The Ring... AGAIN
I totally dug the original Japanese version of The Ring. And I totally dug Gore Verbinski's westernized version, complete with minor American horror clichés.

However, I did not dig the supposedly "stylish" Korean remake (which actually preceded the American remake).

What went horribly wrong?
Whereas the American version stuck very closely to the original (altering details very tastefully to good effect), the Korean version had random, haphazard, and pointless changes made seemingly for the sake of making them.

Characters were mixed, mingled, and created for no specific reason. Key events were removed and rewritten. New key events were created (hope you like hermaphrodites... really) to confusing effect. For these reasons alone, I would only suggest watching this film if you're a Ring fan or you happen to be writing your thesis on all the remakes.

Anything Salvageable?
There were a few (very few) things that made the Korean Ring Virus watchable. One of these things was the female lead - attractive in a very Asian-non-redhead-Scully kind of way. Another was the black and white cinematography - those two ro three scenes were pretty stylish.

Lastly was the humorous dialog. Though completely out of place in a Ring film, the humor made for some interesting moments. I'll leave you with one bit of such banter:

"You should wear your glasses."

"I wear them when I need them... you don't walk around with a condom all day long, do you?"

On the web: Buy The Ring Virus from Poker Industries
Related articles: Japanese version review; American version review