Original Japanese "Ring" Finally Coming to the US? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Hall]

I hadn't seen this mentioned here, but with the American remake still pulling in good money at the box office, it seems as if someone at DreamWorks (or whoever owns the US rights) finally sees that there is a large demand for the original to be released on DVD in the US. Here's the rather cryptic rumor from the excellent Ringworld site:
"Sources reveal that the original Japanese Ring will be made available on Region 1 (US) DVD some time next year. No word yet on when next year, but this is some welcome news indeed for American fans."
Very good news if it is indeed true. As I don't have a region free, PAL capable DVD player, I've had to hold myself back from obtaining an unauthorized copy, but the fact that this one might finally be made available legally in the US is a current dream come true.
My only question is this: how will it be released here? Is it going to be a standalone disc of its own, or will it be part of the eventual DVD release of the American "Ring"? I'd rather see it as a separate disc personally, with lots of information on the people who were originally behind it, so the US version can stand on its own and tell its own stories. Thoughts?

 

[Justin_S]

Thanks for the info. If this is true, I'll be all over the DVD! Both the original and the remake are horror classics in my eyes, and I hope the R1 DVDs of both have wonderful transfers and some outstanding extras!

 

[Matt Pelham]

My co-worker bought Ring 1 and 2 DVDs from a comic book store, did he buy unauthorized DVDs? I believe the company was Tartan. I don't have a region free player, and they played fine for me.

 

[Damin J Toell]

My co-worker bought Ring 1 and 2 DVDs from a comic book store, did he buy unauthorized DVDs? I believe the company was Tartan. I don't have a region free player, and they played fine for me.

Does your player do PAL to NTSC conversion? I believe that Tartan's UK release is Region 0 PAL, so, if converted, it would play for you. However, I don't believe there is a legitimate NTSC release that has English subtitles. If the disc you played was NTSC Region 0 or 1 and it had English subtitles, I think it would be a bootleg.

DJ

 

[Jeff Adkins]

The R0 NTSC copies that are floating around are dups of the Tartan version converted (improperly) to NTSC. The conversion is a lousy Apex-player style conversion. I borrowed one of these from a friend and was surprised they went to all that trouble to replicate mass quantities of this and couldn't even do a simple conversion.

Anyway, this is all moot now since the R1 version will be out next year.

Jeff

 

[Jon Smith]

thank god

cos the R2 Tartan sux, but is the only one to get for english speakers.

 

[JonS]

I hope that the other two films in the series will also get released. Ring 2 wasn't as good as Ring, but Ring 0 is one of the best prequels ever in any genre.

 

[DeanWalsh]

cos the R2 Tartan sux, but is the only one to get for english speakers.

It is also available in an anamorphic PAL version in Australia r4 from AV Channel.

 

[Tom Tsai]

It's true. It was mentioned in Time Magazine that Dreamworks will be releasing Ringu on DVD next year. They didn't specify when though.

 

[Eujin]

What's the AV Channel URL and do they ship to the U.S.?

 

[Chris_House]

Here's the AV Channel release, from cdwow.net.
http://www4.cd-wow.net/detail_result...duct_code=2641
I got this a while back, and am very pleased with it. It's region 0, PAL, and this site has free shipping to the US, so the total was $15.95. I believe it's the same transfer as the Tartan release, with english subs and all the same features. Not too shabby.

 

[Denny_S]

THE DREAM :
Disc One : THE RING (U.S.), Widescreen Anamorphic, 5.1 Dolby and dts, Directors Commentary, Trailers, Screensavers, and more....
Disc Two : THE RING (JAPANESE), Widescreen Anamorphic, 5.1 Japanese Dolby and dts (w/eng-subtitles), Directors Commentary (w/subtitles), Writers Commentary (w/subtitles), Trailers (RING, RING2, RING VIRUS, DARK WATERS) and more......

 

[Kenneth English]

It's true. It was mentioned in Time Magazine that Dreamworks will be releasing Ringu on DVD next year. They didn't specify when though.

Hmm... I read somewhere that Dreamworks claimed they only bought the remake rights and didn't actually own the distribution rights to the original. Wish I could remember where I read it...
Dreamworks usually does a pretty decent job with their releases, but I personally would like to see Criterion get ahold of this one.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Hmm... I read somewhere that Dreamworks claimed they only bought the remake rights and didn't actually own the distribution rights to the original. Wish I could remember where I read it...

I posted that a month or two ago. I asked someone at Dreamworks if they would be releasing the original version on DVD and was told that they only bought the story rights. I don't know if this has changed but I certainly hope so!

Jeff

 

[Jeff Adkins]

THE DREAM :

Disc One : THE RING (U.S.), Widescreen Anamorphic, 5.1 Dolby and dts, Directors Commentary, Trailers, Screensavers, and more....

Disc Two : THE RING (JAPANESE), Widescreen Anamorphic, 5.1 Japanese Dolby and dts (w/eng-subtitles), Directors Commentary (w/subtitles), Writers Commentary (w/subtitles), Trailers (RING, RING2, RING VIRUS, DARK WATERS) and more......

In my dream, we'd be able to buy disc 2 seperately. I could care less about the remake.

Jeff