• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Ringu

A

Anonymous

Guest
Mifune Chizuko

I saw the Japanese film the Ring for the first time the other night, and thought it was brilliant (very fortean and well worth watching if you haven't yet seen it and can get your hands on a copy). While looking round for some info on it I discovered this:
One of the most memorable scenes in the Ring is the grainy, black-and-white flashback of Yamamura Shizuko's psychic demonstration being held in Tokyo. In the demonstration, Shizuko is branded a fraud, after which she falls into despondency and commits suicide a year later. What you probably don't know is that this event, and the character of Yamamura Shizuko herself, is based on a real person.

Mifune Chizuko was born in 1886 in Kumamoto Prefecture. By 1909, rumors of her powers of foresight, which developed one day while practicing a kind of meditation involving deep breathing, had begun to spread throughout Kumamoto and beyond. These rumors eventually reached the ear of one Fukurai Tomokichi, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the prestigious Tokyo University. Fukurai had a deep interest in the supernatural, and used Chizuko as one of his test subjects in proving the validity of extra-sensory perception-- the culmination of which was the infamous public demonstration held 15 September, 1910.
While the actual demonstration was free of the fatality portrayed in the movie, Chizuko-- like Shizuko-- was accused of being a charlatan, a blow from which she never recovered… Mifune Chizuko ended her life in 1911 by ingesting poison. She was 25.

Incidentally, just one year before Chizuko's death, another young psychic was born that would later rise to prominence for her gift of nensha, the focusing of will to produce an image on film or some other medium. Her name-- Takahashi Sadako.
Click to expand...
Quoted from here.

This has, of course, sparked my interest in the true story of Mifune Chizuko (and Takahashi Sadako, come to think of it). I’ve had a quick Google, but didn’t come up with much.

Does anyone know where I might find out more?

Incidentally, there’s a US version of the Ring coming out later this year. It’s such a strong story I’m hoping it’ll be good, but I’ll be impressed if they can better the original for the terror factor (especially the scene at the end with the ex-husband and the television).

Thanks :)
 
There's an interview with director Hideo Nakata here:

As a paranormal this woman, Mifune [Chizuko], was able to project written words on paper and make words materialize on paper [..] There is another real story that is related to this. There was this Tokyo University professor who was expelled because of research he was doing into the paranormal. Mifune Chizuko was the actual object of his study. And obviously a Tokyo University professor who was interested in that kind of research was not taken seriously. This kind of shinrei shashin which is the appearance of ghost and spirits in photos apparently really happened in Japan.

And a search for shinrei shashin turned up this intriguing image, but sadly I don't speak Japanese!

Incidentally, Ring II is a disappointing sequel, and worth watching only for a short but INCREDIBLY creepy scene involving a female student on tape. Still get shudders thinking about it.

I imagine a Hollywood remake would ruin everything, though.
 
Thank you!

I'm interested in phenomena like this being investigated in different countries at different times - I have wondered if they are culture specific.

That image looks freaky. Anyone speak Japanese?

I saw Ring II the other day - agree with you completely.

Apparently the US version features a lighthouse and a horse.:confused:

:spinning
 
Doesn't add much, but I found this:

Mifune (Chizuko)

(1886-1911) Japanese clairvoyant. She married in 1908 but was divorced after two years. She was very religious and often hypnotized by her brother in law. When she was 23, she suddenly recognized a worm which was inside a tree in the garden. Since then she showed her ability of clairvoyance. Her reputation reached Dr.Tomokichi Fukurai,assistant professor of Tokyo University, and Dr.Fukurai examined her. Dr.Fukurai brought envelopes and she could see what was inside. But another professor of the University Dr.Kenjiro Yamakawa doubted her ability. She committed suicide by poison in 1911.

This was on a page about Japanese Mystics
 
Ring 0

Im thinking of buying ring 0.
Is the movie any good {or better then ring 2}?
 
Thanks to the real Mr Rynner. (TM Accept no imitations).

I'm going to go for a wander and see if I can find more info on Japanese mystics in general.:)
 
Yes, the original Ringu is way better than its follow up. Very well made, great story and scary, scary, scary.:eek!!!!:

Mentioned briefly on the Mifune Chizuko thread. :)
 
I thought it was pretty damn dull. It's much better than RING 2, which I thought was one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. The whole series is incredibly overrated, actually.
 
RING THING

Mondo Kane

As I can imagine, most FT readers will be familiar with the Japanese horror movie Ring. Well, always being one to want to try out any form of horror movie, and still trying to get the bitter taste of Blair Witch out of my mouth.

I was so impressed by the film, I thought I'd buy the sequels and have a Ring-Night. So I gathered my mates around one late night last month and sat and watched all three movies in a marathon. There were a few jumps and frights, and then finally we settled down for the night.

http://www.forteantimes.com/happened/ringring.shtml
 
Probably someone with one of these remote control watches, we have wise guys changing channels and stopping videos in the TV room all the time. Its really funny ...Not.
 
Ring thing

thats- strange -I just have no answer, I can tell you that not long ago I was in my bedroom , hearing the brief Paul Harvey comentary that comes on daily-and I was getting ready to leave my room and walked to my stero , to turn it off , waiting with my head up close ,with my hand near the dail (its about head level on a book case) and i'm waiting for the end of the comentary to finish ..and a voice (female) says" hi how are you" in perfect clear english in the "etheral" background of the speaker ..I turned my head with a surprised look on my face..looked at my door ..looked back at the stero and speaker, the comentary then ended ,and I shut the thing off ,and stood there for a sec,,shook my head and left for my store ..bewildered.
 
The Ring - American Style

I saw The Ring this weekend and enjoyed it. Did anyone else see it? Did anyone see the original? What are the major differances?
 
Ive seen the original ring trilogy and it was fantastic, very shocking!! Hong Kong put something into films that hollywood just cant reproduce, i probably wont go to see the new remake as the trailer looks pants and im a big fan of the original films.
 
The Ring trilogy films are Japanese, not from Hong Kong.

I'm curious to see the remake, just to see what they've done with it.
 
Oddly enough, it was on in the cinema this eveing where i am ~(ring 1 and 2, not 0, japanese versions) but i missed tbem because i was in a sulk.
 
I saw it. I was freaked out watching it but afterwards thinking about it, the film didn't really make sense.
Gonna go check out the originals at the video store.
 
I recorded Ring and Ring 2 on channel 4 a while back - didn't realise ther was a Ring 3 - does it have a different title?
 
The Ring partially based on a real incident!

http://ringworld.somrux.com/fact.htm

At least, the subplot about a woman with psychic powers in the orginal Japanese version is!

Also, for fans of haunted media, check out the incident surrounding Ring 2...
 
Think it's called Ring 0 -- it's the prequel to Ring, which I enjoyed, but I have to say I wasn't that impressed by Ring II (apart from that one scene with the bouncy-bouncy lady on film...). Will probably wind up seeing the US version, though..
 
I've only seen the first one but have been meaning to watch the sequel and prequel.
I doubt I'll watch the Hollywoodland version because I recently saw a still from that in a magazine and I see they have done their usual job of casting attractive young actors that you'd never see in real life. And also the kid's role seems to have been expanded into some kind of Sixth Sense rip off affair.
 
I just saw the remake of The Ring and can confirm that, while it does elaborate massively on a number of elements of the original and changes the way in which the story unfolds, it remains an absolutely terrifying movie. It's scarier than the original version, in my opinion. I would recommend that anyone see it but be warned, there are some extremely, extremely horrifying bits . . .
 
Ring

Went to see The Ring today - not quite as shit-scary as the original, or quite as entertaining, but not a bad effort. Then kid actor was hilarious "You weren't supposed to help her" :rofl: It has the two marks of a memorable horror flick - quotable lines in affected voices, and a residual sense of dread. The computer screen is flickering and I'm cacking myself.

What did other people think? Good, bad, better?
 
I, naturally, will not be going to see it, but my folks did. They reckoned it was alright. Scary but confusing, they said.
 
Have Ring and Ring2 DVD's on order from Amazon. Will watch them first before hollywoodified version.
 
Never seen Ring2 or Ring0, but just the pic on the front of the Ring DVD sends me heebie-jeebie. But then I'm not very brave, some freakish people claim it's not frightening at all.
 
I thought it was scary at first, but then the more I thought about it the less sense the movie made. Now I'm just kinda annoyed at it.
 
I saw the orginal 'Ring' the other day, and thought it was good. I'm not so sure that I want or need to see a remake of it though.
 
Slytherin said:
Never seen Ring2 or Ring0, but just the pic on the front of the Ring DVD sends me heebie-jeebie. But then I'm not very brave, some freakish people claim it's not frightening at all.
Click to expand...

It scared the heebie jeebies out of me too! :eek!!!!: I didn't know anything about the film, but my brother said I'd like it. I began to wonder when he said, as it started, "Now you won't get scared will you?" I never get scared in horror films but this one! Aaaahhh!!!
The bit at the end where the girl came out of the TV had my heart thumping like a bass drum. Scary stuff.
And naturally when I told my mum, she asked me when it's coming out on DVD. Scary mum I have. Hehe. ;)
 
IMO the original was far more informative than the remake.

I was left thinking 'ahhhh' instead of 'ehhhh?'

Still flipping scary though and has much more atmosphere than The Ring 2.

Everyone should see the original to see how much more inferior the remake is.
 
unfortunately i missed the original, saw the remake. i think the first part (the curse of the cassette) is really scary, disturbing - and the content of the cassette itself is very beautiful, reminds me of old surrealist movies. but the second part, when you find out it all depends on the same bloody dead girl as in 1,000 other movies... i'm so tired of the <kids communicate with the Big Black Things from Beyond> thing. seems like it's the only narrative trick horror directors have in their mind (from <the exorcist> to <the others> and <6th sense>, including shining and ET if you want). boring.
i think it would have been much more disturbing if we hadn't found out where the cassette came from.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top