Earlier this morning, Arrow Video announced their March 2019 releases, which included Blu-ray and DVDs for 1998's Ring, along with a franchise box set and Steelbook.
We must note that these are UK exclusives.
In 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introducing a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-haired girl called Sadako. The film’s success spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could quite boast the power of Nakata’s original masterpiece, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology.
Restored from the original negative in glorious high definition and supplemented by a wealth of archival and newly created bonus materials.
• Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by director of photography Junichiro Hayashi • High definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation • Lossless Japanese DTS-HD master audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 soundtracks • Optional English subtitles • New audio commentary by film historian David Kalat • The Ring Legacy, a series of new interviews from critics and filmmakers on their memories of the Ring series and its enduring legacy • A Vicious Circle, a new video interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger on the career of Hideo Nakata • Circumnavigating Ring, a new video essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on the evolution of the Ring series
• Sadako’s Video • Theatrical trailers • Booklet containing new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas • Limited edition SteelBook packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
Arrow will also release the genre-defining trilogy as a collection featuring Ring, the film that started it all, plus Hideo Nakata’s chilling sequel, Ring 2, and the haunting origin story, Ring 0 – as well as the ‘lost’ original sequel, George Iida’s Spiral, gathered together in glorious high definition and supplemented by a wealth of archival and newly created bonus materials.
• Brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative of Ring, approved by director of photography Junichiro Hayashi • High definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations • Lossless Japanese DTS-HD master audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 soundtracks • Optional English subtitles • Bonus feature: Spiral, George Iida’s 1998 sequel to Ring • New audio commentary on Ring by film historian David Kalat • New audio commentary on Ring 0 by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas • The Ring Legacy, a series of new interviews from critics and filmmakers on their memories of the Ring series and its enduring legacy • A Vicious Circle, a new video interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger on the career of Hideo Nakata • Circumnavigating Ring, a new video essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on the evolution of the Ring series • Spooks, Sighs and Videotape, a new video essay by critic Jasper Sharp on the J-horror phenomenon • The Psychology of Fear, a newly edited archival interview with author Koji Suzuki • Archival behind-the-scenes featurette on Ring 0 • Ring 0 deleted scenes • Sadako’s Video • Multiple theatrical trailers for the Ring series • Limited edition 60-page booklet containing new writing by Violet Lucca, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Jasper Sharp, Kieran Fisher and Kat Ellinger • Limited edition packaging featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
All of these will be released on March 18th, 2019.
