Ring – Koji Suzuki

‘Ring’ is a novel written by Japanese author Koji Suzuki and set in modern day Japan. This book was the inspiration for three movies, ‘Ring’ (Japan), ‘The Ring’ (America) and ‘The Ring Virus’ (Korea).  Though, like me, you will probably be most familiar with the American version released in 2002, starring Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson.

Just to complicate things, the movies are very different to the book, but the basic plot centres on a cursed videotape that finishes with the words "You, who watched this tape, are going to die in one week from now. There's only one way to survive. And that is-" but of course the end of the tape has been erased and the protagonist Kazuyuki Asakawa must solve the centuries old mystery of antagonist Sadako Yamamura to save his own life.

A really, really creepy story, but very cool. Much better than the movies, which in my opinion focused more on the shock factor and actually completely changed the story to make it more commercially viable. Perfect example, in the novel the ‘killer’ was the ring virus which produced excessive fear in the victims and culminated in a heart attack. In the movies, Sadako (or Samara) was able to frighten people to death, teleport, and crawl out of a television set.

Emma J. James