Cult 101: Ringu (1998)
Director: Hideo Nakata Run Time: 96 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1998
Starring: Hiroyuki Sanada, Miki Nakatani, Nanako Matsushima, Rikiya Ôtaka, Yûko Takeuchi
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Presented as part of the 2023 edition of Cult 101.
About the film:
The J-Horror classic returns to the Film Center with a 2019 restoration courtesy of Arrow Video and the American Genre Film Archive.
Television journalist Reiko investigates an urban legend about a cursed VHS tape that murders the viewer seven days after they watch it. As the mystery hits closer to home, Reiko joins forces with ex-husband/current-exorcist Takashi to destroy the curse. And (hopefully) survive an encounter with a ghost named Sadako.
“Hideo Nakata’s sublime, quietly terrifying 1997 techno-horror… still feels as twisted, bizarre and down-right nightmarish as it did all those years ago.”
—David Jenkins, Time Out
Based on the 1991 novel by Koji Suzuki, Ringu (1998) is the highest grossing Japanese horror movie in history that STILL manages to shred our nerves with its quiet, phantasmic elegance. This is the only VHS fetish movie in history to inspire an entire subgenre, as well as dozens of remakes and rip-offs. Criminally absent from theaters since its original theatrical release in 1998, the time is now for Ringu (1998) to terrify the world. Again.
About the filmmaker:
Hideo Nakata is a Japanese filmmaker who emerged as one of the world’s most influential horror film auteur with the success of Ringu (1998). The film won Best Asian Film at the 1999 Fantasia Film Festival and became the most successful horror movie in the history of Japanese cinema, spawning sequels and a U.S. remake. Nakata made his American directing debut with The Ring Two (2005).
His other features include the crime drama Chaos (2000), horror Dark Water (2002), period horror Kaidan (2007), spin-off film Death Note: L Change the World (2008), psychological suspense The Incite Mill (2010), and comedy Life in Overtime (2018). His English language film Chatroom (2010) premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
See our upcoming films