Ring (Suzuki novel)
Cover of the first American print edition by Vertical, Inc.
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| Author | Koji Suzuki |
|---|---|
| Original title | ''Ring (リング Ringu?) |
| Cover artist | Chip Kidd |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Series | RING Series |
| Genre | Horror |
| Publisher | Vertical, Inc. |
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Publication date
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1991 |
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Published in English
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2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Followed by | Spiral (Rasen) |
Ring (リング Ringu?) is a Japanese mystery horror novel by Koji Suzuki, first published in 1991, and set in modern-day Japan. It was the basis for a 1995 film (Ring: Kanzenban), a television series (Ring: The Final Chapter), a film of the same name (1998's Ring), and two remakes of the 1998 film: a South Korean version (The Ring Virus) and an American version (The Ring).
After four teenagers mysteriously die simultaneously in Tokyo, Kazuyuki Asakawa, a reporter and uncle to one of the deceased, decides to launch his own personal investigation. His search leads him to "Hakone Pacific Land", a holiday resort where the youths were last seen together exactly one week before their deaths. Once there he happens upon a mysterious unmarked videotape. Watching the tape, he witnesses a strange sequence of both abstract and realistic footage, including an image of an injured man, that ends with a warning revealing the viewer has a week to live. Giving a single means of avoiding death, the tape's explanation ends suddenly having been overwritten by an advertisement. The tape has a horrible mental effect on Asakawa, and he doesn't doubt for a second that its warning is true.
Returning to Tokyo with no idea how to avert his fate, Asakawa enlists the help of his curious friend Ryūji Takayama, an apparent psychopath who openly jests he engages in rape. As soon as Asakawa explains the story, Takayama believes him and insists on seeing the tape. Asakawa shows it to him and although Takayama remains cool and nonchalant, he agrees there is a powerful aura around it and asks Asakawa to make him a copy to study at home, which Asakawa does.
Racing against the deadline, both men begin investigating the tape. By following the imagery from the tape, Ryūji deduces that the rapid strobe seen during certain sequences show the recording device was "blinking." The duo then connect this, as well as the significance of certain tape images, and learn of Sadako Yamamura, a young woman capable of technopathic feats (such as projecting mental images onto televisions) who mysteriously vanished thirty years previously. Believing Sadako is connected to the tape, Asakawa also soon learns that, after carelessly leaving the tape in his home, his wife and infant daughter viewed the tape and now have seven days to live.
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Wikipedia