Ringu (1998)★★★★☆

Sometimes I worry that I’m too Americanized and I only like heavy Hollywood horror…but then I watch things like this that have at least a little more subtlety, feel a little more “indie” (or at least, not full-on Hollywood), and I remember what I like about them.

I’m not sure if I’d ever seen this before. The last time I watched the American version was over 7 years ago, but I remembered liking it, so I was hoping I’d like this one, and…yeah.

A big part of it is Hideo Nakata’s directing. I think he’s great at finding moments of humanity and making you care about the characters between the scares, and this movie honestly doesn’t rely on jump scares too much. Plus the special effects aren’t over-the-top here, which I can get behind.

Knowing the story, having seen the American one and its sequel multiple times, it was hard to be truly scared watching this, but I can appreciate it as a horror movie!

I also really like Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Ryûji in this film. I’ll actually be watching another movie with him in it tomorrow! I thought his chemistry with ex-wife Reiko (played by Nanako Matsushima) was totally believable, and it was fun watching the two of them together on screen.

Overall, if you like watching Japanese horror films, you’ll probably like this one too!