(Sorry for the parenthetical asides, but there is so much about Asian cinema in general about which Western fans are clueless. I am also an American, but I have at least 500 major Asian films in my collection, many of which have never been released in the U.S., and the collection grows steadily.)

It tries to recapture much of the creepiness and the slow brooding horror that Ring, or Ringu, excelled upon, but doesn't reach it. However, don't stop reading now, don't think that there's no point in watching it, it still manages to deliver very good entertainment horror with a few flashes of the original spookiness.

The story seems confusing, or rather disorientating, at some points, and in typical non-Hollywood style, you have to think for yourself, unfortunately this is to try and catch certain plot issues rather than a glimpse of some impending doom.

Overall a good entertaining horror, but still does not live to the original that made the Ring such a classic in horror.

See Ring 1, 2 and 0 if you love films like Scanners, Phenomena and Carrie. Ring 1, 2, 0 are not so gory as the others but have some of the same atmosphere and strange happenings.

Ring 0, Birthday (2000) are maybe the best of trilogy. But both Ring 1 and 2 are very good. The first one are the most scary one and the most original, but Birthday are going much deeper in the persons psyche and your own too. It's dealing with terms like moral, anger, mass hysteria, psychic power, ghosts, abuse, doomed love, destiny and more.

If you have seen Ring 1 and 2 you know what it means, but don't expect the same thrilling as you got from the two first films. They are more like horror thrillers with some elements from crime films. The main characters have to look in the past to solve some of the mystery with the deadly videos. In Birthday you know what are going to happen with Sadako, the ghost from Ring 1 and 2. The storyline are 30 years before the other films. In 1 and 2 she scares the s**t of you, in 0 you get in love with her but you are still getting scared of here. The end is very tragic, a mix between Frankenstein and Romeo and Julie. You really want to save her, even if her power is to strong and destroying everybody. Yukie Nakama playing Sadako are a very beautiful and incredible actor.

The films are based on the books of a Japanese author named Koji Susuki. If anyone know if they are translated into English please send me a mail.

Wow... I don't know whether to love Sadako or fear her. "Ring 0" completes the trilogy and makes it into an epic. We delve into the complicated and frightening (yet very tragic) character that is Sadako Yamamura. Like "Ring 2", this film continues the enrichment of the Ring mythos. We watch the frightening, tragic story of Sadako unfold before our eyes. We discover a more human Sadako... one that feels love and compassion in spite of her peculiarities, and we are once again frightened as we were in the previous movies. In a way, the terror is more effective here than in "Ring 2" even in light of a movie that feels more like a tear-jerking drama at times than like a horror film. This is a must-see for fans of the first two movies. Watch it. You won't be sorry.. even if some of the introduced story elements seem a little strange. They are carried out beautifully! Sadako herself is beautiful and enchanting.

I'll conclude with one final statement: If you thought a staggering, ghostly Sadako was intimidating, wait until you see her when she's alive and kicking, and more powerful than she ever was as an ethereal presence. Now she has the ability to kill at will rather than with a cursed videotape!

Hmm.. do I sound like I'm contradicting myself about Sadako? I'm not going to explain myself. Just watch the movie and see for yourselves!