Director: Norio Tsuruta
Year: 2000
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Ringu 0: Bâsudei
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Arriving at a prestigious drama school, a troubled woman hopes to put her past behind her by enrolling in the acting club to help break her out of her shell, but when her moth dangerous qualities threaten to disrupt her plans she finds a deadly spirit unleashed upon her friends and tries to stop it.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like with this adaptation. Among the more impressive elements is the clear and pronounced build-up that occurs here of the revelation involving the supernatural origins. These are quite subtle but still quite prominent throughout the running time, as the series of incidents surrounding the theater trope raise the suspicions that something’s going on, from the performers constant claims of something going on around her to their panic over the strange dreams each one shares and the mounting death toll that runs through the group. Since this is done in tandem with the known disdain for her based on the preferential treatment she receives and how quickly she moves up their ranks despite the overt shyness and lacking acting talent. These scenes where she unleashes the power within her on her classmates with admittedly supernatural occurrences that suggest something was happening around them which helps to give this some life.
This build-up at first manages to provide the film with several impressive and chilling moments once it’s all been brought out into the open. The outbursts at seeing ghosts hanging around the set while doing rehearsals are rather fun and creepy, while the later scenes of her reflecting back on her time with her mother that form the basis for the cursed videotape that’s commonly found in the franchise. With the disastrous troupe performance that lets them in on what’s going on as the action that takes place is brutal and frantic as well as touching in terms of getting to the doctor’s house that starts to bring out more of the images in the mythical tape. With these scenes also giving the chilling encounters in the woods with the malicious spirit and her demented disjointed walk chasing after the girls left alive, there’s plenty to like here as this sets the franchise in motion.
There are some flaws within this one. The main issue here is a rather bland and unnecessary subplot involving a reporter looking around for the mother’s bizarre behavior that doesn’t amount to much here, consisting of what are seemingly endless meetings with medical professionals that were once associated with the case. Seeing as the point is to lead her directly to the acting trope and into contact with her for her story, these feel much more laid-back and lethargic that the rest of the film and didn’t need to be included as often as they are. The other issue within this one is the fact that the relationship between the two here is completely unconvincing, never coming across as anything other than storyline contrivance and not because of anything that happens between them while in class together.
Overview: ***.5/5
With some genuinely shocking moments here interspersed with banal ideas and a few troublesome encounters, this is a solid and wholly watchable effort that has plenty going for it. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of the series or of these J-Horror efforts, while those that aren’t too fond of the flaws should heed caution with this one.
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