Ring (Suzuki novel)

Ring (Suzuki novel)
is a Japanese mystery horror novel by Koji Suzuki first published in 1991, and set in modern-day Japan. The novel was the first in the Ring novel series, and the first of a trilogy, along with two sequels: Spiral (1995) and Loop (1998). The original Ring novel sold 500,000 copies by January 1998, and 1.5million copies by July 2000. Ring was the basis for the Ring franchise, including a 1995 television film (Ring: Kanzenban), a 1998 theatrical film of the same name (Ring), a television series (Ring: The Final Chapter), and two international film remakes of the 1998 film: a South Korean version (The Ring Virus) and an English-language version (The Ring).
Plot synopsis
After finding out three teenagers died at the same time and in the same bizarre manner as his niece, reporter Kazuyuki Asakawa of Daily News starts a personal investigation. His search leads him to Hakone Pacific Land lodge, a resort where the youths were together one week before their deaths. There, he finds a mysterious unmarked videotape which shows a 20-minute sequence of abstract and real scenes and ends with a text warning that the viewer has one week to live. The next part, which supposedly explains the "charm" - a means of avoiding death - is overwritten by an advertisement.
The tape terrifies Asakawa. Desperate to avert his fate, he takes the tape and enlists the help of his old high-school friend Ryūji Takayama, now a university Philosophy Professor. Intrigued, Ryūji watches the tape and asks for a copy to study at home, to which Asakawa obliges.
While Ryūji dissects the footage to figure out where it was shot and broadcast, Asakawa chases other leads. He goes home only to learn his wife watched the tape, with their infant daughter on her lap, out of curiosity.
The next day, Ryūji figures that the moments of near blackness appearing during real scenes are likely caused by the recording device blinking. The two travel to Kamakura and access a personal archive of paranormal cases found in Japan. Searching for individuals with psychic photography ability, they find the record of Sadako Yamamura, a young woman who was born on Izu Oshima Island.
Ryūji theorizes Sadako is already dead, and the last part of the tape contains what she wanted viewers to accomplish. To figure it out, they travel to Izu Oshima to learn about her past. Stuck on the island because of a heavy storm, the two aren't able to unearth anything that helps solve the mystery. Even with the help of Oshima and Yoshino, colleagues of Asakawa, they only manage to piece together Sadako's timeline up to 30 years ago.
With their deadline approaching, Ryūji has the idea to retrace the existence of the resort lodge. Yoshino finds out that the resort used to be tuberculosis sanatorium, where Sadako's father lived in his last days, and the only surviving staff working there in the period near Sadako's disappearance is GP Nagao Jotaro.
When the storm clears, the two travel to Dr. Jotaro's office, and recognize him as the aggressive man in the tape. Ryūji presses Dr. Jotaro for answers. The doctor admitted to being infatuated with Sadako and, as if guided by something beyond himself, raped her in an abandoned cabin deep in the woods, in the process infecting her with smallpox and learning she was intersex. Driven by the same unexplainable compulsion (which the duo later deduces as Sadako's mind control) he throws her into a nearby well, which is beneath the lodge at Hakone Pacific Land. Believing Sadako's rage and psychic powers projected images onto the tape, two race back to the lodge. Guessing her will is to be freed, they locate the well, and Asakawa finds her remains. Asakawa's 7-day deadline passes with him alive, convincing them that the curse is broken.
The next day, they part ways and Asakawa returns Sadako's remains to her parents. That night, Ryūji senses his death is approaching. In his final moments, he deduces the actual charm. He calls his assistant and confidante Mai Katano, but only manages to scream before dying. Asakawa learns from Mai that Ryūji is dead.
Panicked as his wife and child's deadline approaches, Asakawa tries to figure out why he was spared. Ryūji appears in a vision and guides him to the answer. Sadako's psychic powers combined with the smallpox virus and created a paranormal virus, and it wanted to propagate through tape copies. The charm is to copy the tape and show it to someone else. With five hours left, Asakawa races to his wife's parents' home with the tape and the VCR, choosing to unleash "an apocalyptic evil" for the sake of his small family.
Characters
Kazuyuki Asakawa: The book's protagonist, he is a Tokyo newspaper reporter whose reputation was somewhat tarnished in the past in connection with a fad for UFOs and ghosts. He has a wife, Shizuka (the Vertical, Inc. English translation of the novel incorrectly renders her name as Shizu), and daughter, Yoko.
Ryuji Takayama: Asakawa's friend whom he enlists to help him solve the riddle of the tape. He was a doctor but later became a philosophy professor of a famous university due to the time the story occurred. Being of an odd mental disposition, and is also something of a genius, Ryūji usually stated that the purpose of his life is to gaze at the end of humanity. Ryūji also claims to be a rapist, although whether these claims are true or not is unclear, as it may be a hoax used to befriend the quiet Asakawa. He was actually a lonely person who struggled to live peacefully within society. Ryūji has even more significant roles in the sequels Spiral and Loop.
Shizuka and Yoko Asakawa: Asakawa's wife and daughter respectively. When Shizuka unknowingly watches the cursed video with Yoko on her lap, they become Asakawa's primary motivation for solving the riddle of the tape.
Sadako Yamamura: The book's unseen antagonist who vanished thirty years ago and is also the person behind the incident of the cursed tape. She was, in fact, intersex with special powers similar to ESP. She was said to be extremely beautiful.
Shizuko Yamamura: Sadako's mother, who possessed powers similar to her daughter's. She threw herself into the crater of Mt. Mihara after a demonstration of telepathy, which she failed due to the present reporters' ill wishes, and was branded a fraud.
Adaptations
After the publication of the book several adaptations were made, including a manga adaptation of the novel which was released in 1996 by Kouhirou Nagai. In 1999, a second manga was made by Misao Inagaki which took elements from the novel, film and television versions of the Ring.
Films
Ring: Kanzenban (1995)
Ring (1998)
The Ring Virus (1999)
The Ring (2002)
TV Series
Ring: The Final Chapter (1999)
Manga
Ring (1996)
Ring (2 volumes) (1999)
Audio Dramas
Ring (1996)
Ring (2015)
References
External links
Vertical Inc. - publisher of English translations of the Ring novels.
SaruDama - contains reviews of Ring and other Suzuki novels.
1990s horror novels
1991 novels
Japanese horror novels
Japanese novels adapted into films
Novels by Koji Suzuki
Novels set in Tokyo
The Ring (franchise)
Vertical (publisher) titles
Books with cover art by Chip Kidd
Smallpox in fiction
Novels about intersex