Twenty years after Midnight Bells, did you watch her grow up?

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It was around the summer of 2000, and a colleague lent me a disc that I knew nothing about except horror. The pace began to be a little slow, and as the reporter entered the resort and stayed in the room where the students had stayed, the plot immediately became tight and arresting. Then the race against time begins, until the final scene is shocking.

Since then, like most young Chinese people, I have remembered the name of this movie .

Midnight Bell

Female high school student Yuko and her classmates watch a videotape of unknown origin, and seven days later, she and her classmates die one after another, which attracts the attention of female journalist Asakawa (Naiko Matsushima), who decides to investigate the truth of the incident.

Asakawa learns that Tomoko's death should be related to a video, so she rents the unnamed tape, turns on the VCR, and the extremely terrifying picture makes Asakawa almost collapse.

Asakawa's ex-husband Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) comes to her side at this time and copies a videotape and decides to study it with her. And they can only survive if they reveal the secret of the videotape within seven days...

Since the first broadcast of "Midnight Bell" in 1998, three series of films have been filmed, namely "Murder Bell Reappearance", "Sadako Haunting" and "Virginity White".

The bell reappears

This movie is not very well received, and it is not a sequel in the true sense of the word, giving the audience the feeling of being a sequel.

Mano Ando (Hiroshi Sato), who has an unforgettable memory of the past, receives a call from his colleague Miyashita (Tatsugo Tsurumi) early in the morning, and learns that his friend Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) who was a student at the Medical University has died unexpectedly.

Ando dissected Takayama's body, ruled out the suicide and the cause of his killing, and found that his friend had died of a myocardial infarction. Under the police's arrangement, he meets Takano Mai (Miki Nakatani), Takayama's lover, but hears his friend's death due to a videotape. Naturally, Ando does not believe the speculation of nothingness, who knows that a few days later Takayama's ex-wife Reiko Asakawa (Noriko Matsushima) and her young son also died in a car accident, and the broken video recorder in the damaged car aroused Ando's suspicions.

Not long after, Asakawa's boss, Yoshino (Matsushige Toyotomi), comes to visit and tells all the truth about Sadako and the curse tape. Ando's fate changed...

Sadako is entangled

The 1999 "Midnight Bells" series of movies called "Sadako", is the first sequel to Masae'er Bajing. If you don't watch "Murder Bell Reappearance", it will not affect the viewing experience.

In a dry well that has been closed for more than thirty years, the bodies of Ryuji Takayama (Sanada Tsuneyuki) and the long-lost Sadako (Ritsue Ino) are found.

According to the forensic medical examination, Sadako died only 1 or 2 years ago, that is, she survived under the dry well for 30 years. In order to investigate the cause of her lover's death, Takayama's girlfriend Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani) looks around for the whereabouts of Reiko Asakawa (Noriko Matsushima). She meets Asakawa's descendant Okazaki (Yoyana Yoo), and the two follow Asakawa's clues about the original investigation of the "curse videotape", and in the process, the victims of the videotape continue to appear.

The terrifying Sadako does not seem to disappear from the world, and her curse is like a ghost...

Chastity is white

This is the last film in Sadako's series, dissecting Sadako's tragic life.

Rumors of the "curse tape" are rife, and people are both curious and frightened, but no one has ever known about Sadako Yamamura's life and tragic experiences: Sadako's mother, Shizuko (Masako), is a psychic, but eventually dies a miserable death.

Sadako, who inherited her mother's spiritual abilities, also had a bumpy life, and when she grew up, she came to Tokyo to work hard in a troupe called "Flying". Soon, the troupe leader Aiko Hanadan Ye yue (Oku Akira) mysteriously dies, and Sadako takes her place in disbelief.

Because of her innate strange and mysterious temperament, Sadako is suspicious and alienated by the members of the group, and only Hiroshi Toyama (Played by Akiichi Taji), who is in charge of the sound effects, is kind to her. However, the warmth of the small cannot save the tragic life of the virgin...

The image of Sadako, played by Yuki Nakama in the film, is simply indescribably beautiful. The final scene of escape simply makes the viewer heartbroken and sad.

In this part, the director uses more plots to tell the past of Sadako, naturally, Sadako's appearance rate increases, in this movie, you will find that Sadako is so beautiful.

After watching the movie, I had the privilege of reading the Chinese version of the original novel of this movie, and I found that the novel was different from the movie. Although the film is generally faithful to the original book, it has made great changes to the characters. In contrast, I still prefer Koji Suzuki's original novels, perhaps because the language of cinema can never replace the delicacy of words — and this is precisely the greatest advantage of Mitsuji Suzuki, whose language adheres to the tradition of the delicate sensibility of Japanese literature, and the inner contradictions of the characters are constantly highlighted between the lines.

In particular, the protagonist's despair within seven days, told through his brushstrokes, is creepy to watch, and I can't help but think of my own life - if I also saw the tape? Presumably, many readers have a similar feeling. This fear is not directed at the monster that appears at the end of the movie, because no one in life can imagine what that will happen.

But we can't deny the achievements of the movie "Midnight Bells" series. It won the 22nd Japan Film Academy Most Talked About Film, Best Music in a Drama and other awards.

In addition to the movies, Midnight Bell also has a TV series, with a total of three, which was the 1995 TV short series "Midnight Bells - Accident! Quenched! The Resentment of Four Girls Who Have Been Deprived of Their Lives" and 1999's "The Final Chapter of the Midnight Bell" and "The Spiral of the Midnight Bell".

1995's Midnight Bells – Accident! sudden death! The Grudge of Four Lifeless Teenage Girls is a separate series, the equivalent of the first novel in the original novel.

In July 1999, "Midnight Bells Lost" is a sequel to January's "Midnight Bells Final Chapter", these two TV series are completely different from the plot of the novel, and have made great adaptations of the plot, such as "Midnight Bell Final Chapter" in which Sadako gave birth to a child, called Takayama Ryuji.

Although the plot seems a bit bizarre, the ratings of these TV series are above 6 points.

"Midnight Bell" is different because it does not rely on extremely bloody and violent shots to cause people to panic physiological reactions; nor does it dress up Sadako's makeup to be bloody to shock people's vision, its complete victory lies in the strict logical structure and calm narrative style, and the humane "ghost" image shaping.

The filming method of the film makes most viewers not feel terrible after watching it, but the more they think about it, the more afraid they are. Netizens have a sentence that summed it up brilliantly: "Sleepy when watching, sleepless for seven days after reading." ”

The most commendable thing about Japanese horror films is that it does not go too far to create a bloody and cold atmosphere, create grotesque and terrible scenes, or use vicious and twisted horrors to directly bring a strong visual impact to the audience, but pays more attention to creating the deepest psychological fear through people's daily familiar life scenes and commonplace objects.

In "Midnight Bells", the horror scene is set in everyone's familiar home, a place that gives us warmth and tranquility, but the most terrible thing happens. Not only that, but everyday objects such as mirrors, videotapes, televisions, and telephones have also become vehicles for transmitting horrors. How frightening.

That's the charm of Japanese horror movies.

On the contrary, European and American horror films, since their birth, have influenced audiences around the world with their exuberant vitality. Because they can give the audience a strong enough visual impact.

Their usual routine is to arrange the horror events in a strange environment of silence and darkness, and create an airless horror atmosphere through eerie sound and eerie light and shadow.

In the movie, there are many demons and ghosts as the center, with distorted postures, violent shouts, and strive to render bloody and violent plots, which intuitively give people an unpleasant picture presentation, so that people are often accompanied by anxious and disgusting emotional experiences when watching movies.

However, in 2002, the American version of "Midnight Bell" broke the stereotype of European and American horror films.

Midnight Bell (US Version)

The plot setting of the ghost's revenge, the design of the horror subject and the life characteristics of the horror scene arrangement reflected in the Japanese version of "Midnight Bell" have been retained in the American version of "Midnight Bell". Hollywood played this hand well, attracting audiences with mysterious oriental features, which earned a box office of $130 million and $230 million worldwide.

The Hollywood remake of "Midnight Bells" is undoubtedly a success, and the key to its success lies in the filmmakers' ability to borrow and retain many horror elements of the Japanese version, while fully considering the American social and cultural concepts and the aesthetic consciousness of American audiences, and integrating Chinese and Western cultural characteristics.

Many netizens have commented: "This is a breakthrough in the American remake", "the remake is more successful", "it is a remake that has worked hard".

In addition to the American version of "Midnight Bell", South Korea also filmed a movie related to "Bell" in 2002 - "Ghost Bell". It is one of the best performances of Korean horror films in recent years.

Midnight Bell (Korean Version)

Female reporter Jin Hui (played by Ha Ji-won) was harassed by gangsters because she exposed a scandal, and had no choice but to change her mobile phone number. But something more terrible than harassment happened. The first is the text message of the strange number "If you love me, please listen to the phone", followed by the screaming and mania of the daughter of the friend (Lee Mi-yeon) after answering the phone by mistake, and the previous judgment of the two.

Strange things even happened to my friend's daughter: she wanted to kill her mother, she always wanted to monopolize her father.

Jin Hui constantly investigates, the selfishness of the living, the paranoia of the dead, the truth surfaces one by one.

"Ghost Bell" is too similar to the Japanese version of "Midnight Bell" in many ways - "Midnight Bell" focuses on the telephone ringtone, while the horror of "Ghost Bell" is caused by the ringtone of the mobile phone, both of which are caused by the ringtone to cause the death of the character, and the identity of the heroine is a reporter.

It can be seen that the impact of "Midnight Bells" is huge, whether it is In Asia or Europe, the directors' competition for exemplary models and remakes illustrates this point.

Moreover, Chinese's perception of horror films has changed through "Midnight Bells".

Fear is a negative emotion, and horror films seem to be more understood by the public as films in which ghosts kill people indiscriminately, while ignoring that horror films are actually a genre with a fairly broad extension, and there is a plot to speak of, especially the experience of ghosts and monsters as human beings in front of them, which is worthy of scrutiny and refinement.

Before "Midnight Bells", I believe there were many Chinese who did not watch horror movies. Because the scene of plasma splashing in it is easy to cause physical discomfort.

Some people say that "horror movies seem very perverted, so they never pay attention to it". Indeed, the theme and spiritual essence of horror movies are not as warm as romance films, nor are they full of laughter like comedies, but they show the evil that exists in reality. In order to reveal this evil, it has done exaggeration, but it often uses a bloody, unmistakable and cold-eyed attitude of no sympathy as a means, and more things in the play are based on almost perverted techniques such as sadism, masochism, madness, etc., and this way of expression will always cause discomfort to the audience and last for several days after the end of the movie.

In "Midnight Bell", the shaping of the image of Sadako, through the description of the tragic situation and the protection of family affection, shows the director's search for a kind of reflection on human beings and society, not just to show the monotonous and boring plot of the fear when Sadako kills, in order to grasp the instinctive fear of human beings.

It is this kind of change that breaks through the shackles of traditional horror films, making "Midnight Bell" popular in China so far, laying the foundation for the status of "Zhenzi" in the hearts of the Chinese people. After tea and dinner, when Japanese horror movies are mentioned, it is often blurted out "Midnight Bells".

In addition to the change in the concept of movie viewing, the success of "Midnight Bell" is also reflected in the impact on real life.

Although today, twenty years later, the video tape has long been out of the sight of the Chinese people, but the "must transfer the tape to the next person within seven days" in the movie has caused the abuse of the past twenty years - "serial text messages", "serial emails" (X days have to be forwarded, otherwise ... )", "Not turning is not Chinese", and so on.

Leaving aside the influence of the plot of the movie, the image of Sadako is even more so that everyone can "never forget" her.

In 2016, in the sixth episode of the domestic mini comedy "Report Boss 2", the image of Sadako was parodied.

The director "invited" the madman's virgin to Wartime China, and when she was warmly received by the simple people, her cold heart was gradually softened, not only staged a love affair across nationalities and even species, but also became a heroic Chinese Red Army soldier, raising a gun to participate in the just war.

While making people laugh, you can also feel the tenderness in the film.

Similarly, the contrasting image of Sadako is the humorous and funny movie "Screaming Laughter" series.

In the movie, Sadako just crawled out of the TV and watched the black sister scare her to hide on the sofa, but she didn't expect to be beaten in the next second.

This was probably the worst time Sadako had been hacked.

To say that in "Midnight Bells", everyone is most impressed by the scene where Sadako climbs out of the well and comes to the real world through the TV. The scene is too real, as if the moment is about to crawl out of the screen you're looking at.

Therefore, this scene is also the most spoofed.

I don't know, how Sadako will feel after seeing that she has become a popular IP.