Ring
Movie, 1998, Japan, Set in Sadako's cursed tape
Ring is #1 of 5 in release order and #1 of 5 in chronological order in the The Ring.
The story
A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.
Ring recap
Ring (1998) follows Reiko Asakawa, a TV journalist who watches a cursed videotape while looking into her niece's death and has seven days to break the curse. Hideo Nakata directs from Hiroshi Takahashi's adaptation of Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel. After teenage Tomoko (Yuko Takeuchi) dies of fright on the same night as three friends, Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) traces them to a rental cabin in Izu, finds an unlabeled tape and plays it: a jumble of eerie images ending on a well. The phone rings at once. She turns to her ex-husband Ryūji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada), a professor with a sixth sense, and makes him a copy; their young son Yōichi (Rikiya Otaka) later watches it too. A dialect on the tape points them to Ōshima island, where they learn about Shizuko Yamamura, a psychic who killed herself, and her daughter Sadako (Rie Inō), whose powers could kill. Spiral, a 1998 sequel shot alongside it, was later set aside by Ring 2.
Ring ending explained
Ring ends with Reiko driving to her father's house with a copy of the tape. Under the Izu cabin she and Ryūji find a sealed well where Sadako's father, Dr. Ikuma, threw her; they recover her bones, and when Reiko's deadline passes, they think the curse is broken. The next day Ryūji's television switches on, and Sadako climbs out of the well and through the screen to kill him. Reiko realizes she survived only because she copied the tape and showed it to Ryūji, so she sets out to save Yōichi by making her father watch. The novel's hero is a male reporter, Kazuyuki Asakawa.
Post-credits scenes
No. Ring has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Where to watch Ring
Ring is streaming on Philo, Kanopy, MUBI, AsianCrush, Cineverse, and Tubi in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 8.1/10
Where it fits
What to watch before Ring
Nothing. Ring is the first of the The Ring essentials, so it's the place to start.
Cast
- Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryuji Takayama
- Rikiya Ôtaka as Yoichi Asakawa
- Miki Nakatani as Mai Takano
- Yuko Takeuchi as Tomoko Oishi
- Hitomi Sato as Masami Kurahashi
- Yutaka Matsushige as Yoshino
- Yōichi Numata as Takashi Yamamura
- Katsumi Muramatsu as Koichi Asakawa
- Masako as Shizuko Yamamura
- Rie Ino'o as Sadako Yamamura
- Daisuke Ban as Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma
Directed by Hideo Nakata.