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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally!, 16 Nov 2004
I guess I've been waiting for this set ever since I was introduced to the Ringu phenomenon at the Edinburgh Film Festival back in 2000. Didn't bother buying the earlier UK Region 2 DVDs, which were universally panned on technical grounds, and hoped something like this would come along eventually to curb the enthusiasm surrounding the overambitious American remake. Now, after seeing the 'canonical' Ringu movies en masse, I guess it is possible for anyone to see why Hideo Nakata is directing the American remake!The movies are uniformly excellent -- up to and including Sleeping Bride, which is a kind of a tangent here, really -- and a great lesson in the 'less is more' school of creeping the bejesus out of anyone. My favorite scenes are scattered throughout the tryptich -- not trilogy, as Kim Newman smartly points out in his liner notes -- so it's totally convenient to have them packaged in one box. And what a box it is! Tartan should win some awards for the packaging alone -- this is by far the best usage of a lenticular image I've seen on a DVD yet. Also, having the whole thing encased in a clear plastic sleeve makes it look both classy and durable on the shelf. Audio presentation is immaculate across the board -- your choice of DD 5.1, DTS, or Dolby Surround (not just stereo!) -- with no dubs in sight. Visually, Ringu 2 and Bride fare better than the other two, but just barely -- all the movies are very sharp, and the subdued color schemes are rendered even more accurately than on the R1 DreamWorks DVD of the first Ringu (which is also slightly cropped). There is evidence of NTSC/PAL conversion, though, but it could prove bothersome only to those with certain types of DVD-ROM drives. On a widescreen TV this goes by pretty much unnoticed. Extras are a bit light, but the deleted scenes on Ringu 0 are in full widescreen and look the same as the regular movie (this is so rare!), while the behind-the-scenes footage is raw and compelling -- the Sadako Mime Class in particular. And every bit of it is competently subtitled (even though the rhyme from the tape is rendered differently in Ringu and Ringu 2). Those minor issues aside, this set is (and will be for a long time) an essential purchase for any fan of horror and Asian cinema in general.
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