Reviews of The Ring Series ​ The Ring series, also known as “Ringu” or just “Ring”, is considered the founding factor in the west’s interest in Japanese horror and helped bridge the gap between international films. Based on a series of novels written by Koji Suzuki, the films revolve around a cursed videotape that kills anyone who watches it after seven days. Though the first book is a horror­mystery, its two sequels Spiral and Loop are a medical mystery and a science fiction mystery respectively, all having intriguing storylines and plot twists that explore the sinister virus that originates from the videotape rather than a haunting curse. The Ring series has spawned a TV movie, two TV series, a fantastic Japanese film series, a crumby Korean film, and a respectible American movies too. And we’re gonna review all of them in this mega­review. The franchise reflects a lot of modern fears in society – a fear of technology, urban legends, deadly illnesses (the AIDS scare in the 1980s and 1990s), unexpected pregnancy (as seen in Spiral), and the more traditional scares of evil and monsters. The main antagonist, Sadako Yamamura, takes a lot of inspiration from Japanese mythology and traditions. She is an “onryō”, or a vengeful female spirit, sporting the traditional long stringy hair and wears a white dress. Her origin is based on several folktales, most notably about a woman who is chucked down a well, where she dies and rises as a ghost. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the books and films throughout these mini­reviews, so be weary. Ring: Kanzenban (1995) Ring: Kanzenban was the first attempt at adapting Ring as a film, though it feels and looks more like a cheap murder mystery TV episode. Despite being the closest to follow the book, Ring: Kanzenban takes things in some very bizarre directions. It doesn’t really try to capture or even express any sense of dread or intrigue into its own mysteries, and even the iconic cursed videotape’s LSD­like visuals don’t hand out any scares beyond a headache. Our hero is Kazuyuki Asakawa (Katsunori Takahashi), a journalist who investigates the deaths of his niece and her three friends. This leads him to the urban legend of the cursed videotape, which he finds, watches, and learns he has seven days to live. Teaming up with his old friend Ryuji Takayama (Yoshio Harada), Asakawa investigates the tape’s origins and searches for a way to avert his death. He discovers the existence of Sadako Yamamura, a psychic girl who created the tape and didn’t exactly have the greatest of lives as you’ll soon see. It is discovered her mother committed suicide, and she was later raped by a cruel doctor, and then chucked down a well when he discovered she had testicular feminization syndrome, possessing the privates of both sexes. In short, it isn’t good. Takahashi spends a majority of the film portraying Asakawa as a whiny blowhard, but Harada brings life to the quirkiness that is Ryuji Takayama. Sadako is played by Ayane Miura, who used to be a pin­up girl, so the film spends a vast majority of its time with Miura being naked onscreen. Like the audience would forget the women were women, so their private parts are flashed on screen every ten minutes or so. Miura manages to capture the innocence of Sadako pre­death, but never masters the creepiness of her character. But the film’s biggest “WTF” moment is the changing in the story, where Sadako has an incestuous relationship with her own father and may or may not have had a baby with him. But this makes no sense, since Sadako, having testicular feminization syndrome, is unable to give birth. And who thought it would be a good idea to have Sadako have sex with her own dad. I know Miura used to do hardcore movies, but come on, this is The Ring, not a some cheap late night flick. Thankfully not many people remember Ring: Kanzenban, and if they do, it is for the wrong reasons. Ring: The Final Chapter and Rasen (1999) Though technically they came out after the 1998 film, it made sense to tackle the two television series before the Ring Trilogy. Ring: The Final Chapter is a TV adaptation of the first novel, with Rasen adapting the second Spiral (Rasen being Japanese for “spiral”). They take a lot of liberties with the story, mixing elements of the books and the 1998 film. Let’s talk about The Final Chapter first, but why is it called that? It’s not the final chapter of anything. It has a sequel, and by no means was it the last “chapter” of Ring’s legcy. It follows Ring’s story, taking a lot of pointless detours along the way. Here, the cursed videotape is instead a TV recording of a popular singer’s music video containing hidden imagery that invokes the curse. Asakawa, played by Toshiro Yanagiba, is a much more likeable and developed character than the Kanzenban version, and his son Yoichi gives him a good reason to solve the curse’s mysteries. As I said, the series drifts near and far from the book and film’s plots, and a lot of characters are altered. Ryuji Takayama, played by Tomoya Nagase, is completely different from his book incarnation. He is broody, serious, and seems to take pleasure in watching people suffer. The character Mai Takano, Ryuji’s student in the books, is portrayed as his weird sister who has a strange psychic connection him. It turns out that Ryuji is both Sadako’s son and the source of the curse/virus, while Mai is the trigger to unleashing it. Yeah, it’s a little bizarre. There are a lot of coincidences and mish­mashing of the plot. Certain characters have their genders swapped, and the whole cast is pretty colourful. Being made in the 1990s, it has a very limited budget and feels a little sluggish in its plot and pacing, but overall, the series is pretty good. Rasen is quite enjoyable too, again taking liberties with Spiral’s story, mixing the supernatural with the more sci­fi elements of the book. Only a couple of characters return for the sequel, and virtually none of The Final Chapter’s events are mentioned. In this series, a teacher named Andoinvestigates the strange goings on connected to his suddenly pregnant former student, a haunted office where people were murdered, and a criminal named the King of Terror who claims to be the prophesised dark messiah of Nostradamus. Don’t worry, the cursed videotape is in there, but ends up appearing on CD! It turns out Sadako’s plan is to resurrect herself through forced pregnancy. This is the true purpose of the cursed videotape, and Sadako is able to alter the biology of humans with the curse, as told in the novels. There are a lot of good things going for Rasen. It has a more developed cast of characters than its predecessor, and more heavy hitting themes of responsibility and guilt. Ando’s son Takanori drowned in the sea, and his wife went crazy and is recovering in a mental hospital. You just know she is going to snap at some point, believing Takanori is alive, and the outcome is equally tragic. Sadako uses her DNA to resurrect Takanori as a clone but reveals his body lacks a key factor to remain alive and he will die unless Ando agrees to give her the cursed CD. He refuses and Takanori dies again. Sadako later releases Ando’s wife to murder him, but in a very moving, pivotal moment, Ando expresses guilt for Takanori’s death and makes peace with his wife, much to a confused Sadako’s belief. Another story element is the origins of the King of Terror, revealing a horrific social experiment performed by an asshole of a pathologist named Rikuta, who abused several children in a messed up version of cops and robbers. The future King of Terror, posing as the jailer, turned out to be a sociopath who did horrific things to the other boys, and uses them one by one as adults to spread his fear and power. There is a fun mystery throughout the series to discover who truly is the King of Terror, with hints to several candidates as the series progresses. There is also an unusual subplot where the protagonists visit a remote village where the residents claim to have been able to resurrect the dead. Overall, both series are pretty good and worth a watch. Sure the budget is cheap, the story drags at times, but the acting is good and definitely an enjoyable series. Ring (1998) And now on to the main event. Ring is the ultimate Japanese horror movie, and definitely the key that opened the door to western audiences (and remakes). Like previous adaptations, Ring takes a lot of liberties with the story and is perhaps more known that the novels. It was directed and co­written by Hideo Nakata, a rising story in the horror genre, who went on to direct the film’s sequel Ring 2, the American sequel The Ring Two, and another popular Japanese horror film Dark Water, based on another novel written by Koji Suzuki. It cast Sadako Yamamura into cultural fame, and kicked off a string of popular Japanese films like Ju­On and Audition. Perhaps the greatest element of the film is its scares. There is a constant sense of dread throughout the movie, it is darkly shot, and has an eerie, chilly atmosphere to it from beginning to end.