In 1998 Ringu received universal critical acclaim
I would usually joke with my friends that my threshold for horror films are sky high. I’d tell them if I had my own television network, movies like Human Centipede, Insidious, The Conjuring would be in my morning block together with all the children’s show like Barney and Telletubbies. So, what would I show in my prime time block?
I’d probably put films like I Saw The Devil, The Exorcist, Cold Fish, Nymphomaniac, Cannibal Holocaust and the Japanese cult classic Ringu. These titles can really shatter your known reality.In Ring 0: Birthday: Sadako was split into two. A good girl and a bad girl before merging into the furious Sadako in the videotape.
About 4 years ago, I was undergoing a deep depression. I didn’t know how to fend off the feeling of loneliness so I usually resort to becoming bitter and sullen. Whenever I grabbed the bottle of beer I’d always contemplate on the idea of Sadako’s vengeful powers. I’d tell my guide, why can’t I simply put my powers to the dark side? It’s much easier that way. I wanted to have people’s attention by bringing them wrath. But my guide would always tell me that, yes indeed it is much easier being on the dark side but the growth is very limited. At that time I wasn’t aware that the path towards despair would hit a plateau. It felt good inflicting pain, suffering and hatred to others but my journey towards melancholy wasn’t that long. After sometime, you’d realize your stuck in the mud and its gonna take more troublesome and extreme efforts to go further down the hole. There’s knowledge from the dark side but there’s infinite knowledge in the path with heart. However, my guide told me, that the light is a much harder road to traverse because this goes beyond our usual reaction to things. I didn’t consciously put my actions towards the light, but it naturally happened and my depression subsided not knowing when it will attack again. Having said that, I could closely relate myself to Sadako and I want to point out some themes in the movie that is commonly happening within our society but we don’t even see it. Or we just pretend not to see.
Sadako Yamamura was the daughter of a psychic phenom, Shizuko Yamamura. Sada had her mother’s ability but to a 10 fold. She can read other people’s minds, she can make a person miserable or even worse as to kill them with her intent. In the film, the media accused Shizuko of fraudulence which ultimately led to her suicide. Fear usually arises from things we do not understand. We are fearful of the unknown. We ridicule something we would term as weird. We would would mock the people who we find not normal.
The media couldn’t fathom the strange abilities of Shizuko so out of their fear they condemn her and branded her as freak of nature. Thus, the media has the power to either make you or break you.
Celebrities such as Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Allen Iverson had their share of media abuse. Why? Simply because they were misunderstood.
But media exploitation is not solely affects those who are famous. In England, a man was accused of murder simply because he was weird. Retired teacher Chris Jefferies was accused of killing 25-year-old Joanna Yeates. The press dug deep and found nothing.
In the long run, Jefferies was found innocent and all charges were dropped.
The whole story of Chris Jefferies on the link below.
Because of malicious gossiping, Sadako had enough and harnessed one of the most potent powers on the planet – hate. Hate is a mental poison that can infect your soul. It is like a venom that can spread to the people surrounding you.
Hate can elicit violent behavior. It can damage you from the inside and the outside and it can consume your mind without you even knowing it. Like Sadako’s accursed videotape, Hitler’s hate also spread like wildfire and genocide became a household name. So it seems that if we do not let go of our hate, then it will eventually destroy us and it will destroy others.
Lastly, if Sadako was real and death came by your doorstep, what will you do? We are ironically living like immortals. When in fact death is right in front of us every second of every minute. Sadako reminds us of our own mortality. There’s no better time than now. We should act and do things NOW!
There’s a Native American story that can best summarize Sadako’s emotional plight: A grandfather told his grandson that there’s two kind of wolf inside him. The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindess. The other is the wolf of fear, greed and hatred. The boy then asked: “Which wolf will win?”. The grandfather replied “Whichever one you feed”.
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