"Actor: Ryuji Mizukami"

• The Ring Collection | Blu Ray | (10/06/2019) from £26.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introduced a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-haired girl called Sadako. The film's success spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could quite boast the power of Nakata's original masterpiece, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology. A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their face twisted in terror. Reiko (Nanako Matsushima, When Marnie Was There), a journalist and the aunt of one of the victims, sets out to investigate the shocking phenomenon, and in the process uncovers a creepy unrban legend about a supposedly cursed videotape, the contents of which causes anyone who views it to die within a week - unless they can persuade someone else to watch it, and, in so doing, pass on the curse... Arrow Video is proud to present the genre-defining trilogy - Ring, the film that started it all, plus Hideo Nakata's chilling sequel Ring 2, and the haunting origin story, Ring 0 - as well as the 'lost' original sequel, George Iida's Spiral, gathered together in glorious high definition and supplemented by a wealth of archival and newly created bonus materials. Special Edition Content: Brand new 4K restoration of Ring from the original camera negative, approved by director of photography Junichiro Hayashi High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations Lossless Japanese DTS-HD master audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 soundtracks Optional English subtitles Bonus feature: Spiral, George Iida's 1998 sequel to Ring New audio commentary on Ring by film historian David Kalat New audio commentary on Ring 0 by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas The Ring Legacy, a series of new interviews from critics and filmmakers on their memories of the Ring series and ints enduring legacy A Vicious Circle, anew video interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger on the career of Hideo Nakata Circumnavigating ring, a new video essay by critic Jasper Sharp on the J-horror phenomenon The Psychology of Fear, a newly edited archival interview with author Koji Suzuki Archival behind-the-scenes featurette on Ring 0 Ring 0 deleted scenes Sadako's video Multiple theatrical trailers for the Ringt series

• Ring 0 | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ring 0 is the prequel to the successful Japanese ghost/horror movie Ring which has already spun off a conventional follow-up (Ring 2) and inspired a host of Far Eastern imitations, with a US remake in development. Opening with some tiny scene-setting to remind you of the urban legend of the cursed videotape, the film skips back to "30 years ago" and dramatises the hitherto-only-hinted-at tale of how the witchlike Sadako ended up in a well from which her melancholy, malign spirit spread her curse. Strange young woman Sadako (Yukie Nakama) leaves her island home to become an apprentice in a theatre company, where her ambiguous psychic powers, several deaths and an outbreak of madness complicate the production. Nakama is fine as the spooky, Carrie-like heroine, as much a victim of her psychic abilities as those who drop dead around her, and there are several creepy sequences: a first night plagued by apparitions, a mob struck down one by one as they chase Sadako through a wood, and the inevitable, foreshadowed waking-up-in-a-well climax.The original filmmakers have departed and the new team don't quite have the material to work with, which means Ring 0 plays better to initiate newcomers but can't hope to duplicate the stand-alone chills ofRing. Series fans will enjoy the filled-in back-story, but others should be warned that the film takes a bewildering amount of plot information for granted. --Kim Newman