Textual Analysis Of Teaser Trailer - Hideo Nakata's Ringu

Hideo Nakata’s movie ‘Ringu’ was the original movie that inspired the ring. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Z-MOqAvtY

The Ring series are very popular horror movies as it entails a gripping storyline and a scary monster known as Kaiju in Japanese. Ringu being the first out of the series, showed viewers how great Japanese horrors really were. Based on a series of best-selling novels by Kôji Suzuki, Ring was first brought to the Japanese public's attention by a TV series which featured many of the actors which went on to appear in the rest of the trilogy.

This textual analysis will concentrate on the teaser trailer for Hideo Nakata’s horror film ‘Ringu/Ring’ which was written by Hiroshi Takahashi and was distributed in Japan by Ace Pictures, and also had many other distributors for different countries. The teaser trailer lasted 51 seconds which is common for teaser trailers as they aren’t suppose to reveal too much, common teaser trailers last between 30-55 seconds.

The trailer opens up showing a close-up of some sort of film on a TV which doesn’t seem to be running properly, as if to say the signal/TV is faulty as the clip continuously plays three times. This reveals to be a female upside down with her mouth wide open. While opening up non-diegetic sound is queued for about 1-2 seconds. The noise is similar to a heart beat or a distinctive sharp bang.

The next cut is a slow tracking shot moving towards a female seen from behind trying to work the television again. Her surroundings seem to be her living room as a coffee table containing multiple remotes is behind her; she has a remote in her hand and seems quite comfortable right in front of the television. Her living room is quite darkly lit and it seems the only source of light is coming from the television. Diegetic sound from the television not working is including in this shot but it also seems that maybe a Foley artist was used in order to enhance the sound of the television unable being able to work. A quick cut of the television fuzzing is shown close-up and then the next cut shows a bit of the film being visible to her. It seems as though there is multiple people crawling on the floor, although their physical features isn’t evident the outline of the things seem to be human bodies. The television scene is darkly lit and just about noticeable. The actual shot itself is a point of view shot as the audience is seeing exactly what the person is seeing from their shot/angle. Non-diegetic sound is used once again here, the sound seems quite sci-fi and alien/species related as if it has something to do with the future as its quite blurred too.

Following on, in the next frame shows a dark shot that just about makes visible that it’s an extreme close-up of a persons’ eye as they blink. The shot is quite fast as if to say a blink. The details of the persons’ eye is inconspicuous but only reveals to be an eye as the eyelids are revealed, but the rest is left faded in complete darkness.

The transition then quickly cuts back to the female watching the film, but it’s a close-up of her from the front, her face is only visible due to the lighting of the TV which is shown by the side of her face. She turns her head quickly to the opposing side in fear of something being there. Suddenly, what looks to be a close-up of an old picture of her is then shown to the audience; the female in the picture seems to be bruised showing blood. At the same time the picture is shown sound effects of the piano being played hard and fast occurs.

The next shot is of complete darkness with a torch light as the only source of light. The shot lasts about 1-2 seconds and involves the torch slowly moving up as if to say searching for something – although the person holding the torch isn’t that visible. You notice the female and her hands around the torch looking down the hole/well.

The transition fades into the darkness and shows an arc point of view shot of down the well. Although, viewers can’t see anything the circular movement of the camera gives a sense of horror as to what could be down there.

A quick extreme close up of the female before is shown. She gasps in a shock as to what she has seen making the audience wanting to see it too.  A thump sound is heard and at that point the view of the females face changes for a split second, it becomes much lighter so you can slightly see her bones. At this point she lifts her head up slightly and then an extreme quick shot of the television fuzzy is shown. The next frame is something on the television again. It seems as though it’s a female on the water pointing at or towards something. The visual effects of the television aren’t clear at all and have a sort of blue colour to it.

The next shot isn’t lit very well and would be in complete darkness if it wasn’t for the lamp at the end of the hallway. This scene is shot in a hallway and is a medium shot of the female answering the phone. We as viewers don’t hear it ring but we see her picking it up. She doesn’t say anything on the phone and you don’t hear the recipient say anything ever, but the lady slams the phone down hard and begins panting in fear. Continuing on, as soon as she puts the phone down the shot changes to a hand grabbing a wrist with great force. This shot contrasts the last one as it is quite brightly lit. The hand of the person grabbing a wrist is quite excruciating as it looks as though their fingernails have been picked off and there are a lot of dark elements to it. As the hand grabs the wrist the Non-Diegetic sound from earlier is heard again. The sound of a loud heart beat or a distinctive bang.

The next frame is darkly lit but shows the female on the ground unable to breathe due to suffocation. Her pupils are dilating and her mouth is opened widely but no sound is coming up. The thing suffocating her is not visible to the audience.

The audience is then given a point of view shot which shows some sort of underground, tunnel or basement. As the camera follows the movements of the area, it is shown to be dark and we realise the camera is the torch light that is allowing us to see down there. The torch light is a distinctive circle that is in the centre of wherever the camera makes us look. The audience is shown rocky walls and wooden stands. This gives the audience the illusion that something is hiding there as well as the question of who is looking at this. Then for a split second an extreme close up of a pale female whose face is covered by her long black hair. Her eyebrow and her eyeball which is fully black is the only thing shown.

After that, a shot of a lady who looks similar to the one in the beginning is shown, quickly crawling up to her child and covering their face. The woman is crying. The scene is at night as it’s dark, both characters are in their pyjamas and the only source of light is from the window which could be a lamp post, stars or the moon. It’s also a medium shot. The only sound used in this shot are the lady crying and Non-Diegetic sound of what sounds like train tracks screeching/skidding.

A quick cut of a wall which has Chinese words and letters begin moving around very quickly on its own. A scene which looks to be on the TV again, shows a female in a long white gown in the middle of the woods with both her arms raised up. The frame then cuts to the female mother close up crying, she is shot from the side but then turns her head around slowly. It is a low shot and when she turns her head around clockwise the camera zooms into her face making the shot an extreme close up. I think that the extreme close up helps the audience understand her emotions and feelings. As she turns her had 180degrees, the clip of the female in the woods is shown again then it cuts off. A arm then slowly appears stretching upwards appears in the darkness. The arm looks wet & sticky. It then cuts to a quick shot of two arms and the left hand of the person/thing moves slightly forward. As it does this Diegetic sound of the hand sliding/scratching paper quickly is heard.

A medium shot of a man who is darkly lit but has a bit of lighting on the side of his face is revealed. He looks as though his struggling and then suddenly gasps. An eye-line match shot is shown to what he was looking at. The female from the woods who was dressed in white appears and is standing by the window. Her face or any other detailed view isn’t shown only her outline appearance. The lighting from the window reveals reflects her physical appearance as the curtains of the window is also white. A quick cut back to the man at an extreme close up is made known, the camera then tilts and he is shown from upside down screaming. The colour then changes to black and white and quick cuts of the female with the black eyeball is shown three times while he is still screaming and then the effect of his face changes to one similar to an X-Ray.

The film then cuts out with opinions of the movies at the end, then the title of the movie written largely in red with a Non-Diegetic sound of a trumpet as it appears. As the text gets bigger a few shots of the film shown before are revealed and then it ends.

I chose to analysis this film as the shots of the eye are similar to what my group and I wanted to feature in our movie. I think the way that the film ends with re-showing certain shots is a good idea and my group may come up with similar ideas when editing our trailer. The sounds used also enhanced the horror which is what my group will definitely want to do. Analysing this trailer gave me a good sense of ideas and connotations which will help me in advance when filming with my group.

By Teniola Balogun SHA