The following article contains spoilers. If you have not seen The Ring or the Japanese original, Ringu, read with caution.

In 2002, American audiences were taken by The Ring, a slow-paced Gore Verbinksi-directed psychological horror film that filled the screen with vivid imagery and bucked the trend of retro slashers. What many American viewers did not realize is that The Ring is a western remake of director Hideo Nakata’s 1998 Japanese film Ringu. For good or bad, the remake was followed by a host of imitators, many also mining Japanese cinema in search of films to remake.

So how do these films differ, and which is the better film? It seems time is on The Ring’s side …

Ringu and its American remake, The Ring, both have their own merits and flaws. Having seen Ringu, the American version seems even more interesting in retrospect. For some reason, I always perceived the remake to be shot-by-shot in the style of Gus van Sant’s Psycho. It isn’t, and why I thought that I have no answer. There are certain scenes that are translated completely and purposely with the same exact camera angles, such as the father and the boy meeting in the rain. With the very exception of the base story though – the haunted tape and the three main characters relationships with each other – there are enough differences in the plot and execution to almost consider the American version an entirely different movie. Several plot twists exist that explain situations unexplained in the Japanese version, and there are different sub-plots that run through the Japanese original that have no presence at all in the remake.

The differences between the two films make for very different movies not just in plot, but in tone, pacing and style. Those who have not seen the original may be surprised at how different the original take on the videotape legend was.

The Japanese script seems to really enforce the urban legend aspect of the story, referring back to the “legend” of the tape by having the rumors extend to people that aren’t involved in the main story. Additionally, the ex-husband character is mentioned to have ESP, as did Samara’s mother, which makes her much less of the nut-case she was portrayed to be in The Ring. These aspects give the film a more satisfying internal logic but also take away from the effective pacing and structure the remake has. With the ex-husband having these powers, there is no need for extensive book research, and more importantly, the feeling of time constraint. In the original, when it is found out who the girl’s father is, he touches him and seemingly knows all the answers, while the haunted tape itself is much more helpful to the heroes, with clues being dropped like a brick to the head. Plus you get the added benefit of the spirits of prior victims apparently telling you where to look, what to do next, and why you should do it. The more David Lynch-esque abstract imagery of the remake’s tape is not present, so there is a lot less to attempt to interpret.

I was very surprised to find that much of the grotesque imagery of the victims was not at all present in Ringu. The victims are still scared, quite literally, to death, but their bodies aren’t disfigured or distorted in an unbelievable way. They are essentially frozen with their mouths open. I felt that this added more realism.

But realism is not something that is warranted in a movie like The Ring. After all, the plot is about a videotape that can kill you. Not only are there any number of questionable plot holes in such a device, the pure logic of it is absurd. If someone simply told you the story, you would laugh. So in order to make a successful film, you had better make it interesting.

This is where both movies succeed equally, but The Ring triumphs as the better movie overall based on structure alone.

The pacing is vastly improved in the remake. The film is just shy of two hours and spends its time marveling us with static shots of beautiful imagery, all doused with a grand blue-green tone. We are at the very least engaged by the look of the film. And the film is not all looks, either. There is an amazing sense of tension, the only problematic shock value from the unnecessary scares of the deformed victims. You can’t help but get drawn in by the deliberate way the narrative unfolds.

On the other side of the Pacific, the Japanese made a film that clocks in at less than 90 minutes and is so quick moving there is no time to really care about any of the characters. In place of the grotesque imagery you get a soundtrack that fluctuates to an exaggerated extreme. Voices will play quietly in the background but the phone ringing will be very loud, ear piercing at any level. You do get a much more coherent plot, but since the end product feels that much more rushed, it is that much less effective as a scary film.

It is pretty rare that I feel a remake surpasses an original, but The Ring is a better film.

Portions of this piece originally appeared in a discussion that takes place here.