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 faces 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 urban 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 – Ringu, the film that started it all, plus Hideo Nakata’s chilling sequel, Ringu 2, and the haunting origin story, Ringu 0 – as well as the ‘lost’ original sequel, George Iida’s Spiral, gathered together in glorious high definition and supplemented by a wealth of bonus materials.
Bonus Materials
- 4K restoration of Ringu 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 Ringu
- Audio commentary on Ringu by film historian David Kalat
- Audio commentary on Ringu 0 by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- The Ringu Legacy, a series of interviews from critics and filmmakers on their memories of the Ringu series and its enduring legacy
- A Vicious Circle, a video interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger on the career of Hideo Nakata
- Circumnavigating Ringu, a video essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on the evolution of the Ringu series
- Spooks, Sighs and Videotape, a video essay by critic Jasper Sharp on the J-horror phenomenon
- The Psychology of Fear, an archival interview with author Koji Suzuki
- Archival behind-the-scenes featurette on Ringu 0
- Ringu 0 deleted scenes
- Sadako’s Video
- Multiple theatrical trailers for the Ringu series
