Like many fans of Asian horror movies, my introduction to the genre came with the Japanese hit movie Ring. I was aware at the time that there was a Ring 2, but thought that this was as far as it went, never having heard of a Ring 3.
As it turned out, there was a whole slew of sequels, prequels , series, and spin-offs, several I had never heard of until researching this article. This hopes to provide an overview of the Ring
(Ringu) film franchise to clarify its rather fascinating, yet bewildering evolution.
THE BOOKS:
The
Ring universe originated with a
series of novels and an anthology by Koji Suzuki:
·
Ring (1991)
·
Spiral (1995)
·
Loop (1998)
·
Birthday (1999), a collection of three short stories:
§ Floating Coffin
§ Lemonheart
§ Happy Birthday
·
S (2012)
·
Tide (2013)
The TV Movie:
In 1995 a television-movie based on the Ring novel was released with the formidable title Ringu: Jiko ka! Henshi ka! 4-tsu no inochi wo ubau shôjo no onnen (Ring: Accident?! Or
Unnatural Death?! The Young Girl Whose Hatred Steals Four Lives). This
was later edited and re-released as Ringu: Kanzenban (Ring: The Complete Edition).
(Of the entire Ring cycle, Ringu: Kanzenban is often regarded as the adaptation most faithful to the source material.)
THE MOVIES and TV Series:
This section deals only with the Asian versions of the series, not the US-produced remakes. It is presented in chronological order.
Ring (1998):
Ring (Ringu in Japanese) was based on both the Ring novel and Ringu: Kanzenban. Production
of the film took approximately nine months, ending in early 1998. It was written by
Hiroshi Takahashi and directed by Hideo Nakata and takes many liberties with
the source material.
(N.B.: While articles and
other sources invariably refer to the movie’s title as simply Ring, the Japanese poster displays the
English The Ring. Moreover, the
American-made version is entitled The
Ring.)
PLOT:
Friends Masami and Tomoko are talking about a cursed
videotape that, when watched, kills the viewer in seven days. Tomoko reveals
that she watched the tape, and she is killed right on schedule.
Days later a reporter, Reiko Asakawa, learns her niece
Tomoko and three of her friends were victims, their faces twisted in terror. Another, Masami, while she did not watch the tape, witnessed Tomoko's mysterious death and had to be confined in a mental asylum. Reiko decides to uncover the story behind the curse.
Rasen (1998):
At
the same time Ring was being made Rasen (Spiral) based on the second
Suzuki novel of that name, was also being produced by two of the five
production companies working on Ring.
Rasen used some of the cast from Ring but was written and directed by Joji Iida, who wrote the Ring TV movie.
PLOT:
Following the events of Ring, the body
of Ryuji Takayama who died at the end of that movie is examined by his friend
and rival, pathologist Mitsuo Ando. Eventually, Ando learns of the cursed
videotape, and that Reiko from Ring had
recruited Ryuji who was her ex-husband, to investigate the videotape’s curse
(now being referred to as a virus). Somehow, Reiko was able to escape the curse
that had killed everyone else, despite having watched the tape. Personal issues
drive Ando to investigate this odd development.
While
using elements found in Ring, Rasen follows a different story arc and
treatment. Much of the film deals with the romance between Ando and his co-investigator
and student Mai Takano, plus this time Sadako, in a departure from her iconic Ring portrayal as a monster crawling out
of a television, is now depicted as alluring and even manages to seduce Ando.
(For some reason, while English-language sources generally refer to the first movie as Ring, with the Japanese term Ringu coming second, in the case of Spiral, the original title Rasen is used by both Japanese- and English-speakers; rarely is it referred to as Spiral. One possible reason is that Rasen is practically unknown among casual audiences. (See below.) Also, other sources sometimes translate Rasen as Vortex rather than Spiral, but most avoid this, perhaps to prevent it being confused with the unrelated horror film Vortex or Uzumaki by Higuchinsky. )
Joint release of Ringu and Rasen:
Hoping to maximize profits by riding on the popularity of the Suzuki novels and the television show, the studio released both Ring and Rasen on the same day: January 31, 1998. Ring went on to become one of the most successful and critically acclaimed Japanese movies of all time, but Rasen bombed big time.
It has been suggested that the simultaneous release was a mistake. Audiences who
watched Rasen ahead of Ring may have been confused, not knowing that Rasen was a sequel to the events portrayed in Ring.
Thus,
Rasen was consigned to being The
Forgotten Sequel in canon and marketing, and as later installments show, the studio did
everything to distance itself from it, along the vein of It never happened.
Ring 2 (1999):
In the wake of the poor performance of Rasen, the studio decided to recover their loss of revenue (and perhaps face) by producing another sequel, but with the following changes:
- Rather than re-booting Rasen or basing the new movie on any Suzuki novel as Rasen had, Ring 2 would use all original material. Unlike Rasen, Ring 2 would continue the same story arc of Ring
- It would bring back the original writing/directing team of the first movie, as well as most of the original cast and characters
- While chronologically the third in the series to enter production, it would not be called Ring 3, but Ring 2
PLOT:
Upon investigating the body of Sadako Yamamura
recovered from the well in Ring, it was discovered that she had died only a
year or two ago, despite being sealed in for almost 30 years.
Mai Takano, assistant of Ryuji Takayama, explores the
circumstances behind his death at the end of Ring. She eventually finds Reiko
Asakawa who had watched the tape but somehow managed to avoid its curse.
While
distancing itself from the movie Rasen and
the Suzuki novels, Ring 2 retains Mai Takano as a protagonist, but no mention of Ando from Rasen. Here, Mai’s connection is simply
as the unfortunate Ryuji Takayama’s assistant, using her character in the novel Rasen rather than that of the movie.
Ring: The Final Chapter (TV Series):
From January to March of 1999 a television mini-series aired with the title Ring: The Final Chapter (Ringu: Saishusho). It is basically a complete reimagining of the original Ring movie and novel stretched out over 12 episodes, rather than a remake. There are numerous departures from the source materials, such as characters in the novel being assigned different names and genders, and the seven-day window of death being extended to thirteen. The series concentrated more on finding the answers, and is thus more of the mystery genre than horror.
The episodes:
1. "The
Seal is Now Solved"
2. "Killed
by a Videotape"
3. "Someone
is Watching..."
4. "A
Virus of Silence"
5. "The
Dead Person Who Was Reborn"
6. "A
New Person with Supernatural Power"
7. "Sadako
Will Appear Tonight"
8. "Someone
Will Die When the Curse is Solved"
9. "Planned
Memory"
10. "Sadako's
Revival"
11. "Ryuji
Takayama Dies"
12. "The
Curse Was Not Lifted. The Thirteenth Day, a New Dead Person Destroys the
World"
Rasen (TV Series):
In the heels of the Ring TV series came its sequel Rasen which ran for 13 episodes from July-September 1999. This was based on the novel Spiral, and, like the previous television series, was only loosely based on the source material. For example, pathologist Matsuo Ando from the Rasen movie is now a high-school teacher in this incarnation. He partners with his former student and now police investigator Natsumi Aihara to pursue Sadako who intends to return to life via the body of Mai Takano.
The episodes:
1. "Sadako's
Revenge: A Horror Greater Than The Ring"
2. "The
Dead Watch the Well"
3. "I
Come to Kill Myself..."
4. "A
Dead Person is Resurrected to a Legendary Village"
5. "The
Devil Was in This Room"
6. "Nobody
Can Stop Me Any Longer"
7. "The
Man Who Made Sadako"
8. "The
Child Who Died Twice..."
9. "The
Ring of Hatred is Complete"
10. "The
Prisoner is Murdered by a Prison Guard"
11. "The
Fortuneteller is Murdered"
12. "The
World Will Fall to Ruins Tomorrow"
13. "The
Immortal"
The Ring Virus (1999):
This is a Korean-Japanese co-production that was a remake of Ring released on June 1999 between the two TV series covered earlier. Even the Korean title is simply translated as Ring. The characters from the original now have Korean incarnations: Reiko Asakawa is now Sun-ju, Sadako is Eun-suh. With minor variations, it follows the same solve-the-curse-of-the-videotape plot as the original.
Ring 0: Birthday (2000):
Released as Ringu Zero: Basudei in Japan on January 2000, it is a prequel to Ring and based on the short story Lemonheart from the Birthday anthology in the book series.
PLOT:
Taking place thirty years before events portrayed in Ring, it chronicles the investigation of reporter Akiko Miyaji whose fiancee and fellow reporter died mysteriously during the ESP demonstration of Shizuko Yamamura presented in flashback in the first Ring movie. Akiko attempts to follow Shizuko's daughter Sadako who is thought to have inherited her mother's ability. Meanwhile, 19 year-old Sadako joins an acting troupe as therapy for the nightmares she has been having. Sadako's rival is found murdered by a mysterious figure in white. When Sadako takes her late rival's place in the troupe, odd occurrences begin, and Sadako is suspect.
Sadako 3D (2012):
Based on the Suzuki novel S, it is a sequel to the little-known film Rasen, taking place 13 years after. It features a white-clad man dropping a woman into a well full of long-haired women in nightdresses.
In keeping with the advance in technology since the last film, now instead of a physical tape the cursed video is now accessed online. This time two detectives investigate a string of mysterious suicides linked to the video.
Sadako 3D 2(2013):
Set five years after the previous film, once again a series of suicides are linked to Sadako attempting to be reborn.
Sadako Vs. Kayako (2016):
This crossover starts with Yuri Kurahashi buying a used VCR which has an old tape cartridge in it. It is, of course, the cursed video. Her friend Natsumi watches the video, not believing the legend they had heard behind the curse, but subsequent events coinvince her she will die soon. Calling on an expert in the supernatural, the girls are introduced to Suzuka Takagi, whose parents were killed by Kayako and her son Toshio from the Ju-On (The Grudge) series when the parents entered the cursed house. The expert believes that the only way Sadako can be finally destroyed (a necessity since Natsumi in a fit of madness uploaded the cursed video onto the internet for all to view) is for the girls to enter the cursed house to bring both 'ghouls' out, with the hope that they would destroy each other.
What next?
Before Sadako vs. Kayako, many were of the opinion that as a film series, this franchise had been tapped out. In another long-running Japanese horror franchise Ju-On (The Grudge), the release in 2015 of Ju-On: The Final Curse received a lukewarm reception, yet they made a last gasp attempt with the crossover. That this final installment suffered the same fate of tepid reviews common to most horror crossovers begs the question whether any further installments will be made.
TRIVIA
The iconic image below used to promote the first Ring movie does not show the eye of Rei Inoo, the kabuki actress who played Sadako, as commonly assumed. The studio used instead one of the male production crew members for this shot.
