Reiko Asakawa

Reiko Asakawa (浅川 玲子, Asakawa Reiko^?) is a character in the 1998 film adaptation of Koji Suzuki's novel Ring, published in 1991, portrayed by Nanako Matsushima. She also plays important roles in Ring 2 and Rasen. She was adapted from Suzuki's original protagonist, Kazuyuki Asakawa, who was originally male. Producers changed the character's gender because they felt that a woman would be more appealing to the box office audience.

Reiko Asakawa is a single mother in her mid-twenties who struggles to juggle both her job as an investigative journalist and raising her seven-year-old son, Yoichi. After her niece Tomoko dies under mysterious conditions, she investigates the death and discovers that three of Tomoko's friends also died the same way, on the same day and at the same time. This connects to another story Reiko has been doing, the cursed videotape rumor centred on teenage girls. The urban legend, which started in Izu, claims that, "within seven days of watching a normal videotape, you receive a phone call, saying you will die in a horrible and painful way".

After learning her niece had stayed in Izu, Reiko travels to Izu and discovers the videotape at the resort cabin Tomoko had been staying at. She watches the video and receives a strange phone call. Deciding to take the threat of death seriously, she calls Ryuji Takayama, her scientist ex-husband and father of her child to help her. Ryuji also has ESP, similar to the supernatural instincts that Reiko herself also demonstrates, but to a larger extent. Reiko makes Ryuji a copy of the tape and he watches the video, promising to help her figure who made the videotape and why.

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