How vital are origin stories, really? If you’re a superhero I’d argue that they’re pretty damn important unless you’re understandably bored of seeing Uncle Ben and Batman’s parents get shot ad infinitum, however the rules tend to change when it comes to unearthing the often tragic histories of some of your favorite horror icons. In fact, it seems like if you got a sequel or two, chances are some bright spark is going to suggest that we dig into the antagonist’s roots to find out what makes the tick.
The problem with this is that while a good origin may help to engage with, understand and even sympathise with character, chances are the humanising effect diffuses what made the villain so scary after all. Die to how much impact she’d made in J-Horror in such a short time, it was inevitable that the well-dwelling, heart-stopping, screen-climbing Sadako was due to join the selection of sobering sob stories that her peers had experienced. But would pulling the curtain back on a bonafide horror icon prove to be one Ring too many?
As we witness a girl in the present call her friend and tell her that she’s experiencing nightmares and vision after watching a certain, cursed videotape, it becomes apparent that the curse of Sadako is still fully up and running, but after a quick turning back of the clock of around thirty years, we soon find ourselves witnessing the events that led to the young girl being thrown down that infamous well. In case you’d forgotten the lore, Sadako’s mother had caused a bit of a stink when a public demonstration of her alleged psychic powers led bellows of outrage from the gathered reporters, but when things got too heated, the young child used her bizarre abilities to stop the heart of the loudest dissenter. As a result, we are now introduced to Miyaji, fellow reporter and fiancé to the doomed man, who is interviewing people connected to Sadako in order to find out more about her and discover her whereabouts.
As we discover things like Sadako is not only terrified of the sea, but once accurately predicted the mass drowning of her classmates, we meet up with the tormented 19 year-old as she’s now the understudy of an acting troupe. She’s suddenly launched into the lead role due to her natural charisma and the fact that the former lead actress suddenly dies after having visions of a figure in white. Due to the show going on, mistrust and fear seems to build up among the cast and crew, with only sound director Hiroshi Toyama being the lone person who actually gets close to the strange Sadako.
However, due to the dogged actions of Miyaji and the jealous actions of costume designer Etsuko Tachihara, soon Sadako’s twisted past is laid out for all to see which not only triggers her darker half, but puts her on the path that seems her rage lay waste to VHS enthusiasts everywhere.
To cut to the real meat of the matter, if there’s a glaring problem with Ringu 0, it’s the fact that we’ve already seen her origin story on film thanks to various scenes in both Hideo Nakata’s Ringu and it’s rapidly produced sequel. We already knew about the fateful ESP presentation which sees little Sadako lash out with her powers after people got a little too irate with her mum and we certainly saw the act of her stepfather bashing her over the head and sending her tumbling down into the darkness of a nearby well. In fact, thanks to a revelation found in the sequel, we even know that she survived her attack and managed to remarkable survive a further couple of decades (!) after being sealed in – which basically means that before we even sit down to watch a second of Norio Tsuruta’s prequel, we literally know all the main beats.
Another issue is one that regularly plagues prequels and its the one that means it actually doesntvwuite sync up with what comes next; for example: why had we not previously heard of an entire acting troupe suddenly “disappearing” after turning into a vengeful mob and why would such an event not bring the authorities directly to that ominous sealed up well. If you don’t mind playing the prequel game and are able to shut such inconsistencies off, then you’re likely to get along fine with Ring 0, but even then, we’re still now a fair distance quality wise from the game-changing chills of the original movie.
That’s not to say that Ringu 0 is objectively bad; it manages to deliver all the Ring-based visuals and set up that we’ve become familiar with despite there’s no TV for the still-alive Sadako to haul herself out of yet. It’s just that all the recognisable staples have now become dangerously overfamiliar for a franchise that once thrived on mystery and the unknown.
At its core, there’s still that token character playing detective and trying to uncover the secrets behind Sadako’s rather sad existence, but while it lead to nerve biting tension earlier in the series, here Miyaji ultimately seeking out info that we already know. Similarly, the film manages to bust out some classic Sadako moves once her acting castmates discover that she has the ability to fuck them all up with her mind and while it’s cool to see her in a white dress and sporting that famous brushed forward look while she spontaneously contorts and twitches like a junkie on a bank holiday, again, it’s a pale imitation of what we’ve already seen the franchise do.
However, one thing the prequel does manage to do well is create a story around that twitching, lank-haired form that gives Sadako more focus about that tragic air that hangs about her. While some villains ultimately find their effectiveness dulled by having you feel sorry for them, it actually kinda benefits that you’re on the side of the ESP flinging girl considering her curse is directly related to how unfair her treatment was. Also, while I don’t claim to truly understand the plot twist of the girl splitting into two Sadakos (one good, one bad) and maybe explaining this clearer should have been the actual focus of the film, it provides some nicely startling moments. However; there’s a sence that Ringu 0 is more a case of “Carrie On Sadako” as the feeling here is that the film is riffing far more on Stephen King’s Carrie than it is Hideo Nakata’s first film. I mean, if you present us a sickly girl with the ability to fuck shit up with her mind, and then have her bullied in public, where else would you possibly draw from?
While the curse of prequelitus proves to ultimately be stronger than the curse of Sadako, Ringu 0 still manages to deliver a cleanly told story that holds the attention despite being completely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. But even though we never really get to know the villain of Ringu much as an actual person beyond being shy and haunted, we still get just enough “Ringisms” to meet the brief.
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 