Page 1 of Ring:- unanswered questions

Right as the original thread has been taken over by my deconstuction of Ring the japanese movie, I thought I`d rename the thread.

The directing, the look, the acting, the mood everything is brillient and spot on. Apart from the plot.

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The idea of a story is that it has to have a certain rule. When it reaches its punchline, the story has to abide by the rule for the punchline to work.

The Ring doesn`t

The punch line as some of you already know is this. For the curse to break you have to copy the tape and pass it on. If you don`t then the ghost comes and gets you via a television.

Two victims of the ghost are in a car. No television in site, and its in the country side.

The rule is once the tape is viewed you will get a telephone call saying you have 7 days to live. When the woman has viewed the tape the phone rings but doesn`t warn her its just a strange noise.

As the tape was already viewed by the teenagers who are now dead, then the curse shouldn`t of been passed on to the reporter, as she didn`t copy the film.

Why is the kid cursed? He has only watched the original and not a copy, and where was his telephone call telling him he`s only got 7 days to live.

The curse would only of stopped with the original 1st victim because no one after him should of died from the curse because they didn`t copy the original for the curse to become effective.

How did the original 1st victims friends know that the tape was directly linked to his death?

It is true that The Ring will make you think about it for a week- trouble is, for all the wrong reasons.

floyd

This item was edited on Sunday, 23rd February 2003, 19:30

batman.
it rocked back in 1989 but that was before i learnt to shave and discovered girls. wish i could get that innocence of youth back...then maybe i would enjoy the latest that mr lucas has to offer.

In The Ring (US remake) you only have to watch the tape to become cursed. The copying of the tape is to SAVE YOURSELF from death, but make as many copies of it as possible. It doesn`t matter what copy of the tape you watch. Also, when the woman watches the tape the phone rings and it says "Seven Days". You must have watched this film in a crap cinema or on a dodgy pirate version.

As for the students who died in the cars, it NEVER says they have to be near a TV. The ghost could have turned up in the car in the passenger seat.

"How did the original 1st victims friends know that the tape was directly linked to his death?"

They probably talked to them about the Creepy Tape and phone call.

I see no valid points in your critical breakdown of The Ring.

Me neither, if you`re going to criticise something Floyd at least have some perfectly good reasons to back it up.

Anyway, I prefer the US one myself.

Independence Day was really good the first time I saw it but it just annoys me now. I don`t know about the Ring comments, I think Floyd was on about the Jap version, beause in that 1, it says that a woman appears on the tv and says "you have seven days to live" yet the woman doesn`t say anything when the journalist watches it. I don`t think you have to be near a tv to die though, because when the first girl dies, she turns away from the tv and sees the ghost.

Visit my website: www.uquality.co.uk

I am on about the japan version.

There are perfectly good reasons and my points are valid.

I got this from ringworld FAQ (which tells you everything you need to know about the RIng movies) about the passengers in the car, and their answer was:-

A big change the films made from the novels was showing Sadako actually emerging from the television to claim her victims. Taking Sadako`s `emergence` as literal creates a rather large plot hole.
Just to reiterate, this is an original theory that attempts to explain the movies using the novels as a springboard. Sadako does not emerge from reflective surfaces (or anything, for that matter).

The famous premise of the movie, that Sadako lurches out of television screens to claim her victims, was the brainchild of screenwriter Takahashi and director Nakata (in the novel, victims experience anxiety, tightening of the chest, and possibly a hallucination of themselves horribly aged-- no Sadako).

Even by mid-novel, protagonist Kazuyuki had uncovered that those who watch the video die seven days later not of supernatural causes but of a kind of virus. Like any virus, this one too must multiply to survive; hence the imperative to copy the videotape and show it to someone else, that the virus may spread from victim to victim. Kazuyuki believed this to be merely a convenient instrument of Sadako`s revenge. In fact it was much more.

So the video tape is not to save yourself from death but to spread the virus. Which begs the question. Why would you want to willingly spread the virus?

floyd

This item was edited on Saturday, 22nd February 2003, 08:20

floyd,
The reason I thought it was the US remake is because you said "The Ring". The Japanese version is just "Ring" (in English). But you missed the point as the US remake is very similar to the Japanese version anyway. In the film it NEVER states how Sadako kills her victims. It NEVER restrains the killings to emerging from the TV.

Would you not copy the tape even if it meant death? I doubt you are so selfless as to truly admit that, as neither would I.

This item was edited on Saturday, 22nd February 2003, 19:10

for gods sake.. its WERE not WAS...

and while we`re on.. its ARE not IS

This item was edited on Sunday, 23rd February 2003, 00:19

the english language is overrated in anycase, I`m off to learn Ewok ;-)

floyd

yub yub