With all the attention lately on the Criterion Collection set for the Showa Godzilla movies and the Mill Creek release of Ultra Q and Ultraman, understandably this box-set kinda got missed in the shadows. My copy of this set arrived late last week, and I'm just now finding the time to look through it.
For now I'm only going over the first movie. Arrow Video's new 4K scan of the original camera negative looks beautiful. The colors aren't eye-popping; however, this movie was never meant to look like that, its color palette always having looked natural to slightly drab, befitting the movie's cold and eerie atmosphere. The picture detail is remarkably sharp with excellent film grain texture which is to be expected from a scan from the original negative.
Also, for those of you concerned about the American release using the literal title translation "Ringu" rather than simply "Ring," don't worry. The usage of "Ringu" is only on the package and disc labeling as well as the included booklet. The actual video content, both the main menu and the English subtitles for the movie itself, use "Ring" instead of "Ringu," and there's a reason why. While watching the movie, it becomes quickly apparent that Arrow Video simply used the exact same menus and English subtitle script for their original UK release where they weren't legally obligated to use "Ringu." As proof, the subtitles use the occasional British phrases like "snogging" instead of "making out" and "Mum" instead of "Mom."
Yeah, it's a little weird and funny as an American viewer reading subtitles that are so clearly British, but for me that's a gripe that is beyond small compared to the positives of this set: the beautiful HD picture and video content that doesn't bother with the ridiculously unnecessary "Ringu" transliteration. On top of that are the bonuses including trailers, interviews about the impact and legacy of the original three Ring movies with various critics and filmmakers, and the audio commentary by David Kalat. You may remember his audio commentaries for Classic Media's DVD release of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and the Criterion Collection's Blu-ray and DVD release of the original 1954 Godzilla and the 1956 American version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
I've only skimmed some of the early portion of that commentary, but it sounds just as informative and enthusiastic as his other commentaries. Some people complained about David Kalat laying the enthusiasm on a little too thickly on his Ghidorah commentary which is perhaps true. He took a more restrained approach with Godzilla (1954) since, naturally, it was the more serious movie, and it was being sold through the movie buff boutique label Criterion. He takes the same, more scholarly approach with his Ring commentary, and just like in his Godzilla commentary where he addresses the whole how and why of the name/title differences between "Gojira" and "Godzilla", early on he addresses the "Ringu" transliteration and makes clear what most of us here already know, that it's just an excessive and unnecessarily literal wording of the written Japanese title (which is actually an English word), and thus he explicitly calls the movie "Ring" instead of "Ringu" for the rest of the way.
So far I'm quite pleased with this, and anyone in North America that's interested, I say don't wait up and get it as soon as you can.