Rasen (1998)

Country of Origin: Japan
Year of Production: 1998
Running Times: 98 mins
Format: colour
Ratio:
Sound: Dolby SR

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Ace Pictures/Omega/Imagica
Producers: Ichise Takashige, Kawai Shinya, Hara Masato, Sendo Takenori

SCRIPT
Screenplay: Joji Iida
Novel: Kôji Suzuki

DIRECTION
Director: Joji Iida

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Watabe Makoto

EDITING
Editor: Hirohide Abe

MUSIC
Music: La Finca

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Matsumoto Hajime, Wada Takuya

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Iwao Saito

STUNTS
Stunts: Yoshida Mizuho, Kawazoe Sonoko

CAST
Satou Koichi (Andou Mitsuo)
Nakatani Miki (Takano Mai)
Tsurumi Shingo (Miyashita)
Ogi Shigemitsu (Maekawa an assistant police inspector)
Sanada Hiroyuki (Takayama Ryuuji)
Saeki Hinako (Yamamura Sadako)
Matsushige Yutaka (Yoshino)
Ban Daisuke (Dr Ikuma Heihachirou)
Manabe Naoaki (Kobayashi)
Adachi Naoto (Funagoshi)
Kakurai Eri (Andou Rieko)
Sugawara Ryuichi (Andou Takanori)
Yada Masanobu (police sergeant)
Uchida Ryuma (doctor)
Takatsuki Chu (medical recorder)
Sato Kozo (medical cameraman)
Okada Tomohiro, Doki Shun (assistant doctors)
Tanno Yoshiyuki, Shimizu Hiroshi (policemen)
Yamazaki Reine, Tokunaga Hiromi, Sasaki Toshinobu, Tobimatsu Tomotaro (TV station staff)
Hayasaka Shintaro (TV station guard)
Ohashi Akira, Kobayashi Eiji, Kobayashi Yuji, Akiyama Tomohiko, Fukuzawa Hirofumi (rescue party)
Suzuki Koji (father in department store)

PLOT SUMMARY

While examining the body of Takayama, one of Sadako's victims, pathologist Dr Andou finds a strange note embedded in the dead man's stomach. Soon, Andou has stumbled across the legend of the deadly videotape and, disturbed by the recent death of his son and believing that he is being assisted by Takayama's ghost, he watches the tape himself and falls foul of Sadako's strange plans for revenge...

A hugely ambitious film that has some interesting ideasbut which unravels in an incomprehensible finale. It's well made and often inventive but the great ideas struggle to get through a badly written script. The notion that the curse is somehow physical and related to smallpox is a provocative and inspired idea which like so many of the good ideas at work here tends to get lost amid the chaos of the last half hour. There are far too many turgid, lengthy takes that seem to drag on for ever and the pacing is all over the place. A disappointment. (Full Review)

Japan
Theatrical Distributor: Toho Company Ltd
Video Distributor: Kadokawa Shoten/ Pony Canyon (PCVE30757)
DVD Distributor: Kadokawa Shoten/Pony Canyon (PCBE00007)

UK
DVD Distributor: Artsmagic/Eastern Cult Cinema (WA951D)

1998
January
31: Japan - theatrical release

2003
September
29: UK - DVD release (Artsmagic/Eastern Cult Cinema (WA951D))

It must have died

The Spiral
Spiral

SEQUEL TO
Ringu (1998)

REMAKE
Rasen (1999)

WEB LINKS
Ringworld - "Your source for the most complete information on the Ring available on the internet"

possession; video tapes; sequels

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009