Ringu

Against all odds, I enjoyed Ringu!  I avoid horror movies at all costs; I'm very easily scared, to the degree that I can't even watch E.T., a movie my mom insists is sweet, but that terrified me when I was younger.  I think the subtitles in Ringu helped me enjoy it--I had to read the subtitles to understand the story, so I couldn't look away when I got scared.  Viewing the film through a more critical, academic and formal lens also helped me appreciate it as a film rather than just being terrified.

I found it interesting in the film how the central and arguably most significant characters were women: the first girl to die and her subsequently hospitalized friend, Reiko the reporter, Shizuko, and, of course, Sadako.  Meanwhile, men are antagonistic or auxiliary characters.  Reiko's son adds an urgency to Reiko's mission, and while Ryuji assists with the journey, he is not part of a rekindled romance.  Conversely, he is a reminder of a failed relationship.  Then there is Sadako's father who pushed her into the well.  I would argue that in Ringu, women play the most complex and the widest range of characters.  One of the strangest reactions I had to the film was sympathy for Sadako and her unfortunate fate, which seemed thrust upon her, as opposed to it being sometime she chose.  I find it very interesting that in the American version of the film, the person who pushes Sadako's character into the well is in fact her mother.  I think that introduces a very interesting contrast to Ringu.  In Ringu, the female relationships are compassionate.  Even though Reiko wants to stop Sadako's curse from spreading, she never tries to destroy Sadako.  Rather, she tries to save her from the well and comfort her spirit.  By changing the American version so that Sadako's mother pushes her into a well, the filmmakers introduce a lack of faith in Sadako's character--if her own mother pushes her in a well, then surely she can't be saved or understood.