Citation: Jones, Steve (2012) Video Nasty: the Moral Apocalypse in Koji Suzuki's Ring. Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 23 (3)
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Northumbria Research Link Citation: Jones, Steve (2012) Video Nasty: the moral apocalypse in Koji Suzuki's Ring. Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 23 (3). pp. 212-225. ISSN 1043-6928 Published by: Taylor & Francis URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10436928.2012.703567 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10436928.2012.703567> This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/10442/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. 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This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory Volume 23, Issue 3, Aug 28, 2012, pp. 212-225, copyright Taylor & Francis. Available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/ DOI: 10.1080/10436928.2012.703567. This version © Steve Jones 2012 Video Nasty The Moral Apocalypse in Koji Suzuki’s Ring Dr Steve Jones The oo i Japaese hoos iteatioal populait is idel eogized as beginning with Ringu (1998, Japan) (McRoy 91; Harper 7 and 113), the influence of which continues to resonate in remakes of J-horror successes.1 Rings popularity is testified to by its numerous spin-offs, sequels, and adap- tations.2 Despite being at the core of this explosion, the underlying origin point—Koji Suzukis oel Ring (1991)—has received virtually no scholarly attention. The basic story is retained across the novel and its adaptations. At its center is a journalist investigating a cursed video, which is rumored to cause its viewer to die mysteriously exactly seven days after watching it. On seeing the video, the journalist enlists a familiar acquaintance to help uncove the tapes oigis. The ueath the histo of Sadako, a pshi gil ho as tho ito a ell to die. The epote eposes Sadakos ude and believes discovering her body has lifted the video-curse. When their acquaintance dies, the journalist realizes that the only means of stopping the curse is to copy the videotape and show it to someone else, thus propa- gating its effects. Those consistencies are coupled with some notable differences between Suzukis oel ad its fili adaptatios. The feale-male investigative duo found in each film version of Ring was originally envisaged by Suzuki as a male pair composed of a journalist, Asakawa, and his closest friend, Ryuji, who asserts that he is a rapist. Although doubt is cast over his proclamation i the oels losig stages, ‘ujis delaatio shapes his elatioship ith Asakaa, eaig thei od is tese fo the outset. Futheoe, Sadakos sexuality is emphasized in the novel, not least since she may have been raped by her doctor (Nagao) efoe eig udeed. Moeoe, Sadakos body is subject to sexual scrutiny since s=he is revealed to be hermaphroditic in the novel. However, other striking differences arise from the social themes that drive Suzukis oel. The fil esios lae the ideo ad Sadakos alevolence fo the deaths that ou. O the sufae, it appeas that Suzukis oel is also focused on Sadako as the uses ause sie lead potagoist Asakaa speds the ajoit of the oel iestigatig the ideos oigis ad Sadakos histo, seekig to disoe hethe the use is iologial o supernatural. His failure to find a solution indicates that this is ot the oels poit. Suzukis oel is oeed ith a figuatie soial itiue. The oels etal oeit is a oal dilea. Afte athig the used ideo, one has to copy the tape and show it to someone else, condemning him or her in order to save oneself. The curse itself is not as terrifying as its antidote: Asakaas illigess to spead the use egadless of the potetial consequences. Asakawa envisages his decision to condemn others as leading to a literal apoalpse. He ealizes that he a sae akid saifiig his fail, ut hooses istead to let loose o the old a plague hich could desto all akid . Although oe deaths ill esue as a esult of his actions, Asakawa over-compensates in fretting that he will trigger the end of the old. Asakaas guilt suggests that he aot eade feelig oall responsible for intentionally dooming others. Yet this feeling of personal esposiilit is ital sie it eeals the uses soli futio. Moig between objective narration and subjective view-points, from the minutiae of ial ifetio to the apoalpti future consequences, the narrative dramatizes the cost of engaging in systemic violence from a personalized perspective. Asakawa is an allegorical conduit, a figure through which Suzuki can explore the limits of moral obligation and intersubjectivity. Ring is theefoe a paale of soial esposiilit. Sadakos use a e a atalst, ut the oels tue tagets ae the fos of soial sikess— rape, murder, self-interest—that piilege the self at the Othes epese. Suh behaviors, the narrative proposes, must be transformed or eradicated eause the ae auses of soial istailit. Suzukis oel eposes the duties and potential frailties that underpin interdependency. Rings populace is dysfunctional precisely because its members lack moral obligation to one aothe. The oels allego poits toads the ieitailit of a tasitio fo egois to itesujetiit. Asakaas fea of apoalpse epesets the impact this evolution would have on the self from the perspective of an egoistic self threatened by that change. The apocalypse motif illustrates the gravity of moral obligation in forming the self. Suzuki dramatizes the pressures of moral obligation and the inexorable transition into full selfhood via his protagonists. In this sense, Rings apocalyptic overtones require dissection. Some critics have characterized Japanese horror of the last twenty years as being bleak or nihilistic, particularly because it frequently utilizes apocalyptic imagery (see, for instance, Napier 338 and Berriman 75). However, the use of the term apoalpti is poleati i this otet. Chistophe Shaett, fo eaple, has epessed a oe oe the popula isuse of apoalpse ot as eelatio ut doosda, disaste, the ed (4). Apocalypse correctly signifies a zero-leveling born out of an unsatisfactory or unstable present. This transformation need not be negative since the apocalypse-fantasy con-notes the opportunity to rebuild society, to make it better. Rings populace is constituted by profoundly self-interested individuals whose attitudes are closer to solipsism than intersubjectivity. Rings apocalypse warns that this state is unsustainable because it damages the self. What is at stake i Asakaas hoie is total destruction, or at least this is how he perceives it. To the reader, the solution is clear. If no one copied the tape, there would be no further harm. The novel thus implies that interdependency is a solution to the malevolence haunting the diegetic public. Sadako is not the real threat: it is self-interest that plagues Rings populace. I ode to eploe these thees ad Suzukis allegoial ode, this atile ill eplo Leiass ethial philosoph as a poit of opaiso. The comparison highlights what peisel Suzukis oel otiutes to the philosophy of moral obligation by using the novel form and the apocalypse motif. Moral Obligation, Intersubjectivity, Levinas Philosophy has a long history of accounting for how moral codes arise, and the elatioships etee oalit ad ightess o ogess. Leias was interested in the former—how morality arises and defines us—more than the latter. Principally, Levinas proposed that morality underpins self-conception. He contended that moral obligation is a consequence of sociality. In fact, for Levinas, self-conception is contingent on moral obligation to Others. These emphases on morality, sociality, and obligation make Leiass philosoph patiulal apt i osideig Suzukis soial critique. For Levinas, morality arises in conjunctio ith the idiiduals deelopment into subjectivity. In his view, we develop selfhood only when we become aware of an Other; when we recognize that other people exist and relate to the world as we do. We initially experience the world as ours. At this stage, e ae, as Leiass eal philosoph phases it, sipl egoisti. It is only when we realize that the world is not ours alone that we develop into subjectivity. Two implications follow: first, we come to realize that our experience is preceded by and will be succeeded by the existence of other people. It is this sense of all other people, literally present before us or otherise, that is ooted i apitalizig Othe. Seod, e deelop into an I that is diffeetiated fo the Othe ot-I. Idetit is theefoe contingent o the Othe sie e euie a ot-I i ode to distiguish the I.3 In that sense, we are defined as social entities since we can only define identity under the conditions of sociality.