Ring 0 (AKA Ring 0: Birthday)

Dir: Norio Tsuruta

2000

**

If there is one thing that destroys a horror franchise, it’s the dreaded prequel. Ring was phenomenal, a story already known in Japan, suddenly taking the entire world by storm and changing the horror genre forever. The original story was based on Koji Suzuki’s novel which would be the beginning of a series of stories. The novel had been made into a popular TV film so they knew they had to do one better for the theatrical feature, and that is exactly what they did – to world-wide acclaim. An adaption of he novel’s follow up, Spiral, was ordered immediately but early test audiences gave it the thumbs down and a new sequel was written for Ring 2. It was a strong sequel too but far from Suzuki’s novel. For the third installment it was decided that they should return to Suzuki’s series and so they skipped Spiral and the third novel Loop and went to the forth book in the Ring series that was a collection of three short stories; Coffin in the sky, Lemonheart and Happy Birthday. The book itself was called Birthday, as is the film, but the plot deals entirely with the Lemonheart story that looks into a particular point in Sadako’s life, before she became a television-dwelling ghost. It’s great they went back to Suzuki’s work but I find that the worst thing you can do with a horror icon, is to tell its background story and somehow justify its behavior. Sadako is terrifying in Ring and in Ring 2 but in Ring 0: Birthday, she’s just a girl with long hair and not in the least bit scary. It is set thirty years before the events of Ring – although it doesn’t look anything like the 1960s. We follow Akiko Miyaji, a reporter whose fiancé and fellow reporter was killed during Shizuko Yamamura's publicized ESP demonstration years before. She begins the film by interviewing Sudo, an elementary school principal and a former teacher of Shizuko's daughter, Sadako, in an attempt to gain information and evidence that Sadako inherited her mother's nensha powers (also known as Thoughtography or projected thermography, psychic photography and nengraphy, the ability to burn images from one's mind onto surfaces such as photographic film by psychic means). Meanwhile, a 19-year-old Sadako (played by Yukie Nakama who auditioned for the part after being constantly teased by friends that she looked like the character since the first Ring film had come out) joins an acting troupe as an understudy as a form of therapy suggested by her doctor to rid her of her nightmares. Sadako has natural beauty and charisma for the play, infuriating her senior, Aiko Hazuki, whose relationship with the troupe director, Yusaku Shigemori, sours due to the latter's newfound favour for the young trainee. Aiko is later found murdered by a figure in white, thus Sadako takes her place for the upcoming play as the lead character. Sadako attracts and reciprocates the attention of the troupe sound director, Hiroshi Toyama, much to the disappointment of costume designer and Toyama's girlfriend, Etsuko Tachihara. While praised by Shigemori and Toyama, other troupe members grow to distrust and fear her, as they suspect that she is the one who caused Aiko's death and other supernatural occurrences, including strange dreams pertaining to a well and an apparition of a girl in white with long hair very similar to Sadako. At this point I really wanted them all to have television sets. Meanwhile, Akiko is told by Sudo that though initially pleasant, Shizuko descended to madness before her suicide after moving in with Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, and that Sudo often heard strange childlike noises in the attic. Etsuko, wanting to discover Sadako's origins, contacts Sadako's psychiatrist, but he refuses to answer and throws away Sadako's résumé; the résumé is taken by Akiko's assistant, allowing him and Akiko to locate Sadako in the troupe. Once they find her they begin to photograph her, only for her to break their camera telekinetically. The pair later discover that all photographs contain ghostly faces and a girl with long hair, confirming Akiko's suspicion of the existence of two Sadakos. Shigemori, having been obsessed with Sadako, says that he knows of her dark past and tells that he will kill her if she tries to kill him so they could be together. However, Toyama interrupts the process and Shigemori is killed through a cut that also wounds Toyama. However, Sadako manages to heal him just by touching him and later is able to make a disabled man regain his ability to walk. The two confess their love for each other and promise to leave the troupe and live together after finishing their last play. The play is a disaster as Sadako, influenced by recordings of her mother's demonstration played by Etsuko, sees visions of her mother and other reporters during the demonstration and kills her psychiatrist. The troupe members, except Toyama, beat her to death, though is informed by Akiko that their job is not yet done. They visit Ikuma who tells them that Sadako, once a single individual, split into two beings resembling each of her parents; the malevolent one who resembled her unknown father is kept from growing by Ikuma in the attic. Before they can kill it, both Sadakos merge with each other and escape with Toyama. Then, in the somewhat anti-climactic finale, the combined Sadako goes on a killing spree. It is as exciting as the film gets but it arrives too little too late for real horror fans. The horror is missing and the terror is non-existent. The well comes into play again but I wouldn’t say it ties up the story particularly well and the original Ring is still far superior. There is little intensity and absolutely no payoff. It’s actually rather boring, which is probably why we haven’t seen adaptations of any of the other novels in the Ring series. The Grudge got it right and also knew when to call it a day, such a shame after such a great first chapter.