true.

First off, the movie was basically exactly the same. Same exact plot, same cinematic tricks, practically the same sets half the time. I was borderline bored through the whole thing.

Secondly, it wasn't better. The acting was pretty good, but the effects were worse, the budget was lower, the music was worse.. and The Ring actually had more exposition as to the motivation of the evil girl. You got to see more of who she was, and they made her much more evil and more convincing. Since Ringu didn't do this, the whole "finding the corpse in the well" scene didn't make as much sense. And The Ring was much scarier, Ringu did these cheesy "scary" freezeframes when bad things happened, because they didn't have any real effects going on. If I had never seen The Ring, I would have loved it, it's a good movie, there's no doubt about it, I'm not diputing that.

I'm kind of confused as to why so many people I've talked to have said the same things about this movie. I figure it has to be the whole theory that the American remake of a foreign film simply CAN'T be better, if you're a "cultured" movie watcher, you always prefer the original and look down on the soulless, American studio remake. Well, they're full of crap. The Ring was a superior movie.