Change Your Image
zolicon
Reviews
Umizaru (2004)
Refreshing
I assumed this film was Japanese remake of "Men of Honor" but this really wasn't like that and very refreshing youth movie about a man wishing to be a diver in a department of Japan coast guard. The story and visual expression is a bit typical Japanese and might be hard to understand some part of it for American viewers, but the main plot should be understandable. Through the group of young men living straight toward their dreams, you will recall how your youth hood is like and get inspired by their attitudes toward their bonds built in a group work of training. This may be also encouraging for the youth pursuing dreams to come true. Once you see it, you might feel like trusting in somebody again.
The Ring (2002)
Very Americanized in a good way
I admit the American Ring is very faithful to the Japanese original one as I've seen the original one as a Japanese. Though it was very interesting that I didn't feel scared much comparing to the original one. That might be simply because that I knew the story already, but I would say the expression of horror is very different from Japaense way. As Japanese horror tends to hide the most scary part and let viewers expand their imagination to get scared, American version is more revealing the part you should get scared. The depiction of mother and child is also bit different and seemed very American to me.
I thought it must be very hard to translate this Japanese way of fear into American way, but I think this gets really well translated in the end to the understandable Americanized version of the Ring. I could enjoy the movie as a totally new version.