The film fleshes out the back story of the Ring trilogies' demon / troubled soul, Sadako, (played by Yukie Nakama), following her attempts to join an acting troupe and at the same time cope with her troubled psyche and the events of her mysterious past that still engulf her.
The film itself has a fundamentally creepy atmosphere throughout but as with many prequels never really equals the original story, in this case never really delivering the same level of suspense, (although it does come close a couple of times), and failing to shock in the way the original did with Sadako being a silent Reagan, (The Exorcist), type character staring at you hatefully through a horrifically blood shot eye, peering through a nest of slimy, sinister, long black hair.
The prequel enriches Sadako's character with a somewhat moving back-story, showing her coming of age, discovering acting, which she also finds therapeutic and finding true love in the arms of Hiroshi Tôyama, (Seiichi Tanabe). This sees a lot of the scenes shot inside a theatre, which provides a suitably eerie backdrop for Sadako's doomed quest to lead a normal life and battle the demons of her past that lurk ever closer.
With regards to filling in the blanks left open in Ring and Ring 2, this film does very little, for we are already aware that Sadako was pushed to the bottom of the well by her step father, and only hints at the source of the true evil lurking inside her, without giving a clue of its origin or past. This could, arguably, be a good thing as it still leaves a veil of mystery over the first two films.
The actors do a reasonably good job throughout, with a special hats off to Seiichi Tanabe who conveyed the confused yet blindly in love hero Tôyama. Nakama brought a certain level of pity to the role of Sadako, a girl seemingly running away from the evil that surrounds and trying to do the right thing.
In conclusion Ring O does add depth to the trilogy and deepens rather then clarifies the mystery and in the same way to the recently released Starwars prequels, infuses the film's near one dimensional monster with a sense of depth, which serves to draw pity from it's audience. Over all not a bad prequel, which still leaves most of the questions unanswered, but whether you see that as a good or bad thing is up to you...
The film itself has a fundamentally creepy atmosphere throughout but as with many prequels never really equals the original story, in this case never really delivering the same level of suspense, (although it does come close a couple of times), and failing to shock in the way the original did with Sadako being a silent Reagan, (The Exorcist), type character staring at you hatefully through a horrifically blood shot eye, peering through a nest of slimy, sinister, long black hair.
The prequel enriches Sadako's character with a somewhat moving back-story, showing her coming of age, discovering acting, which she also finds therapeutic and finding true love in the arms of Hiroshi Tôyama, (Seiichi Tanabe). This sees a lot of the scenes shot inside a theatre, which provides a suitably eerie backdrop for Sadako's doomed quest to lead a normal life and battle the demons of her past that lurk ever closer.
With regards to filling in the blanks left open in Ring and Ring 2, this film does very little, for we are already aware that Sadako was pushed to the bottom of the well by her step father, and only hints at the source of the true evil lurking inside her, without giving a clue of its origin or past. This could, arguably, be a good thing as it still leaves a veil of mystery over the first two films.
The actors do a reasonably good job throughout, with a special hats off to Seiichi Tanabe who conveyed the confused yet blindly in love hero Tôyama. Nakama brought a certain level of pity to the role of Sadako, a girl seemingly running away from the evil that surrounds and trying to do the right thing.
In conclusion Ring O does add depth to the trilogy and deepens rather then clarifies the mystery and in the same way to the recently released Starwars prequels, infuses the film's near one dimensional monster with a sense of depth, which serves to draw pity from it's audience. Over all not a bad prequel, which still leaves most of the questions unanswered, but whether you see that as a good or bad thing is up to you...