|
|
On October 28th, 2002, The Ring star Naomi Watts and producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald were present at two major events to promote the film in Japan: the press conference, held at the International Hotel in Hibiya, Tokyo, and the film's Japanese premiere.
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
Accompanied by a pair of translators, the three guests were seated onstage before a huge mockup of the poster from the film (see picture at right). Also onstage was a recreation of Samara's well, which later in the press conference Naomi would peer into and pretend to be frightened.
Naomi kicked off the Q&A session, saying "Everyone who worked on this is a big fan of the original version. We're very happy to be able to bring [the remake] here to Japan." MacDonald voiced her hope that Japanese audiences would take to the film, while Parkes retold his anecdote from The Ring's world premiere in LA -- that he'd begun watching the original Japanese film at 4:00 p.m., and by 7:00 that same night, the remake rights had been secured.
When asked if she had seen the original film, and if so what her impressions were of female lead Matsushima Nanako, Naomi responded, "Oh, yes. Her acting was wonderful, very powerful. I think her performance is what really got me excited about the film. I've heard that she's starred in many movies here in Japan. I would definitely like to see some of them, if I get the chance." Watts went on to add that she was careful to watch the original Ring just once, so that she would not be unduly influenced by Nanako's performance.
THE PREMIERE
Later, the three attended the film's premiere at the Shibuya Bunkarama as part of the Tokyo International Film Festival. When Naomi went up on stage, cries of "Naomi-chan!" sprung out, to which Namoi turned and replied, Konban wa. Watashi wa Naomi desu ("Hello. I'm Naomi"). Walter F. Parkes spoke a little about the sense of responsibility he felt in remaking a film that "was such a huge hit in Japan and had become a part of its culture." He mentioned that the project was unique to DreamWorks in that it was the fastest project that the studio had ever done: just 15 months from the buying of the rights to the film's completion.
Following this, special guest Matsushima Nanako (the counterpart to "Rachel" in the Japanese film) appeared onstage and handed Watts a bouquet of flowers, saying "Welcome to Japan." Matsushima (29 at the time, to Watts' 34) stated to those present that, "Ring was my very first starring role. Not only was [the film] a hit, it was made into a serial drama and now a Hollywood remake. This makes me very happy, that working on the film, even though I was so frightened every night, was all for something."
Matsushima went on to say that she saw the American version after she'd heard so many good things about it, stating "I already knew the story, but it was still so frightening that I often had to cover my eyes! I think it will be a hit here in Japan."
The two actresses posed together for some photos, after which Naomi suddenly piped up in Japanese, Sadako yori kowai, meaning "It's scarier than Sadako!"
BOX OFFICE
The Ring made just over $2 million U.S. (more than the original film cost to make) in its first week, and was the #1 film in the country. By the second week it had slipped to the #2 spot (beaten out by the theatrical version of Trick, a psycho-thriller starring Nakama Yukie -- the Sadako of Ring Ø), but had reached a total of over $8 million U.S. The third through fifth weeks, however, saw the introduction of blockbusters like Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets and Minority Report, and The Ring continued to lose steam. It remained in the top 10 until the first week of January 2003, at which time its total earnings were just over $14 million U.S.
Sources: so-net movie, excite cinema, united cinemas, boxofficemojo.com
|
