| "Ring 2" on Moscow screens Over the past ten years, that is, since the first film adaptation of Koji Suzuki’s bestseller appeared on Japanese television, the family tree of the “Ring” brand has grown to alarming proportions—even a shot movie sparrow can easily become entangled in its crown. Given that all the films played out the same plot in one way or another - a damned VHS tape, after watching which the unfortunate video fan receives a warning by phone and dies a week later with a changed face - the theme arose again and again. The first TV movie was followed by a TV series, then the now classic Hideo Nakata's The Ring (1998), which really started it all: the Korean Ring Virus; the second part of Nakata's film; "Call 0", telling the background of events; the side and unintelligible “Spiral”, and finally, many variations - starting with the excellent Korean “Telephone” (by the way, contrary to the advertising assurances of our distributors, it was there, and not at all in “The Ring”, that Yu-mi Kim, the star of the film currently running with us, played The Puppeteer") and ending with the cheeky "One Missed Call" by the potboiler Takashi Miike ("The Second Missed Call" is coming, by the way). Finally, in 2002, the inevitable American remake of “The Ring” was released, directed by Gore Verbinski (“Mouse Hunt,” “The Mexican,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”), which turned out to be the standard for films of this kind - the Japanese plot was transferred to Seattle soil not only without losses, but also with very effective and organic additions.
To film the second episode of the American “Ring,” the bosses of Spielberg’s Dreamworks studio were going to call the young and almost brilliant Richard Kelly, but he did not accept the offer, although one can imagine what the author of “Donnie Darko” would have turned the film into. Then they seemed to reach an agreement with the famous advertiser Noah Murro, but he quickly dropped out of the project, unable to agree with the producers on creative issues. And then, apparently, in order to completely confuse everything, Hideo Nakata, the author of two Japanese “Rings,” was called as director. Thus, Nakata found himself in a unique position, which, it seems, no director in the history of cinema has ever found himself in: he (we need to focus here) had to make a continuation of the remake of his own film, for which he had already made a sequel at one time, but tell the new sequel was supposed to be completely different from what was discussed in the continuation of the original film. Ugh. But Nakata handled all this madness almost flawlessly.
Six months after the events of the first part, reporter Rachelle (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) move from Seattle to Oregon. At first, everything - except, of course, for the condition of Rachel, who still cannot recover from the revelation of the secret at the bottom of the well - seems to be going well. But Oregon, of course, also has VCRs. And pretty soon Rachel has to face the same damned film, which she finds and destroys. But here the most unpleasant thing begins - the evil spirit of the girl Samara, until that moment huddled somewhere between the magnetic paths, is released and forced to look for a new home. This is what the puny body of Rachel’s son becomes. And from the realm of relatively high technology, the situation turns onto the path of quite classical mysticism, trodden by The Omen.
Fortunately, this does not harm the film. In the end, it really is impossible to frighten the viewer for the twenty-fifth time with the same thing: black hair covering a deathly pale girl’s face is, of course, a frightening and unpleasant thing, but “there is a limit to everything, brothers.” So there are noticeably fewer of Zvonkov’s trademark faces (apparently, this irritated American critics, who were almost completely bored with the film). But there are much more references to classic American horror films - so Samara now resembles not the blue-faced vixens from kwaidan (traditional Japanese ghost stories), but rather the possessed girl Regan from “The Exorcist” and strives to jump out of the bathtub like your old woman in “ The Shining" by Kubrick, and the boy Aidan constantly makes me think of Damien Torrance from the aforementioned "The Omen". As for Rachel’s journey into the world of Samara (that is, roughly speaking, inside the television set), there is an analogue for it in Wes Creven’s old film “Electroshock”. In essence, Hideo Nakata is not remaking his own story, but is happy to dissect overseas standards in his own Eastern way - just as Verbinski once did with his creation. The film, without losing its deadly elegance, however, moves into the category of a cultural statement. And therefore, there seems to be no need to be afraid of him. But it has to. Stanislav F. ROSTOTSKY |
|
