Ring 0: Birthday

In Ring O, which takes place 30 years before the events of Ringu, we are introduced to Sadako Yamamura, a painfully shy young girl who is literally torn in two by her mysterious heritage. Sadako, haunted by frightening visions of ghosts and bloody omens of the future, is a tense and silent girl with an ethereal beauty. She has found happiness in a local drama troupe, despite the fact that few of her fellow actors like her - Sadako is too quiet, a little creepy, and always seems to have something "standing behind her" - something that no one can quite see. The cast of an upcoming play all begin to have similar dreams in which an old house, a forest by the sea and a crumbling well all make an appearance. When the star of the play dies unexpectedly, and Sadako is given her role, suspicion mounts. Odd occurrences plague the set, a news reporter with a secret agenda begins to investigate Sadako and Sadako herself falls in love with a handsome sound engineer named Toyama, the only one who believes that Sadako is innocent. But if she is, then what is causing the poltergeist activity in the theater? What is the source of the strange, eerie sound that everyone can hear? And whose voice said "You will die" on a recording made at the time of a young woman's death?

This is a strong entry in the Ringu series, more of a psychological drama than anything else. Sadako, like Carrie White, is a girl with no self-esteem, wandering through the film in dumpy clothes with her hair in her face. She is truly a good, sweet girl who is simply pushed too far at last. There are some creepy moments scattered through the film featuring grainy dream sequences, stricken corpses and a very creepy shot of Sadako's insane mother during a flashback. There's also a great climax featuring Sadako as we all remember her - hair in her face and clad in a long white dress - literally jumping into view and then creeping up on her two victims in a scene that was clearly shot backwards and then run forwards, giving her movements a hideous jerkiness. Yukie Nakama is very good as Sadako, giving us a tragic heroine who is good and pure and possesses the power to heal the sick. Your sympathy will lie with Sadako, even as her dark past is revealed. The good Sadako suffers unbearably and you will suffer with her, right up to the chilling, but inevitable, ending.

This is a must see for Ring fans. Very highly recommended.

Wonderful? Great? Excellent? I read with disbelief some of the reviews here. Was I watching a different movie? Of the three Ringu movies, this one was definitely the weakest link. The problem was, I couldn't quite decide whether Ringu 0 was a horror movie, or a throwback to 1970s Asian romance movies. Specifically Taiwanese ones, where the female half of a romance usually ended up either blind, stricken with some incurable disease, or dead, and there were usually an evil parent, step-parent, in-law, or rival in the background. Ringu 0 had an incomprehensible plot, and was mostly melodrama at its worst. Where were the scares that defined Ringu and Ringu 2? A repeat of spooky scenes from the first two movies (e.g. mad mother staring into the mirror, bone-cracking walk/crawl, etc.) do not count. There were simply no original scary scenes here. Plus, what was that nonsense about Sadako splitting into two? Aieee!! What works well in Japanese horror manga (for example, the excellent "Tomei" series about a teenage girl who cannot die despite being murdered repeatedly because her body parts simply regenerate into separate identical persons) simply do not work well on screen. I wished the producers had stopped at Ringu 2. Sigh...

After the original Ringu, there were many people who tried to ride the horror wave. Not much unlike the known Hollywood tradition, the Japanese film industry made many horror movies in the same vein, as is this prequel to the original Ringu.

This is one of the better movies to come out of the many copy-cats that followed the success of Ringu. It does tell you the story of the girl that lead her to become what she is (or was) in the Ringu movie, when you saw her. So if you've watched Ringu, you do know where this movie is going. Still it is more than interesting and engaging to see the journey of her! I don't know how it would feel if you'd watch this movie before Ringu, but one thing is for sure, if you like Ringu, you should watch this one too! It stays true to the original premise!

A great prequel to the Ringu series. In this film we see the human side of Sadako before her death & the cruel attitude of others towards her. By the end of the film you feel sorry for Sadako & not her victims. I enjoyed this more than the original film, in many ways this film follows a more traditional story structure than the original.

This is a prequel which actually works and explains things rather than giving even more questions. You can argue weather the mystery of Sadako is better left untouched, but the fact still remains; this is a good movie.

The lead (Yukie Nakama as a shy Sadako) is very good, even though it's obvious she's a Japanese version of Carrie White; misunderstood, creepy and with gifts she never wanted. That's the only real problem with this movie; the original ring movie was just that; original. This movie however, get's inspiration from other sources, such as Carrie, and that removes some of it's power.

While it's not as moody as Ring, Ring 0 still has some very good horror scenes and some smart camera-work. Seeing a white shape just at the edge of the screen is much more effective than, for example, the killer's POV.

As with Ring, this is a bit slow but builds up to a good finale. There are no special effects really, and it's very down-to-earth, one of the qualities of this and Ring.

Finally, there's the fact that it's Japanese. There's something refreshing about seeing a movie in a different language, in different environments, in a different culture.

I recommend this movie to those who liked Ring. It's definitely a worthy prequel. 7/10