Ring

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[edit] Introduction

Created in 1998, Ring or Ringu (???) as it is known in Japan is a film directed by Hideo Nakata based on the book by Koji Suzuki. It also has two remakes, an American version titled The Ring and a Korean version called The Ring: Virus.

Contradictory to what alot of people say, Ringu is not really a horror movie but more of a thriller/detective story with horror elements, unlike it's American counterpart it does not use cheap thrills containing people jumping out from behind doors but more of a long sense of uncomfort.

[edit] Basic Storyline

All versions of the film, be it American, Korean or Japanese follow the same plan, a video containing disturbing imagery is out in the world and when somebody watches it they are told that they will die in exactly seven days when a girl will climb out of a well and kill them.

The American version shares similar aspects to the Japanese but varies completely in content, for instance, the girl in the film Samara can talk and we see her face allowing the viewers to feel sorry for her as the film progresses. However, in the Japanese version of the film, the girl down the well (Sadako) is mute, is said to be a demon child and we only see her eye (unless your watching the prequel, Ring 0)

[edit] Ringu Storyline

Heavy Spoiler Warning!!

Tokyo, 5th September 1997: Two girls are alone at night whilst their parents are out at a Baseball game. As the movie opens, they begin to talk about a "death video" which kills anyone who watches it within a week of the first viewing. As they laugh and joke, one of the girls Tomoko admits to watching the movie exactly one week ago when she visited the small Island of Izu (the location where the tape originated) with her friends. She claims that it was a recording made from a dead Tv channel which only plays static. Before the night is over, Tomoko is found dead and her friend is severely traumatised by the experience (see Ring 2 for continuation of her friend)

13th September 1997: Tomoko's aunt, Reiko Asakawa is a reporter for the Tokyo television station who heads out to investigate these mysterious deaths of her neice and her friends. She heads off to Izu where she finds the cabin the teenagers were staying in and to no surprise, the video tape. Ignoring the Urban Legend she watches the tape and watches the strange collection of shorts that appear in black and white - these are a man pointing, his head covered by a cloth; bodies crawling in agony; a woman combing her hair in front a mirror; a Japanese alphabet character reading 'Sada.' (Devil) and a newspaper article reading Eruption. Shortly after she watches the video she get's a phone call where she hears a strange, unworldy sound.

Day 1, 14th September 1997: Reiko shows the video tape to her ex-husband Ryuji Takayama (a university lecturer) who agrees to watch the movie in order to find out what it means.

Day 2, 15th September 1997: Ryuji continues his investigation

Day 3, 16th September 1997: Continuing his investigations of the tape, Ryuji discovers that the voice on the tape is speaking with a dialect known only on the island of Oshima where 40 years ago, a psychic, Shizuko, is said to have thrown herself into an active volcano during an eruption that she had predicted.

Day 4, 17th September 1997: A concerned Reiko visits her father's house. During the night, she wakes and is horrified to find her young son, [[Y�ichi]], watching the cursed video. He claims to have been told to watch the tape by Tomoko.

Day 5, 18th September 1997: Reiko begins to unravel the mystery when she hears about a Dr Ikuma who had been studying Shizuko's psychic abilities.

Day 6, 19th September 1997: Reiko and Ryuji travel to Oshima where they manage to track down Shizuko's father. They see a film of a press conferece Ikuma held to unveil Shizuko to the public which ended badly when she failed to 'perform.' During the ensuing uproar one of the reporters is killed, apparently willed to death by Shizuko's young daughter Sadako. Further investigations suggest that Ikuma was secretly Sadako's father and he fled into hiding with her after Shizuko, appalled by her public humiliation, killed herself in the volcano.

Day 7, 20th September 1997: It's now exactly one week since Reiko first saw the tape. Exploring the grounds around the cabin where Tomoko and her friends first found the video, they find a well where Sadako was dumped after her father, terrified by her powers, had murdered her. Now that Sadako has been found and her remains recovered, Reiko and Ryuji believe that the curse has been lifted.

21st September 1997:Ryuji is alone at home when the vengeful spirit of Sadako emerges from a screening of the video tape and kills him. When Reiko hears of Ryuji's death she realises that the only way for the curse to be lifted is if the 'infected' viewer shows a copy of it to someone else within seven days. In order to save Y�ichi from the curse, she heads off to her father's house to give him a copy, we see her driving off in her car with the tape and a VCR in the back opening up for the sequel, Ring 2.