The Ring Virus (1999)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Dong-bin Kim

Writers:

Dong-bin Kim (screenplay)
Kôji Suzuki (novel)

Release Date:

12 June 1999 (South Korea)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

After the mysterious death of her niece and other three teenagers on the same hour and with the symptoms of heart attack...

Plot Keywords:

Video | Psychic | Urban Legend | Fear | Rumor

Cast

Eun-Kyung Shin	...	Sun-ju
Seung-hyeon Lee
Jin-yeong Jeong	...	Choi Yeol
Chang-wan Kim
Du-na Bae	...	Eun-suh
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ggoch-ji Kim
Yeon-Su Yu

Also Known As:

Ring Virus

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | Australia:MA | South Korea:18 | UK:15

Company:

AFDF

Quotes:

Sun-ju: You have given birth to something haven't you?

Movie Connections:

Version of "Ringu: Saishûshô" (1999)

Nice to see more plot lines of the novel make it to the screen

The most important thing you need to know is this is a film called 'The Ring Virus' not 'Ring'. This is a Korean remake but with new material which focuses more on Koji Suzuki's original Novel 'Ring'.

A mysterious video tape causes the death of 4 teenagers all at the same time on the same day. One of the victims aunt decided to investigate and soon finds herself in a race against time to find the source of the video tape.

This film chose a more plot driven story than the suspense of the other versions. However the scenes change fast and characters seem to just appear at new locations sometimes leaving you wondering why they have gone there. I have read the book so I found the film easier to follow. Another nice addition to this version of the story is a deeper background about the character Sadako (or in this film Eun-Suh). Without giving too much away I felt it was nice to see the inclusion of her 'secret', that was left out of both the American and Japanese adaptations of the novel.

The camera work is average and also very repetitive of the Japanese film (sometimes using identical shots) but there are moments that work better in this film and some moments that fall flat.

I would only recommend this film to people who are fans of the ring series and would like to see the novel brought to screen more accurately or would simply like to see another adaptation of the story. This film should not be viewed as an introduction to the ring series but more as a supplement.

Overall, I enjoyed this film but couldn't help feeling it could have been better. But don't let people tell you its rubbish or that the 'new' plot themes ruin the original story because they don't and the new story lines are from the original novel and the true version of the story anyway.