The Ring Virus

The Ring Virus
Theatrical poster
Hangul	링
Revised Romanization	ring
McCune–Reischauer	ring
Directed by	Kim Dong-bin
Produced by	Jonathan Kim
Written by	Kim Dong-bin Kong Su-chang
Based on	Ring by Kôji Suzuki
Starring	Shin Eun-kyung Lee Seung-hyeon Jung Jin-young
Music by	Il Won
Cinematography	Hwang Chul-hyun
Edited by	Kyung Min-ho
Release date	12 June 1999
Running time	108 min.
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

The Ring Virus (Hangul: 링) is a South Korean horror film adapted from the Japanese novel Ring by Koji Suzuki. A joint project between Japan and Korea, this version has Park Eun-Suh as the creator of the cursed videotape. Although the filmmakers claimed that the film was adapted from the novel, there are various scenes in the film that match the 1998 film Ring, such as the sex of the lead character, some of the scenes on the videotape as well as copying other film scenes directly from the original film, including the film's climax.

Followed by the death of her friends, journalist Hong Sun-Joo comes across a videotape containing incomprehensible images. Towards the end of the tape, she finds the curse which states that the viewer would die at the same time next week if he/she does not perform certain tasks. However, the next scene explaining the nature of the task has been erased. Sun-Joo and a doctor named Choi-Yul embark on a journey to break the curse placed upon them. They discover that the videotape was made by the psychic called Park Eun-Suh. Eun-Suh was an illegitimate daughter of a female psychic and was born a hermaphrodite. She was romantically involved with her half-brother and worked in a night club for a while. There, a man who found out about her secrets was killed as she had the uncanny ability to protect herself. The video tape is the medium Eun-Suh uses to reveal herself to the society. Her first exposure to the media was a painful experience, which caused her to withdraw from the outside world. When it became difficult for her to relate to the society, she retaliated by infiltrating it like a virus. The way of infiltration is one-way only and any attempt to block the process ends in extremely negative consequences.

As opposed to the Japanese adaptation Ring, this movie more closely follows Koji Suzuki's storyline, while keeping some elements first introduced with Ring.