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リング [Ring] #1
The Ring
Parecía otra leyenda urbana más: una cinta de vídeo llena de imágenes de pesadilla, a la que seguía una llamada de teléfono que predecía la muerte de quien había visto la cinta exactamente siete días después. El periodista Asakawa se siente muy escéptico ante el asunto hasta que descubre que cuatro adolescentes han conocido una muerte misteriosa justo una semana después de visionar la dichosa citna. Impelida por su curiosidad profesional, Asakawa sigue la pista de la cinta... y la contempla. Ahora debe pedir ayuda a su amigo Ryuji si quiere salvar su vida y la de su hijo. Sólo tienen siete días para desentrañar el misterio de The Ring.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
1290 people are currently reading
49413 people want to read
About the author
Kōji Suzuki
102 books1,400 followersSuzuki Kōji (鈴木光司) is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and currently lives in Tokyo. Suzuki is the author of the Ring novels, which has been adapted into a manga series. He has written several books on the subject of fatherhood. He is currently on the selection committee for the Japan Fantasy Novel Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,802 reviews
March 31, 2017
I'll start with the things I liked about this book.
1. The story was very interesting and I found Sadako and her family very fascinating and I enjoyed learning about them along with the protagonists.
2. I found it very refreshing and surprising that the main protagonist was a man, women/teenage girls are generally the most common and most popular for horror and both the movies featured a woman so I didn't expect it to be a man in the book.
3. I enjoyed reading about how the protagonists figured things out and I liked the way the mystery was explored.
4. I thought the story was cleverly written and it had the right amount of tension and suspense to keep me reading on.
Now for the things I wasn't so keen on.
1. This one is more to do with myself, really, and that is that I went into this book with pretty high expectations. I had heard that it was very scary and therefore I was expecting to be scared and for it to focus on horror. This isn't the case. At least not for me. I know I'm fairly desensitised due to the amount of horror and true crime that I read and watch yet even so I didn't think that any of the book was scary. There were parts that were very creepy and eerie and, don't get me wrong, they were very good but there wasn't one part of this book that scared me to the level that I was expecting. This book read, to me, more like a murder mystery than a horror which is a genre I usually love but I went into this book looking for some good scary fun and I just didn't get it.
2. This, I imagine, is probably mostly due to the fact that I had seen both the Japanese and the American versions of the film of this book prior to reading it but there was only one part of the book that surprised me. I could see all the other plot twists and surprises coming from a mile away. The only one that did surprise me was one that I'm sure wasn't included in either movie and, honestly, I think it was better that they left it out. It was a ridiculous plot point which served absolutely no purpose to the overall story.
3. I felt like the one week time limit wasn't a believable amount of time for them to figure everything out. A lot of the time when they would find out clues or work out what something meant, it seemed like it just magically happened. Like they just managed to luckily stumble upon just the right bit of information at just the right time. It felt a bit too forced due to the really short amount of time. Also, Ryuji felt like one massive Deus Ex Machina through most of it because he would just suddenly realise something or think of something which was so far outside of the box and yet he would somehow be absolutely correct.
4. The main two characters were horrible. There was not one likeable thing about either of them. Asakawa could've been redeemed by his love for his wife and child but he spoke to his wife, and treated her, like shit so that ruined any kind of redemption for him. Ryuji was just vile. I still don't understand why the author decided to make one of the main characters such a despicable human being. and I do not buy into that thing at the end with the whole and this actually brings me onto my next point.
5. Why is rape basically treated like it's not a big deal in this book? Seriously. I didn't get it.
6. The ending was incredibly anticlimactic and disappointing. It set it up well for the next book and I could see how the story could grow but for this book it was all just one big anti-climax starting with I was just expecting a lot more from it and it failed to deliver.
1. The story was very interesting and I found Sadako and her family very fascinating and I enjoyed learning about them along with the protagonists.
2. I found it very refreshing and surprising that the main protagonist was a man, women/teenage girls are generally the most common and most popular for horror and both the movies featured a woman so I didn't expect it to be a man in the book.
3. I enjoyed reading about how the protagonists figured things out and I liked the way the mystery was explored.
4. I thought the story was cleverly written and it had the right amount of tension and suspense to keep me reading on.
Now for the things I wasn't so keen on.
1. This one is more to do with myself, really, and that is that I went into this book with pretty high expectations. I had heard that it was very scary and therefore I was expecting to be scared and for it to focus on horror. This isn't the case. At least not for me. I know I'm fairly desensitised due to the amount of horror and true crime that I read and watch yet even so I didn't think that any of the book was scary. There were parts that were very creepy and eerie and, don't get me wrong, they were very good but there wasn't one part of this book that scared me to the level that I was expecting. This book read, to me, more like a murder mystery than a horror which is a genre I usually love but I went into this book looking for some good scary fun and I just didn't get it.
2. This, I imagine, is probably mostly due to the fact that I had seen both the Japanese and the American versions of the film of this book prior to reading it but there was only one part of the book that surprised me. I could see all the other plot twists and surprises coming from a mile away. The only one that did surprise me was one that I'm sure wasn't included in either movie and, honestly, I think it was better that they left it out. It was a ridiculous plot point which served absolutely no purpose to the overall story.
3. I felt like the one week time limit wasn't a believable amount of time for them to figure everything out. A lot of the time when they would find out clues or work out what something meant, it seemed like it just magically happened. Like they just managed to luckily stumble upon just the right bit of information at just the right time. It felt a bit too forced due to the really short amount of time. Also, Ryuji felt like one massive Deus Ex Machina through most of it because he would just suddenly realise something or think of something which was so far outside of the box and yet he would somehow be absolutely correct.
4. The main two characters were horrible. There was not one likeable thing about either of them. Asakawa could've been redeemed by his love for his wife and child but he spoke to his wife, and treated her, like shit so that ruined any kind of redemption for him. Ryuji was just vile. I still don't understand why the author decided to make one of the main characters such a despicable human being. and I do not buy into that thing at the end with the whole and this actually brings me onto my next point.
5. Why is rape basically treated like it's not a big deal in this book? Seriously. I didn't get it.
6. The ending was incredibly anticlimactic and disappointing. It set it up well for the next book and I could see how the story could grow but for this book it was all just one big anti-climax starting with I was just expecting a lot more from it and it failed to deliver.
April 30, 2021
The blurbs tell us the author has been called the Stephen King of Japan, where he is famous. Many of his books, including this one, have been turned into movies and even video games. He is a bit like Stephen King in his blend of fantasy, horror and mystery.
,
The basic story is that a journalist discovers that four young people -- two girls, two boys -- died separately and suddenly within a day for no good reason. They were of college age and all perfectly healthy. He becomes a detective, tracing events back and connecting the dots to find that all four had spent a weekend in a rural resort where they watched a video.
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!
He goes to the resort and watches the video and discovers that it warns the viewer that those who watch it will die within a period of 10 days unless – but the “unless” part has been taped over! The journalist now fears for his life and later, for the lives of his wife and child, who accidentally watched the video as well.
He enlists a friend to help him solve the mystery. They turn into a Batman/Robin duo traveling around Japan trying to figure out who made this recording and why. The recording was generated telekinetically. (I’m not giving away plot because we are told this in the blurb). This book was published in Japan in 1991. You may recall in the 1980’s or so there was much talk by pseudoscientific charlatans (the best known was Japanese) who claimed to be able to project mental images onto camera film. (Can’t do that anymore – no more Fuji film!) The Japanese culture seemed obsessed with cameras so this all fits together – why not telepathically project an entire video tape!
I enjoyed the book. The plot held my attention; the mystery and its resolution were intriguing. There was a bit of plodding detail throughout the story, although this also provides local color. You can never get lost in the plot: if the protagonist is going out to a rural area, we watch him put on his coat, leave his office, take the bus to a train station, get off at another train station, rent a car, get off the highway, pay a toll, etc. Despite that flaw I thought it was a good book and I gave it a four. It turns out this book is the first of a trilogy (Titles: Ring, Spiral, Loop) but it works fine as a stand-alone read.
,
The basic story is that a journalist discovers that four young people -- two girls, two boys -- died separately and suddenly within a day for no good reason. They were of college age and all perfectly healthy. He becomes a detective, tracing events back and connecting the dots to find that all four had spent a weekend in a rural resort where they watched a video.
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!
He goes to the resort and watches the video and discovers that it warns the viewer that those who watch it will die within a period of 10 days unless – but the “unless” part has been taped over! The journalist now fears for his life and later, for the lives of his wife and child, who accidentally watched the video as well.
He enlists a friend to help him solve the mystery. They turn into a Batman/Robin duo traveling around Japan trying to figure out who made this recording and why. The recording was generated telekinetically. (I’m not giving away plot because we are told this in the blurb). This book was published in Japan in 1991. You may recall in the 1980’s or so there was much talk by pseudoscientific charlatans (the best known was Japanese) who claimed to be able to project mental images onto camera film. (Can’t do that anymore – no more Fuji film!) The Japanese culture seemed obsessed with cameras so this all fits together – why not telepathically project an entire video tape!
I enjoyed the book. The plot held my attention; the mystery and its resolution were intriguing. There was a bit of plodding detail throughout the story, although this also provides local color. You can never get lost in the plot: if the protagonist is going out to a rural area, we watch him put on his coat, leave his office, take the bus to a train station, get off at another train station, rent a car, get off the highway, pay a toll, etc. Despite that flaw I thought it was a good book and I gave it a four. It turns out this book is the first of a trilogy (Titles: Ring, Spiral, Loop) but it works fine as a stand-alone read.
July 14, 2023
A great premise is ruined by a story that celebrates toxic masculinity and transphobia. This could have been so much better. Fortunately the filmmakers adapted the good parts of the story while leaving behind this toxicity. My recommendation: watch the movie, skip the book.
Sigh.
Sigh.
April 18, 2012
I found this book in a lonely mountainside cabin... nah, only kidding. It was £1 in a bargain basement book sale, so who could say no to that? It went onto the frankly vertiginous and ridiculous pile of books behind the sofa and was forgotten about for sometime. Then, a few days ago I was working on a site in the former medieval area of Liverpool.
Everybody was busily engaged in day to day construction/demolition mayhem; I was watching a twenty ton digger, a crane was rolling across site moving steel girders and there were lots of men leaning on shovels when suddenly part of the ground fell away to reveal a yawning void. Well, well... it's a well. Everyone immediately ran to over to the collapsed area and had tried to have a look down it. I poked it with a Sopwith Staff and met with no resistance. Everyone lay around the broken well capping trying to see if they could discern anything in the pitch blackness. Finally we lowered a series of cage lights down and got a perfect view of a 25m deep vertical brick lined shaft, at which point one of the builders shouted "if that fucking girl from The Ring with the messed up hair crawls up the lighting flex, I'm out of here". And I thought, "Oh yeah I must read that book sometime soon."
So I did.
For the first time ever, I have to say I think I liked the film better (Ringu, not The Grudge), but only because I suspect that something has been lost in translation. The prose has moments of grace but is generally a bit stodgy around the edges - the premise is good and sleek but the delivery is clunky, like someone has tied a load of tin cans and lead weights to back of a Bugatti Veyron.
The story is basically the same though - sylph-like youth, Sadako Yamamura is raped and murdered and stuffed into a well. In life she exhibited unusual mental prowess and in death Sadako uses these powers to hijack the airwaves, sending out her cursed visions through the medium of the telly-box to kill off hapless youths in a sort of viral VHS revenge. Kazayuki Asakawa faces a race against the clock to find a "cure" for the curse before he faces the same terrible fate that caused cardiac arrest in four high school students.
This story did not scare me. It mainly me realise that this book is an excellent example of how technological innovation makes authors equally cursed, and blessed. The advent of the mobile phone, netbook, Twitter, Facebook, IM, tablets and any other mode of ceaseless cyber jabber are great ways to bring new elements into the plot. Characters can communicate efficiently and quickly, dilemmas can be solved by simply googling the problem and shamelessly name dropping shiny gizmos is a great way of showing how hip and down-with-the-kids you are even if you're some aging hipster banging out your novel on a Smith-Corona.
However these things will date your work. You will be antiquated and outmoded and your words run the risk of never being converted into e-book because they will be sceptically examined by people who will LOL (yes, I hate text speak and other proto computer prattle but I use it here to illustrate the point cos its youth innit?) at your antiquarian references to VHS and word processors.
Why is this a problem? People don't ignore Austen because her characters main mode of locomotion was a horse and carriage and not an E Class Mercedes. Similarly, Gaskell is not shunned despite her references to mills, shuttle looms and sail ships. I actually can't explain it but it probably boils down to the fact that technology changes so fast, is so accessible and is so status driven, perhaps were ashamed to admit we ever used or owned such outmoded items. Maybe we are afraid that by admitting to remembering these things, we are dating ourselves?
Everybody was busily engaged in day to day construction/demolition mayhem; I was watching a twenty ton digger, a crane was rolling across site moving steel girders and there were lots of men leaning on shovels when suddenly part of the ground fell away to reveal a yawning void. Well, well... it's a well. Everyone immediately ran to over to the collapsed area and had tried to have a look down it. I poked it with a Sopwith Staff and met with no resistance. Everyone lay around the broken well capping trying to see if they could discern anything in the pitch blackness. Finally we lowered a series of cage lights down and got a perfect view of a 25m deep vertical brick lined shaft, at which point one of the builders shouted "if that fucking girl from The Ring with the messed up hair crawls up the lighting flex, I'm out of here". And I thought, "Oh yeah I must read that book sometime soon."
So I did.
For the first time ever, I have to say I think I liked the film better (Ringu, not The Grudge), but only because I suspect that something has been lost in translation. The prose has moments of grace but is generally a bit stodgy around the edges - the premise is good and sleek but the delivery is clunky, like someone has tied a load of tin cans and lead weights to back of a Bugatti Veyron.
The story is basically the same though - sylph-like youth, Sadako Yamamura is raped and murdered and stuffed into a well. In life she exhibited unusual mental prowess and in death Sadako uses these powers to hijack the airwaves, sending out her cursed visions through the medium of the telly-box to kill off hapless youths in a sort of viral VHS revenge. Kazayuki Asakawa faces a race against the clock to find a "cure" for the curse before he faces the same terrible fate that caused cardiac arrest in four high school students.
This story did not scare me. It mainly me realise that this book is an excellent example of how technological innovation makes authors equally cursed, and blessed. The advent of the mobile phone, netbook, Twitter, Facebook, IM, tablets and any other mode of ceaseless cyber jabber are great ways to bring new elements into the plot. Characters can communicate efficiently and quickly, dilemmas can be solved by simply googling the problem and shamelessly name dropping shiny gizmos is a great way of showing how hip and down-with-the-kids you are even if you're some aging hipster banging out your novel on a Smith-Corona.
However these things will date your work. You will be antiquated and outmoded and your words run the risk of never being converted into e-book because they will be sceptically examined by people who will LOL (yes, I hate text speak and other proto computer prattle but I use it here to illustrate the point cos its youth innit?) at your antiquarian references to VHS and word processors.
Why is this a problem? People don't ignore Austen because her characters main mode of locomotion was a horse and carriage and not an E Class Mercedes. Similarly, Gaskell is not shunned despite her references to mills, shuttle looms and sail ships. I actually can't explain it but it probably boils down to the fact that technology changes so fast, is so accessible and is so status driven, perhaps were ashamed to admit we ever used or owned such outmoded items. Maybe we are afraid that by admitting to remembering these things, we are dating ourselves?
April 13, 2024
في إحدي الليالي المظلمة المرعبة يمر شبح الموت عندما يفارق الحياة أربع شباب فجأة و في أماكن مختلفة و بأعمار متباينة ، و لكن يجمع بينهم صفة واحدة و هي طريقة موتهم ، يظهر الجميع بوجوه مفزعة و في وضعيات غريبة و أيديهم ملتصقة برؤوسهم.
تلفت هذه الحادثة اهتمام أحد الصحفيين و يأخد بالبحث في تفاصيلها فربما يكون إحدي الفيروسات الجديدة الخطيرة أو ربما يكون أخطر من ذلك بكثير ، ليكتشف بعد ذلك أن الأمر خارق للعادة و ليعرف أن السبب في موتهم هو مجرد شريط فيديو ، و الذي بمجرد مشاهدته يجب عليك تنفيذ ما يأمرك به و إلا سيكون الموت مآلك ، و لكن كيف ستنفذ ما فيه إذا ما كان هذا الجزء تم مسحه و سُجِّل به بدلا منه إحدي الإعلانات؟
في إطار من الغموض و الرعب نكشف تفاصيل الحادثة و الأسباب المرئية و غير المرئية وراء الشريط الغريب .
من أفضل قصص الي قريتها في الفترة الأخيرة ، رغم أنها تصنيف رعب و لكن هي أقرب للغموض.
طبعا تم اقتباس سلسلة الأفلام الشهيرة the ring منها و الرواية افضل و أعمق و مختلفة تماما عن الأفلام بكثير .
تمت✨
تلفت هذه الحادثة اهتمام أحد الصحفيين و يأخد بالبحث في تفاصيلها فربما يكون إحدي الفيروسات الجديدة الخطيرة أو ربما يكون أخطر من ذلك بكثير ، ليكتشف بعد ذلك أن الأمر خارق للعادة و ليعرف أن السبب في موتهم هو مجرد شريط فيديو ، و الذي بمجرد مشاهدته يجب عليك تنفيذ ما يأمرك به و إلا سيكون الموت مآلك ، و لكن كيف ستنفذ ما فيه إذا ما كان هذا الجزء تم مسحه و سُجِّل به بدلا منه إحدي الإعلانات؟
في إطار من الغموض و الرعب نكشف تفاصيل الحادثة و الأسباب المرئية و غير المرئية وراء الشريط الغريب .
من أفضل قصص الي قريتها في الفترة الأخيرة ، رغم أنها تصنيف رعب و لكن هي أقرب للغموض.
طبعا تم اقتباس سلسلة الأفلام الشهيرة the ring منها و الرواية افضل و أعمق و مختلفة تماما عن الأفلام بكثير .
تمت✨
June 28, 2019
First off, I want to say that English is not my mother-tongue. I try my best to avoid mistakes, but I’m sure the text contains errors.
Trigger warning: Rape.
REVIEW CONTINUES IN COMMENT SECTION
Now to the review.
I’ve read The Ring for a Seminar on Japanese contemporary literature and literary discourse. I read parts of the original Japanese novel and the German translation, which is a translation from the English translation… Yes, this happens more often than we academics wished for. Translations are already tricky, but to be so lazy as to translate a translation? I have no words for this incredibly stupid practice of German publishing companies. They did this with Mishima Yukio’s Confessions of a Mask, also translated from English to German. No, they did not bother to make a new translation from Japanese, yet. We only have the translation from 1964. Good job, publishers!
Back to the topic.
Like many others I have seen the movies: the whole Japanese Ringu series, and the American version The Ring. I was excited to read the novel, since I expected something intriguing, uncanny, a well-developed plot, and a deeper insight into the characters. Unfortunately, I am rather disappointed.
It’s not a terrible book, but while reading it I had the feeling I was holding the first draft instead of a published novel. There are several points I want to mention to illustrate what exactly irked me.
1. The writing style
I have read worse, but I have read better. Suzuki writes very simplistic, and while I think that a simple writing style per se is not bad, it seemed that he just couldn’t write better. In many instances he focuses on the wrong details. For example, the first chapter is a very long, very boring description of building, neighborhood, and so forth, that do not add to the setting. It is a dull description with no connection or payoff with the mystery that is going on inside the house. I didn’t matter how the neighborhood looked like at all, since the main part of the story was inside the character: her thoughts, fears, anxiety, etc., and the horror that took her life.
Another problem was the lack of sensory descriptions. It was a lot of telling, and almost no showing. If Suzuki described something it was almost entirely visual, and in second place what the character felt like. No smell, no taste, no touch, no audio. This makes it very difficult to fully emerge into the story. It’s even worse, because the plot doesn’t really affect the characters. Asakawa is understandably disturbed and concerned, but he’s such a whiny, arrogant prick that I don’t care what happens to him. And when he says “This here is very disturbing to me!” I, as a reader, don’t care, because it’s not only too much telling (instead of showing), there is seldom any real consequence from what is happening. Sure, more whiny panicking, but does Asakawa actually DO more than that? Nope. He prefers to angst about his misunderstood intellect, that poor righteous soul.
Also, the plotting doesn’t always work.
Asakawa decides to take a taxi. The driver reports from a mysterious sudden death of a young man on his motor bike. The young man falls to the ground, while clutching his throat, and then he dies. Just like that. Asakawa is immediately intrigued although he shouldn’t. In reality, it’s just a random death and as a journalist Asakawa has surely heard hundreds and thousands of stories about people dying. But no, because the author knows the story is relevant, Asakawa “feels” it’s relevant. Instincts, he calls it. I call it bullshit.
The driver then says, after Asakawa asks, that the young man died from a heart attack on day XY. HERE is when Asakawa should have been interested, because the boy died the same day, same hour, and because of the same reason as his niece died. THIS should have caught his attention. Not some random dude dying.
Suzuki, this is not how it works.
This “instinct” or deus ex machine plot driving machine happens quite often.
2. Plotholes
There are minor and bigger plotholes.
Some of the smaller ones are inconsistencies from one page to the other. The first chapter the girls describes how a moth flies through a window into her room, flutters a little bit around, and out it goes again. Just two or three pages later she sees a fly and wonders how it got into the room, since everything was closed. What? She JUST described how a moth flew in and out of her open window but the fly is oh so mysterious?
Another scene: Asakawa drives during the night to the holiday park inn. It’s heavily raining. He clearly says that he stops the windshield wipers when the rain stops. Just a few pages later he says that he hadn’t noticed how the rain had stopped. What again?
I can get that he was so caught up in thoughts and fear/anticipation he might have not noticed the rain stop, but AFTER he consciously stopped the wipers, clearly thinking “Oh, it’s not raining anymore, better stop using these!” and then he forgets? How is that possible?
These mistakes are small but show how much care was put into writing the story. And I haven’t even started with the bigger plotholes, yet.
3. Media and science is bad, y’all!
I love good stories and non-fiction books/discussion/whatever about the “good and bad” of media and science. Both things are incredibly important for our society. They are great tools for information, advancement, and education which, in a ‘perfect’ world, would lead to progress.
Of course there are the darker sides. Just off the top of my head: propaganda, misinformation, falsification of data, instrumentalization for war machinery, the question of whether we should make experiment A or B and the moral stands, the dangers of ‘robotizing’ society, and much more. As with many things in life, it depends on how you use it and what for.
Suzuki on the other hand knows better. He has found the hidden and ugly face of media and science: THEY ARE EVIL!
If I had known that it was this simple…
Asakawa is a journalist himself and while Suzuki shoves in some “media is not all bad!” and “well, science and technology are useful!”, he always follows it with his big, glaring, billboard sized “BUT!”. What follows is the same one-sided BS you hear when someone starts with “I’m not a racist, but…!”.
The book is set in 1991 (if I’m not mistaken…maybe 1989?). Asawaka and his boss think of his catastrophic failure from two years ago where he wrote an article with occultist elements. Apparently two years before the story about Asakawa and Sadako happened, Japan had a huge wave of occultist hysteria with “commoners” sending stories to newspaper publishers. First, they make fun of the stupid Japanese, non-journalistic population, because Haha, look at those idiots! All of Japan’s media ignored the happening, destroyed the texts, and congratulated themselves for their elitist club. Then, when it is clear that spooky shit is happening, Asakawa goes full idiot mode: “Media didn’t believe them, but supernatural things are real! They do happen! Those ignorant journalists and scientists!”
Excuse me, but what exactly are you getting all worked up for?
If there is something supernatural going on, prove it. Show it to scientists and then see what happens. Don’t blame media for being skeptical if they don’t believe in the boogeyman although there never was any proof for his existence.
It gets worse. Warning, this part contains spoilers on Sadako’s backstory!
Shizuko, Sadako’s mother, had supernatural powers, commonly called as ESP. She could see into the future, read minds, and other stuff. Her husband, a doctor, wanted to proof that she had those powers. In the beginning the media was all excited, but soon skepticism grew, since there were only written texts and no tangible proofs of her abilities. Society and media scrutinized them. That of course is awful, but at the same time understandable. Would you believe anyone on the internet who says “Hey, I can totally read people’s minds! Make a video and proof it? Call scientists? Nah, just believe me, it’s real!”?
Didn’t think so.
Shizuka’s husband then wants to proof her abilities in front of media and calls for a press conference. All is ready, cameras rolling, people waiting, but Shizuko fails – the pressure and stress, as well as the peoples thoughts (they don’t believe her and she hears that), as well as the fact that she didn’t want to do the test but her husband forced her too (oh, the sexism is another topic…) – and all media attacks them. Of course they think it’s a sham.
While I do think that media can go too far when antagonizing certain people, we shouldn’t forget the fact that they were rightfully criticizing them, since there was NO proof for Shizuko’s ability. WE as the reader know about her powers but why should the rest of the world just believe her?
Exactly, there is no reason to.
Shizuko’s later throws herself into a volcano. Her husband gets very sick and dies also. Sadako is an orphan.
What do Asakawa and Ryuji (his “BFF”) think?
Well, of course Sadako is angry with the press and the WHOLE Japanese society! The dared criticize them for “magic abilities” they couldn’t prove! Those evil bastards! Yes, the WHOLE Japanese society is responsible for Shizuko’s death.
How about this: Sadako’s father is responsible.
Boom, mind blown!
He forced her to prove her powers and Shizuko failed because of the pressure and antagonizing energy towards her. Instead of blaming the person responsible for her failure – her husband – Suzuki blames the press, because how fucking dare they not believe in something clearly never witnessed before! I mean they are after all being hunted by a magical killing video tape energy virus!
As I said, media might have gone overboard, but come the fuck on.
It’s even worse, because Suzuki says through Asawaka and Ryuji: Yeah, science/technology is neat and all, but scientists can’t explain EVERYTHING, therefore they are useless! Lying, fascistic pigs with no moral fiber!
Science is not here to dismiss magic and sit on a horse, mightily judging the plebs. If there is “magic” (or EPS or whatever), science will take a look at it and try to find out WHAT it is and HOW it works!
If someone can read minds and you have proof (videos and lots of tests, etc.), scientists will do everything to find out how it works because science is all about understanding what is there by proving and disproving.
Can you imagine how it would change the world if there was a huge, quantifiable source of ESP activity?
Well, it would not only change the world as we know it, it would become “science”, since the difference between “magic” and “science” is: I can quantify it and prove its existence, now I have to understand how it works.
Suzuki mentions several times how arrogant scientists are since they can’t understand everything and they would discard prove of the supernatural, because scientists are just arrogant, elitist assholes and of course you should believe in magically killing video tapes, y’all! I SAW it!
Since Suzuki has exactly two people talking about science and both are self-congratulatory assholes about their incredibly “philosophical” dispute and just say: “Yep, science is stupid, because they don’t believe”, the discourse ends with that ignorant statement and a glaring warning sign of Suzuki’s inability to understand what the fuck science is all about.
4. Sexism and rape
Before I start, let me first say that I do not condemn the topic of rape or sexism in literature. Both things are prevalent in our society and should have their space in literature as well. Disgusting figures in literature have their right to exist, because there are disgusting people in reality. A book is not bad because rape or sexism happen, it is bad when it uses rape for shock value (with a side-dish of apologist discourse) and blatant, internalized, and never questioned sexism (by no one).
Let’s begin with something light.
Every time a woman talks or is about to talk, Asakawa gets pissed as hell.
His wife is concerned about his weird behavior?
“OMG, shut up! I’m busy investigating, woman, don’t you see?!” that’s what the thinks. Internally nagging about his wife Shizuko (similar name to Sadako’s mother, yes, but different kanji). He even says that shizu comes from quiet, so she should follow her name and shut the fuck up.
How about you tell your wife something important is bugging you, but you can’t tell her right now, but you will, as soon as you are ready? Talk to her like a fucking adult instead of dismissing her as the typical “talkative” wife, which she clearly isn’t? You patronizing prick.
When Asakawa calls his in laws he is happy when Shizuko’s father picks up, because the mother-in-law would “talk too much, omg so annoying!!! Geez, women! Ugh!”. In a short scene on the video (not part of Sadako’s nightmare ride) you see a program on literature, with the male host, male poet, and the pretty looking bimbo girl. This is how the book describes it, I shit you not.
“Look at that useless, pretty girl!” Choke on that, girls.
The receptionist working for Nagao (appears below)? Stupid, talkative bitch!
The maybe-gf of Ryuji? Well, she is pure and okay, but mainly because she is oh so fucking pretty and skinny! OMG soooo pretty! Look at how pretty she is! She is smart? Who the fuck cares, pretty! Breasts! Legs! Innocence! Skinny!
Sadako? OMG SOOOO PRETTY! LIKE EVEN PRETTIER THAN RYUJI’S GF! OMG INSTABONER!
Women: talkative, nagging, ugly bitches or decorative elements for male sexual satisfaction.
This is sexist, for both men and women.
And this shit is completely normal in the book. Nobody thinks twice. Of course women talk too much and annoy the poor hero! Of course pretty women need to be fucked and/or raped! Of course women don’t have any important position ever! There are only there to look pretty!
One girl in the course was all like “Well, what did you expect, it was THOSE times, and it’s Japan”. Thank you, I know Japan has major issues with sexism. This does not mean that I should accept it without any criticism and join the club. Just no.
Yes, there are very talkative women and women who use their looks, but a) none of these two things are represented in the books, it’s all male gaze and stereotyping things who aren’t like that, b) all the women in the novel is just too fucking much, c) it’s not an inherently female trait, despite what patriarchy claims, and d) there's nothing inherently wrong in being pretty or using your looks as a career (as long as you're not abusive).
This part will contain major spoilers and a HUGE plot twist.
Reader’s discretion advised!
Asakawa is a journalist, and since Suzuki is clearly a better writer than I am, Asakawa is almost completely unable to think logically, find and understand clues, and interpret obvious messages. That is why he needs help from his “BFF” Ryuji, a professor of philosophy and rapist.
Asakawa loves to say how much he despises Ryuji and describes him as disgusting, weird, and unpleasant. Why is he friends with him? Because the plot says so. There is no other fucking reason.
While they talk about the dead kids and the tape Ryuji mentions that he “did it again”. Asakawa explains how as a teenager he “befriended” Ryuji, or rather Ryuji him. Asakawa was 16/17 waiting in class, reading, before school started, when a still drunk Ryuji appears. He then tells him how he got drunk, took a stroll in the middle of the night, and got a “feeling” of raping a woman he had seen. So he goes to her apartment, and wonder of wonders, the door is magically open. He gets in and rapes her.
Asakawa is disgusted and does absolutely nothing. He doesn’t tell anybody, nor does he call the police. I would have accepted it, since he was still a teenager and probably scared himself. But Ryuji later on continued raping, Asakawa knew that, and did jackshit to stop him. Asakawa is around 33 to 35 years old, is married and has an 18-months-old daughter. One could think that an adult, a journalist, a man with wife and daughter would somehow CARE for something like rape. Nope. Not him.
He doesn’t call the police. Ever. He doesn’t even think he could or should. But he is oh so utterly disgusted by Ryuji, guys!
Now some who read the novel might say: “But it’s not clear IF Ryuji really raped those women!”
Well, not only is the doubt of those rapes rather weak, Asakawa STILL should have called the police numerous times! He has a man confessing his crimes in detail! His fucking job as a human being is to call the police, tell them everything he knows and that’s it. It’s then the police’s job to see what happened and prove Ryuji’s guilt.
There is literally no reason at all for Asakawa to shut his trap other than he is too fucking stupid to solve the mystery himself so he befriends a rapist for over 15 years so one day that “friend” can save his stupid ass from a killer video tape virus.
But this isn’t enough. Oh, no!
Now we get to the grrrrreat bits with Sadako!
Here I warn again of major spoilers and plot twists.
Sadako goes to Tokyo when she’s 18/19 and joins a theater group. We find out that one of the group’s founder has the hots for her so of course he gets drunk and “visits” her in the middle of the night in her apartment. The guy telling the story makes it clear that the dude wanted to rape her. Everybody knew it, no one cared. Shit happens, I guess, eh, ladies?
The next day he comes to practice, but he’s all pale and suddenly he dies. It’s clear that his rape attempt failed and later on we find out that Sadako, who didn’t go to rehearsal that day, had killed him telepathically.
Congratulations, Sadako, you didn’t get raped thanks to your excellent ESP skills!
Women, now we know how to protect us!
This is also a good tip for men.
So to everyone reading this: Remember, if you don’t want to get raped, close your doors and get your supernatural skills growing.
Is this the end?
Of course not!
Sadako visits her sick father in a sanatorium for people suffering from tuberculosis. There works a young doctor who contracted smallpox, called Nagao. He sees Sadako, talks to her and gets suddenly a “dark urge”, a “voice” telling him to do things, and all that crap also Ryuji used to excuse his rapes.
Nagao lures her away and rapes her, taking her virginity. Sadako fights and bites a huge chunk of flesh out of his shoulder so that the bone is visible. After the rape Nagao marvels at her breasts and the sunrays touching her glistening pubic hairs (just…don’t ask me…seriously), and then he looks again at her vagina and sees two fully grown testicles.
Yes, Sadako is intersex.
Here comes the voice again, telling him to do dark things, so he throws her into the well, throws down some rocks and kills her that way.
Now, the rape part is horrible, but I could have “lived” with it, if not for what happened right after Asakawa and Ryuji knew the truth. Since Sadako has immense powers, more than her mother, they conclude that she should have fought harder – she already killed one dude, so why not kill Nagao? – and that she must have known she was going to get raped.
Even better, she FORCED Nagao to rape and kill her, which in their opinion is the “dark voice” in Nagao’s head telling him to do so. Nagao is basically Sadako’s victim. She forced him to rape her because she wanted revenge.
How and why?
Well, Japanese society and media had killed her mother and since everyone is evil she wanted to take revenge. Now, Sadako is intersex, a fact that has been hinted twice. Once where a friend of Asakawa describes her (he looks at a photo from her time during the theatre group) as unbelievably beautiful (like every other guy in the story) in a very exaggerated creepy way, but she lacks “motherly qualities”. What the hell does that mean, you ask?
-> SEE COMMENT SECTION
Trigger warning: Rape.
REVIEW CONTINUES IN COMMENT SECTION
Now to the review.
I’ve read The Ring for a Seminar on Japanese contemporary literature and literary discourse. I read parts of the original Japanese novel and the German translation, which is a translation from the English translation… Yes, this happens more often than we academics wished for. Translations are already tricky, but to be so lazy as to translate a translation? I have no words for this incredibly stupid practice of German publishing companies. They did this with Mishima Yukio’s Confessions of a Mask, also translated from English to German. No, they did not bother to make a new translation from Japanese, yet. We only have the translation from 1964. Good job, publishers!
Back to the topic.
Like many others I have seen the movies: the whole Japanese Ringu series, and the American version The Ring. I was excited to read the novel, since I expected something intriguing, uncanny, a well-developed plot, and a deeper insight into the characters. Unfortunately, I am rather disappointed.
It’s not a terrible book, but while reading it I had the feeling I was holding the first draft instead of a published novel. There are several points I want to mention to illustrate what exactly irked me.
1. The writing style
I have read worse, but I have read better. Suzuki writes very simplistic, and while I think that a simple writing style per se is not bad, it seemed that he just couldn’t write better. In many instances he focuses on the wrong details. For example, the first chapter is a very long, very boring description of building, neighborhood, and so forth, that do not add to the setting. It is a dull description with no connection or payoff with the mystery that is going on inside the house. I didn’t matter how the neighborhood looked like at all, since the main part of the story was inside the character: her thoughts, fears, anxiety, etc., and the horror that took her life.
Another problem was the lack of sensory descriptions. It was a lot of telling, and almost no showing. If Suzuki described something it was almost entirely visual, and in second place what the character felt like. No smell, no taste, no touch, no audio. This makes it very difficult to fully emerge into the story. It’s even worse, because the plot doesn’t really affect the characters. Asakawa is understandably disturbed and concerned, but he’s such a whiny, arrogant prick that I don’t care what happens to him. And when he says “This here is very disturbing to me!” I, as a reader, don’t care, because it’s not only too much telling (instead of showing), there is seldom any real consequence from what is happening. Sure, more whiny panicking, but does Asakawa actually DO more than that? Nope. He prefers to angst about his misunderstood intellect, that poor righteous soul.
Also, the plotting doesn’t always work.
Asakawa decides to take a taxi. The driver reports from a mysterious sudden death of a young man on his motor bike. The young man falls to the ground, while clutching his throat, and then he dies. Just like that. Asakawa is immediately intrigued although he shouldn’t. In reality, it’s just a random death and as a journalist Asakawa has surely heard hundreds and thousands of stories about people dying. But no, because the author knows the story is relevant, Asakawa “feels” it’s relevant. Instincts, he calls it. I call it bullshit.
The driver then says, after Asakawa asks, that the young man died from a heart attack on day XY. HERE is when Asakawa should have been interested, because the boy died the same day, same hour, and because of the same reason as his niece died. THIS should have caught his attention. Not some random dude dying.
Suzuki, this is not how it works.
This “instinct” or deus ex machine plot driving machine happens quite often.
2. Plotholes
There are minor and bigger plotholes.
Some of the smaller ones are inconsistencies from one page to the other. The first chapter the girls describes how a moth flies through a window into her room, flutters a little bit around, and out it goes again. Just two or three pages later she sees a fly and wonders how it got into the room, since everything was closed. What? She JUST described how a moth flew in and out of her open window but the fly is oh so mysterious?
Another scene: Asakawa drives during the night to the holiday park inn. It’s heavily raining. He clearly says that he stops the windshield wipers when the rain stops. Just a few pages later he says that he hadn’t noticed how the rain had stopped. What again?
I can get that he was so caught up in thoughts and fear/anticipation he might have not noticed the rain stop, but AFTER he consciously stopped the wipers, clearly thinking “Oh, it’s not raining anymore, better stop using these!” and then he forgets? How is that possible?
These mistakes are small but show how much care was put into writing the story. And I haven’t even started with the bigger plotholes, yet.
3. Media and science is bad, y’all!
I love good stories and non-fiction books/discussion/whatever about the “good and bad” of media and science. Both things are incredibly important for our society. They are great tools for information, advancement, and education which, in a ‘perfect’ world, would lead to progress.
Of course there are the darker sides. Just off the top of my head: propaganda, misinformation, falsification of data, instrumentalization for war machinery, the question of whether we should make experiment A or B and the moral stands, the dangers of ‘robotizing’ society, and much more. As with many things in life, it depends on how you use it and what for.
Suzuki on the other hand knows better. He has found the hidden and ugly face of media and science: THEY ARE EVIL!
If I had known that it was this simple…
Asakawa is a journalist himself and while Suzuki shoves in some “media is not all bad!” and “well, science and technology are useful!”, he always follows it with his big, glaring, billboard sized “BUT!”. What follows is the same one-sided BS you hear when someone starts with “I’m not a racist, but…!”.
The book is set in 1991 (if I’m not mistaken…maybe 1989?). Asawaka and his boss think of his catastrophic failure from two years ago where he wrote an article with occultist elements. Apparently two years before the story about Asakawa and Sadako happened, Japan had a huge wave of occultist hysteria with “commoners” sending stories to newspaper publishers. First, they make fun of the stupid Japanese, non-journalistic population, because Haha, look at those idiots! All of Japan’s media ignored the happening, destroyed the texts, and congratulated themselves for their elitist club. Then, when it is clear that spooky shit is happening, Asakawa goes full idiot mode: “Media didn’t believe them, but supernatural things are real! They do happen! Those ignorant journalists and scientists!”
Excuse me, but what exactly are you getting all worked up for?
If there is something supernatural going on, prove it. Show it to scientists and then see what happens. Don’t blame media for being skeptical if they don’t believe in the boogeyman although there never was any proof for his existence.
It gets worse. Warning, this part contains spoilers on Sadako’s backstory!
Shizuko, Sadako’s mother, had supernatural powers, commonly called as ESP. She could see into the future, read minds, and other stuff. Her husband, a doctor, wanted to proof that she had those powers. In the beginning the media was all excited, but soon skepticism grew, since there were only written texts and no tangible proofs of her abilities. Society and media scrutinized them. That of course is awful, but at the same time understandable. Would you believe anyone on the internet who says “Hey, I can totally read people’s minds! Make a video and proof it? Call scientists? Nah, just believe me, it’s real!”?
Didn’t think so.
Shizuka’s husband then wants to proof her abilities in front of media and calls for a press conference. All is ready, cameras rolling, people waiting, but Shizuko fails – the pressure and stress, as well as the peoples thoughts (they don’t believe her and she hears that), as well as the fact that she didn’t want to do the test but her husband forced her too (oh, the sexism is another topic…) – and all media attacks them. Of course they think it’s a sham.
While I do think that media can go too far when antagonizing certain people, we shouldn’t forget the fact that they were rightfully criticizing them, since there was NO proof for Shizuko’s ability. WE as the reader know about her powers but why should the rest of the world just believe her?
Exactly, there is no reason to.
Shizuko’s later throws herself into a volcano. Her husband gets very sick and dies also. Sadako is an orphan.
What do Asakawa and Ryuji (his “BFF”) think?
Well, of course Sadako is angry with the press and the WHOLE Japanese society! The dared criticize them for “magic abilities” they couldn’t prove! Those evil bastards! Yes, the WHOLE Japanese society is responsible for Shizuko’s death.
How about this: Sadako’s father is responsible.
Boom, mind blown!
He forced her to prove her powers and Shizuko failed because of the pressure and antagonizing energy towards her. Instead of blaming the person responsible for her failure – her husband – Suzuki blames the press, because how fucking dare they not believe in something clearly never witnessed before! I mean they are after all being hunted by a magical killing video tape energy virus!
As I said, media might have gone overboard, but come the fuck on.
It’s even worse, because Suzuki says through Asawaka and Ryuji: Yeah, science/technology is neat and all, but scientists can’t explain EVERYTHING, therefore they are useless! Lying, fascistic pigs with no moral fiber!
Science is not here to dismiss magic and sit on a horse, mightily judging the plebs. If there is “magic” (or EPS or whatever), science will take a look at it and try to find out WHAT it is and HOW it works!
If someone can read minds and you have proof (videos and lots of tests, etc.), scientists will do everything to find out how it works because science is all about understanding what is there by proving and disproving.
Can you imagine how it would change the world if there was a huge, quantifiable source of ESP activity?
Well, it would not only change the world as we know it, it would become “science”, since the difference between “magic” and “science” is: I can quantify it and prove its existence, now I have to understand how it works.
Suzuki mentions several times how arrogant scientists are since they can’t understand everything and they would discard prove of the supernatural, because scientists are just arrogant, elitist assholes and of course you should believe in magically killing video tapes, y’all! I SAW it!
Since Suzuki has exactly two people talking about science and both are self-congratulatory assholes about their incredibly “philosophical” dispute and just say: “Yep, science is stupid, because they don’t believe”, the discourse ends with that ignorant statement and a glaring warning sign of Suzuki’s inability to understand what the fuck science is all about.
4. Sexism and rape
Before I start, let me first say that I do not condemn the topic of rape or sexism in literature. Both things are prevalent in our society and should have their space in literature as well. Disgusting figures in literature have their right to exist, because there are disgusting people in reality. A book is not bad because rape or sexism happen, it is bad when it uses rape for shock value (with a side-dish of apologist discourse) and blatant, internalized, and never questioned sexism (by no one).
Let’s begin with something light.
Every time a woman talks or is about to talk, Asakawa gets pissed as hell.
His wife is concerned about his weird behavior?
“OMG, shut up! I’m busy investigating, woman, don’t you see?!” that’s what the thinks. Internally nagging about his wife Shizuko (similar name to Sadako’s mother, yes, but different kanji). He even says that shizu comes from quiet, so she should follow her name and shut the fuck up.
How about you tell your wife something important is bugging you, but you can’t tell her right now, but you will, as soon as you are ready? Talk to her like a fucking adult instead of dismissing her as the typical “talkative” wife, which she clearly isn’t? You patronizing prick.
When Asakawa calls his in laws he is happy when Shizuko’s father picks up, because the mother-in-law would “talk too much, omg so annoying!!! Geez, women! Ugh!”. In a short scene on the video (not part of Sadako’s nightmare ride) you see a program on literature, with the male host, male poet, and the pretty looking bimbo girl. This is how the book describes it, I shit you not.
“Look at that useless, pretty girl!” Choke on that, girls.
The receptionist working for Nagao (appears below)? Stupid, talkative bitch!
The maybe-gf of Ryuji? Well, she is pure and okay, but mainly because she is oh so fucking pretty and skinny! OMG soooo pretty! Look at how pretty she is! She is smart? Who the fuck cares, pretty! Breasts! Legs! Innocence! Skinny!
Sadako? OMG SOOOO PRETTY! LIKE EVEN PRETTIER THAN RYUJI’S GF! OMG INSTABONER!
Women: talkative, nagging, ugly bitches or decorative elements for male sexual satisfaction.
This is sexist, for both men and women.
And this shit is completely normal in the book. Nobody thinks twice. Of course women talk too much and annoy the poor hero! Of course pretty women need to be fucked and/or raped! Of course women don’t have any important position ever! There are only there to look pretty!
One girl in the course was all like “Well, what did you expect, it was THOSE times, and it’s Japan”. Thank you, I know Japan has major issues with sexism. This does not mean that I should accept it without any criticism and join the club. Just no.
Yes, there are very talkative women and women who use their looks, but a) none of these two things are represented in the books, it’s all male gaze and stereotyping things who aren’t like that, b) all the women in the novel is just too fucking much, c) it’s not an inherently female trait, despite what patriarchy claims, and d) there's nothing inherently wrong in being pretty or using your looks as a career (as long as you're not abusive).
This part will contain major spoilers and a HUGE plot twist.
Reader’s discretion advised!
Asakawa is a journalist, and since Suzuki is clearly a better writer than I am, Asakawa is almost completely unable to think logically, find and understand clues, and interpret obvious messages. That is why he needs help from his “BFF” Ryuji, a professor of philosophy and rapist.
Asakawa loves to say how much he despises Ryuji and describes him as disgusting, weird, and unpleasant. Why is he friends with him? Because the plot says so. There is no other fucking reason.
While they talk about the dead kids and the tape Ryuji mentions that he “did it again”. Asakawa explains how as a teenager he “befriended” Ryuji, or rather Ryuji him. Asakawa was 16/17 waiting in class, reading, before school started, when a still drunk Ryuji appears. He then tells him how he got drunk, took a stroll in the middle of the night, and got a “feeling” of raping a woman he had seen. So he goes to her apartment, and wonder of wonders, the door is magically open. He gets in and rapes her.
Asakawa is disgusted and does absolutely nothing. He doesn’t tell anybody, nor does he call the police. I would have accepted it, since he was still a teenager and probably scared himself. But Ryuji later on continued raping, Asakawa knew that, and did jackshit to stop him. Asakawa is around 33 to 35 years old, is married and has an 18-months-old daughter. One could think that an adult, a journalist, a man with wife and daughter would somehow CARE for something like rape. Nope. Not him.
He doesn’t call the police. Ever. He doesn’t even think he could or should. But he is oh so utterly disgusted by Ryuji, guys!
Now some who read the novel might say: “But it’s not clear IF Ryuji really raped those women!”
Well, not only is the doubt of those rapes rather weak, Asakawa STILL should have called the police numerous times! He has a man confessing his crimes in detail! His fucking job as a human being is to call the police, tell them everything he knows and that’s it. It’s then the police’s job to see what happened and prove Ryuji’s guilt.
There is literally no reason at all for Asakawa to shut his trap other than he is too fucking stupid to solve the mystery himself so he befriends a rapist for over 15 years so one day that “friend” can save his stupid ass from a killer video tape virus.
But this isn’t enough. Oh, no!
Now we get to the grrrrreat bits with Sadako!
Here I warn again of major spoilers and plot twists.
Sadako goes to Tokyo when she’s 18/19 and joins a theater group. We find out that one of the group’s founder has the hots for her so of course he gets drunk and “visits” her in the middle of the night in her apartment. The guy telling the story makes it clear that the dude wanted to rape her. Everybody knew it, no one cared. Shit happens, I guess, eh, ladies?
The next day he comes to practice, but he’s all pale and suddenly he dies. It’s clear that his rape attempt failed and later on we find out that Sadako, who didn’t go to rehearsal that day, had killed him telepathically.
Congratulations, Sadako, you didn’t get raped thanks to your excellent ESP skills!
Women, now we know how to protect us!
This is also a good tip for men.
So to everyone reading this: Remember, if you don’t want to get raped, close your doors and get your supernatural skills growing.
Is this the end?
Of course not!
Sadako visits her sick father in a sanatorium for people suffering from tuberculosis. There works a young doctor who contracted smallpox, called Nagao. He sees Sadako, talks to her and gets suddenly a “dark urge”, a “voice” telling him to do things, and all that crap also Ryuji used to excuse his rapes.
Nagao lures her away and rapes her, taking her virginity. Sadako fights and bites a huge chunk of flesh out of his shoulder so that the bone is visible. After the rape Nagao marvels at her breasts and the sunrays touching her glistening pubic hairs (just…don’t ask me…seriously), and then he looks again at her vagina and sees two fully grown testicles.
Yes, Sadako is intersex.
Here comes the voice again, telling him to do dark things, so he throws her into the well, throws down some rocks and kills her that way.
Now, the rape part is horrible, but I could have “lived” with it, if not for what happened right after Asakawa and Ryuji knew the truth. Since Sadako has immense powers, more than her mother, they conclude that she should have fought harder – she already killed one dude, so why not kill Nagao? – and that she must have known she was going to get raped.
Even better, she FORCED Nagao to rape and kill her, which in their opinion is the “dark voice” in Nagao’s head telling him to do so. Nagao is basically Sadako’s victim. She forced him to rape her because she wanted revenge.
How and why?
Well, Japanese society and media had killed her mother and since everyone is evil she wanted to take revenge. Now, Sadako is intersex, a fact that has been hinted twice. Once where a friend of Asakawa describes her (he looks at a photo from her time during the theatre group) as unbelievably beautiful (like every other guy in the story) in a very exaggerated creepy way, but she lacks “motherly qualities”. What the hell does that mean, you ask?
-> SEE COMMENT SECTION
March 6, 2020
The hit movie The Ring, starring Naomi Watts, is based off a Japanese movie called Ringu ("ring" in Japanese), and Ringu is based off of Koji Suzuki's novel Ring. Most people probably know this story from the former two sources, but I thought Ring the book was excellent in its own right. The book is billed as a horror novel, but it's not. I found it was only somewhat scary two times, once near the start of the book and once near the end. It's really a mystery novel, and it shares very little with the movies.
Briefly, the story follows Asakawa, a journalist, and Ryuji, a university professor, as they try to solve the mystery of a videotape that kills anyone who watches it after seven days. One thing that grated on me was Asakawa's character. I won't spoil anything, but he ends up with a lot to lose in this story, far more than Ryuji, and yet he just lets Ryuji solve everything. If you had that much at stake, you'd think you'd put a little more effort into solving the mystery, but time and again Asakawa went to pieces when Ryuji couldn't figure part of it out. Figure it out yourself!
I found him to be a lazy and arguably superfluous character. Aside from that, the mystery is expertly crafted and the story is a real page-turner. It's a smart, multi-layered thriller, and I love Suzuki's writing style; it's simple but somehow also incredibly rich and engaging. There are also periodic descriptions of aspects of Japanese behaviour and culture, which I loved because it's a country I'm not terribly familiar with.
All in all, Ring is a tremendous mystery novel that hooks you early on and never lets go. I'm currently reading book two in the trilogy, Spiral, and loving that too. I can't wait to read Loop. Check this series out! I think you'll enjoy it.
Briefly, the story follows Asakawa, a journalist, and Ryuji, a university professor, as they try to solve the mystery of a videotape that kills anyone who watches it after seven days. One thing that grated on me was Asakawa's character. I won't spoil anything, but he ends up with a lot to lose in this story, far more than Ryuji, and yet he just lets Ryuji solve everything. If you had that much at stake, you'd think you'd put a little more effort into solving the mystery, but time and again Asakawa went to pieces when Ryuji couldn't figure part of it out. Figure it out yourself!
I found him to be a lazy and arguably superfluous character. Aside from that, the mystery is expertly crafted and the story is a real page-turner. It's a smart, multi-layered thriller, and I love Suzuki's writing style; it's simple but somehow also incredibly rich and engaging. There are also periodic descriptions of aspects of Japanese behaviour and culture, which I loved because it's a country I'm not terribly familiar with.
All in all, Ring is a tremendous mystery novel that hooks you early on and never lets go. I'm currently reading book two in the trilogy, Spiral, and loving that too. I can't wait to read Loop. Check this series out! I think you'll enjoy it.
October 10, 2021
Fuck, yeah
October 28, 2021
Unlike the American film based loosely on this title, Suzuki's tale seems more intriguing mystery than horror. It's a great formula - you have seven days to solve the puzzle, and prevent your own death - and it makes for a compelling read. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series, but the chilling conclusion to this one does make me wonder what will happen next.
November 4, 2025
After a very good first half I felt the book lost something towards the end. It became rather convoluted and a little bit silly. The film works so much better but maybe, as the film has such memorable visuals, this didn't help with my enjoyment.
Also, the book ends on a cliffhanger so I now need to read Spiral. I wasn't aware of that when I started which is my own fault (I'm now aware there's 3 books in total). A good read but not as good as I was expecting
Also, the book ends on a cliffhanger so I now need to read Spiral. I wasn't aware of that when I started which is my own fault (I'm now aware there's 3 books in total). A good read but not as good as I was expecting
October 26, 2022
"Be true to what you're feeling this instant! All we have in front of us is an uncertain future! The future'll take care of itself. When humanity gets around to applying its ingenuity, who knows if it won't find a solution? It's just another trial for the human species. In every age, the Devil reappears in a different guise. You can stamp it out, and stamp it out, and he'll keep coming back, over and over."
I didn't think I would enjoy that much a horror novel. But here I am, over my head with work, in need for some long night sleep, but unable to put the book down.
I have read in other reviews that the movies are much better. I have only watched the first american version long ago, and I can recall almost nothing. I don't know if now I would like it better than the book, but I don't think so, because I found the story great, just as it is.
Of course the book has much more details the movie, how else could it be? And I enjoyed every bit of it. Actually, I think it is as minimalist as it can get, with just enough details to build the suspence and an eerie athmosphere, capturing perfectly the dread and panic in which the main character, Asakawa, finds himself in.
But my favorite was the second character, 'despicable' Ryuji. Asakawa and him are as fire and ice (or should I say ying and yan?), one good, happy in his marriage, but consumed by emotions, the other calm, with a dark past, a morbid fascination of death, and nothing to lose, but having an implacable and impecable logic.
The structure of the story is more mystery/thriller, with some really creepy and uncanny scenes. I liked that there were no disgusting scenes, but hair-raising type only. It gripped me from the very first pages. What put me off a bit were some odd-sounding paragraphs, which I think were not properly translated, but given the pace of the events, they soon slip out of attention.
The ending was great too; in fact, the choices Asakawa is facing will linger for days in your head. In my case, one choice is clear, and there is no room for the other. But who knows what others might choose?
And I have to thank Tara for this buddy reading - it was a delight and such fun to exchange thoughts about it these days! If not for her, who knows how much dust it would have gathered in my virtual shelves? And that would have been a pity, because I had a great time reading it, and plan to read the rest of the series too.
All in all, if you want a Halloween reading, or/and a thought provoking one, this might prove an excellent choice.
I didn't think I would enjoy that much a horror novel. But here I am, over my head with work, in need for some long night sleep, but unable to put the book down.
I have read in other reviews that the movies are much better. I have only watched the first american version long ago, and I can recall almost nothing. I don't know if now I would like it better than the book, but I don't think so, because I found the story great, just as it is.
Of course the book has much more details the movie, how else could it be? And I enjoyed every bit of it. Actually, I think it is as minimalist as it can get, with just enough details to build the suspence and an eerie athmosphere, capturing perfectly the dread and panic in which the main character, Asakawa, finds himself in.
But my favorite was the second character, 'despicable' Ryuji. Asakawa and him are as fire and ice (or should I say ying and yan?), one good, happy in his marriage, but consumed by emotions, the other calm, with a dark past, a morbid fascination of death, and nothing to lose, but having an implacable and impecable logic.
The structure of the story is more mystery/thriller, with some really creepy and uncanny scenes. I liked that there were no disgusting scenes, but hair-raising type only. It gripped me from the very first pages. What put me off a bit were some odd-sounding paragraphs, which I think were not properly translated, but given the pace of the events, they soon slip out of attention.
The ending was great too; in fact, the choices Asakawa is facing will linger for days in your head. In my case, one choice is clear, and there is no room for the other. But who knows what others might choose?
And I have to thank Tara for this buddy reading - it was a delight and such fun to exchange thoughts about it these days! If not for her, who knows how much dust it would have gathered in my virtual shelves? And that would have been a pity, because I had a great time reading it, and plan to read the rest of the series too.
All in all, if you want a Halloween reading, or/and a thought provoking one, this might prove an excellent choice.
February 25, 2022
ليس عندي شك أن هذه الرواية من أفضل من قرأت في أدب الرعب، هذه ليست مجرد رواية بل هي فكرة، مشروع رعب، دوامة شرسة تأخذ القراءة منذ البداية بخفة وهدوء وزحف حتمي للخوف داخل الشرايين، رحلة طويلة وبحث مستميت للتشبث بالحياة ضمن سلسلة لا تنتهي من الغرائب والاكتشافات التي تزداد حيرة وغموضاً، لست تقرأ هنا مجرد رواية رعب بل تعيش مع شخصيات تستكشف عوالمها، خوفها القديم، تجاربها في الحياة ..
ولكنك تظل طوال الرواية تتساءل ما هي الحلقة، ما علاقة عنوان الرواية بكل هذا الجنون الذي يتناسل في الرواية رويداً رويداً، وهنا يكمن ذلك الفح الذي زرعه الكاتب، ينفجر فجأة كلغم، تطرق رأسك وتفكر لأول وهلة في العنوان، إنه شيء مرعب بحق وغريب، بل للأسف ليس بعيداً جداً عن الواقع الحالي ..
هذه الرواية بطابعها ما بين الرعب الكلاسيكي والحديث لهو منجم غرائب، أسلوب فريد وغامض، تطور ممتع في الأحداث، والأهم من ذلك فأنك بحاجة إلى التركيز في التفاصيل، لا تهمل أي شيء حتى لا يفوتك الوصول إلى النهاية بتلك الدهشة التي ستطاردك طويلاً ..
رواية غريبة، غامضة ، مرعبة ، تأخذك بهدوء إلى عالم الرعب الياباني الخفي والجو النفسي المعتم للأشياء والأحداث ، حيث أن هذه الرواية هي نفسها التي أقتبست منها سلسلة أفلام
The Ring
ولكنك تظل طوال الرواية تتساءل ما هي الحلقة، ما علاقة عنوان الرواية بكل هذا الجنون الذي يتناسل في الرواية رويداً رويداً، وهنا يكمن ذلك الفح الذي زرعه الكاتب، ينفجر فجأة كلغم، تطرق رأسك وتفكر لأول وهلة في العنوان، إنه شيء مرعب بحق وغريب، بل للأسف ليس بعيداً جداً عن الواقع الحالي ..
هذه الرواية بطابعها ما بين الرعب الكلاسيكي والحديث لهو منجم غرائب، أسلوب فريد وغامض، تطور ممتع في الأحداث، والأهم من ذلك فأنك بحاجة إلى التركيز في التفاصيل، لا تهمل أي شيء حتى لا يفوتك الوصول إلى النهاية بتلك الدهشة التي ستطاردك طويلاً ..
رواية غريبة، غامضة ، مرعبة ، تأخذك بهدوء إلى عالم الرعب الياباني الخفي والجو النفسي المعتم للأشياء والأحداث ، حيث أن هذه الرواية هي نفسها التي أقتبست منها سلسلة أفلام
The Ring
January 27, 2013
During a solo work/study trip to Ireland in fall of 2000 I was out one dusky evening exploring the cobble-stoned lanes of Dublin's City Centre when I stumbled upon the entrance to the Irish Film Institute movie house. Excited, I shyly stuck my head inside the front door. I felt a little bit like Alice discovering the rabbit hole. Hanging on the wall to my left as I walked inside was this movie poster:
Remember, this would have been before the deluge of Asian horror (and the numerous American re-makes) found its way to Western audiences. I had never heard of such a movie. All I knew is that the image on the poster ran a cold shiver of dread down my spine. Turns out the Institute was screening a double feature that night of the original Japanese film version of this book called Ringu followed by its sequel.
How could I resist such a temptation? I could not, and bought my tickets immediately. I had never, ever experienced anything like it to that point and it scared the pee out of me *. Later I would return to the hostel where I was staying to find the staff had relocated me to the very top floor in a room all by myself! Everything creaked and groaned in that place and to say I had an uneasy night of sleep would be putting it very politely.
Even though this book is the source material for a game-changing, must-be-experienced horror film, I cannot give it the same high marks. There is definitely something lost in translation. The prose is stilted and restrained in places, not doing its part to build upon the dread and tension the subject matter deserves. It feels a bit dated and old-fashioned, and to be blunt, sexist in a way that kept me out of the story. No woman is treated very well in this novel, and I hated the way Asakawa speaks to his wife.
While there is an indisputable vibe of disquiet, Suzuki's book is much more focused on communicating the details of the unraveling mystery, making it a plot-driven whodunit piece than a sensory onslaught ghost story. If I had not seen the movies first, I would imagine the aspects of the mystery would have kept me quite riveted. It is a fascinating case after all and the way Asakawa and his friend Ryuji systematically follow a series of clues uncovering the tape's origin and purpose is compelling. But I had seen the movies first, so there was no big reveal for me, and I was a little impatient at times at how long Suzuki was drawing out some of the investigation.
Having said that, I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Suzuki obviously has a larger vision for his story that goes beyond what has been captured on film. I'm keen to discover what surprises completing the trilogy will bring.
*I highly recommend the American film version as well
November 26, 2021
El periodista Asakawa tiene la mosca tras la oreja. Su sobrina acaba de morir de una extraña manera, cuando se la encontró muerta su rostro era el vivo retrato de terror. Al mismo tiempo y a la misma hora, el novio de la joven muere y su rostro presenta un horror similar. Cuando descubra que otras dos personas han muerto al mismo momento, Asakawa desarrollará una obsesión por este extraño suceso y querrá descubrir que está pasando. Pero quizás esté poniendo más en juego de lo que él mismo imagina.
Llevaba años queriendo empezar la saga de The Ring. Las películas, tanto las japonesas como los remakes americanos, se han encontrado siempre entre mis películas de terror favoritas de todos los tiempos. Tenía sentimientos encontrados, porque no quería encontrarme algo diferente o peor, que de alguna manera estropeara la visión que tengo de las pelis, pero afortunadamente no ha sido así. He encontrado el mismo alma, con cosas mejores y cosas peores.
Una de las cosas en las que sí que se diferencian es que pese a que las pelis son terror puro y duro, la novela tiene más de thriller, pero con picos de terror. Es algo así como si un detective estuviera investigando un caso de asesinato, y se mezclaran con puntuales y grandes escenas de terror. Esa mezcla ha conseguido que sea extramadamente adictiva. Es realmente una historia que se lee en un par de tardes, que si no fuera porque la leí en lectura conjunta me hubiera durado dos ratitos.
Lo que menos me ha gustado y ha conseguido que lo redonda que podría ser la historia se quede en casi perfecta, han sido sus protagonistas masculinos. Realmente salvo la mismísima Sadako, todos los personajes con más de dos frases son masculinos. TODOS. Y, nuavemente, TODOS tratan a las mujeres con una toxicidad tan brutal e incómoda, que pese a ser el Japón en los años 90, no termina de justificarlo para mí. Asakawa incluso normaliza que su amigo Ryuji se jacte de abusar de mujeres, mientras él, "siendo bueno", trata a su mujer como una inútil. El director de la peli original tuvo el gran atino de eliminar estos personajes y poner en el centro de la historia a una mujer. ¡Bravo!
En lo que sí gana mucho la historia con respecto a la peli es en lo que el lector consigue empatizar con la "villana". Sadako es la víctima real de esta historia, destruida por un mundo podrido de seres humanos horribles, que no frenan sus impulsos y se lleven a quien sea por delante. He empatizado muchísimo con Sadako, con su historia. Quizás incluso el hecho de tener personajes masculinos protagonistas tan asquerosos ayude incluso más a eso. No creo que esté hecho a conciencia, pero con el paso del tiempo, ha ayudado a ello. La peli no lo explora tan bien.
En definitiva, "The Ring" es una obra adictiva, que mantiene la tensión durante toda la trama, que aunque funciona como terror psicológico, tiene más de thriller y que va a encantar a todos los fans de la franquicia de pelis. Queda recomendadísima. Estoy deseando seguir con la saga porque hay cuatro novelas más y una colección de relatos. Tengo a Sadako para rato. Una faena que haya que leerla en inglés, porque no sé dignan a publicarla completa en español.
Llevaba años queriendo empezar la saga de The Ring. Las películas, tanto las japonesas como los remakes americanos, se han encontrado siempre entre mis películas de terror favoritas de todos los tiempos. Tenía sentimientos encontrados, porque no quería encontrarme algo diferente o peor, que de alguna manera estropeara la visión que tengo de las pelis, pero afortunadamente no ha sido así. He encontrado el mismo alma, con cosas mejores y cosas peores.
Una de las cosas en las que sí que se diferencian es que pese a que las pelis son terror puro y duro, la novela tiene más de thriller, pero con picos de terror. Es algo así como si un detective estuviera investigando un caso de asesinato, y se mezclaran con puntuales y grandes escenas de terror. Esa mezcla ha conseguido que sea extramadamente adictiva. Es realmente una historia que se lee en un par de tardes, que si no fuera porque la leí en lectura conjunta me hubiera durado dos ratitos.
Lo que menos me ha gustado y ha conseguido que lo redonda que podría ser la historia se quede en casi perfecta, han sido sus protagonistas masculinos. Realmente salvo la mismísima Sadako, todos los personajes con más de dos frases son masculinos. TODOS. Y, nuavemente, TODOS tratan a las mujeres con una toxicidad tan brutal e incómoda, que pese a ser el Japón en los años 90, no termina de justificarlo para mí. Asakawa incluso normaliza que su amigo Ryuji se jacte de abusar de mujeres, mientras él, "siendo bueno", trata a su mujer como una inútil. El director de la peli original tuvo el gran atino de eliminar estos personajes y poner en el centro de la historia a una mujer. ¡Bravo!
En lo que sí gana mucho la historia con respecto a la peli es en lo que el lector consigue empatizar con la "villana". Sadako es la víctima real de esta historia, destruida por un mundo podrido de seres humanos horribles, que no frenan sus impulsos y se lleven a quien sea por delante. He empatizado muchísimo con Sadako, con su historia. Quizás incluso el hecho de tener personajes masculinos protagonistas tan asquerosos ayude incluso más a eso. No creo que esté hecho a conciencia, pero con el paso del tiempo, ha ayudado a ello. La peli no lo explora tan bien.
En definitiva, "The Ring" es una obra adictiva, que mantiene la tensión durante toda la trama, que aunque funciona como terror psicológico, tiene más de thriller y que va a encantar a todos los fans de la franquicia de pelis. Queda recomendadísima. Estoy deseando seguir con la saga porque hay cuatro novelas más y una colección de relatos. Tengo a Sadako para rato. Una faena que haya que leerla en inglés, porque no sé dignan a publicarla completa en español.
November 7, 2023
Misma calificación que en la primera lectura. Hay que entender este libro como un producto casi independiente en donde Suzuki se enfoca en la relación entre lo paranormal y lo tecnológico, ¿qué pasa si se unen? Este es un libro adelantado a su tiempo en cuanto al concepto de "viralidad" de un medio audiovisual. Hay muchísimo que se puede desgranar y este hang out con mi club de lectura ha sido uno de mis favs. Las lecturas en compañía en serio se disfrutan diferente.
October 17, 2021
3.25/5stars
I enjoyed the lore behind the original story, but I find that this story worked better as a visual media just cause it has SO much to do with visual imagery. I didn't love our characters - I found most of them to be pretty disgusting men. But the story itself was a lot of fun.
I enjoyed the lore behind the original story, but I find that this story worked better as a visual media just cause it has SO much to do with visual imagery. I didn't love our characters - I found most of them to be pretty disgusting men. But the story itself was a lot of fun.
June 7, 2021
هذه رواية عرفها العالم كفيلم تجاري سخيف من وجهة نظري ... به فكرة لكنه سخيف ... انمسخت الرواية ولم يبق منها سوى بعض الأفكار التي تم تطويعها بشكل مستفز لخدمة ذوق المشاهد
وأعتقد أن التشويه لم يحدث في النسخة الأمريكية (2002) فقط بل كان قبل ذلك في نسخة الفيلم اليابانية (1998) فأتي الفيلم الأمريكي كمحاكاه للفيلم الياباني ليس أكثر ... مجرد أمركة والفيلمين هما مثال صارخ لـ كيف تصنع فيلم ردئ من نص عظيم؟!
إن كنت تعيس الحظ مثلي وقد شاهدت الفيلم أولا ولم تحبه فانسه تماما ... ولحسن الحظ كنت قد نسيته بالفعل فقد شاهدته فور صدوره تقريبا ولحسن الحظ اشتريت الكتاب بدون أن أعلم الصلة بينه وبين الفيلم لأفاجأ برواية أخرى جديدة ودسمة وإن عابها الطول الشديد
ولكي لا أكون ظالمة فربما لم يكن النص الأصلي قابلا للاخراج السينمائي وربما جمهور الكتابة يختلف في ثقافته عن جمهور السينما
لم تكن هناك نعومي واتس هنا ... لا أم جميلة ولاأب وحبيب سابق وسيم ولا سامارا ولا أم بالتبني شريرة ومستهترة ولا أخيلة ولا جثث مشوهة ... لا يوجد تشابه بين الفيلم والرواية إلا في الإطار العام ... فيلم فيديو يؤدي إلى وفاة مشاهديه بعد ٧ أيام
بجانب ساداكو يامامورا (سامارا) والتي تختلف حكايتها عن الفيلم، فإن أبطال الرواية الأساسيين وأصحاب الكشف هم أساكاوا (صحفي) وريوجي (صديقه) وصديق لأساكاوا آخر هو أيضا صحفي
الرواية هنا تقدم لنا شخصيات على قدر كبير من العادية (الصحفيين) وشخص تكره ما يذكر عنه غالبا طوال الرواية وإن كان مفروضا عليك كبطل رئيسي وهو ريوجي ... شخص تكرهه أغلب الوقت لماضيه المظلم ... تستغرب تناقضاته الفجة ... وتتألم لأجله في مرحلة ما
محتوى الفيديو في الرواية أكثر قدرة على إحداث الرعب وأكثر منطقية إلى حد كبير عنه في الفيلم ... والرواية مليئة بالمعلومات والحوارات الفلسفية والفكاهة والرعب وكله بأسلوب بسيط جدا
النهاية كانت حزينة وصادمة وغريبة وغير متوقعة بالمرة ويبدو أنني سأصدم مع كل رواية يابانية أقرأها غالبا
لا أعلم إن كان ما سأقوله يعتبر مقبولا أم مستهجنا ولكنني أقوله لإرضاء ضميري ... الرواية لا تصلح للمراهقين والقراء حديثي السن وهي في هذا تختلف عن الفيلم كثيرا
وأعتقد أن التشويه لم يحدث في النسخة الأمريكية (2002) فقط بل كان قبل ذلك في نسخة الفيلم اليابانية (1998) فأتي الفيلم الأمريكي كمحاكاه للفيلم الياباني ليس أكثر ... مجرد أمركة والفيلمين هما مثال صارخ لـ كيف تصنع فيلم ردئ من نص عظيم؟!
إن كنت تعيس الحظ مثلي وقد شاهدت الفيلم أولا ولم تحبه فانسه تماما ... ولحسن الحظ كنت قد نسيته بالفعل فقد شاهدته فور صدوره تقريبا ولحسن الحظ اشتريت الكتاب بدون أن أعلم الصلة بينه وبين الفيلم لأفاجأ برواية أخرى جديدة ودسمة وإن عابها الطول الشديد
ولكي لا أكون ظالمة فربما لم يكن النص الأصلي قابلا للاخراج السينمائي وربما جمهور الكتابة يختلف في ثقافته عن جمهور السينما
لم تكن هناك نعومي واتس هنا ... لا أم جميلة ولاأب وحبيب سابق وسيم ولا سامارا ولا أم بالتبني شريرة ومستهترة ولا أخيلة ولا جثث مشوهة ... لا يوجد تشابه بين الفيلم والرواية إلا في الإطار العام ... فيلم فيديو يؤدي إلى وفاة مشاهديه بعد ٧ أيام
بجانب ساداكو يامامورا (سامارا) والتي تختلف حكايتها عن الفيلم، فإن أبطال الرواية الأساسيين وأصحاب الكشف هم أساكاوا (صحفي) وريوجي (صديقه) وصديق لأساكاوا آخر هو أيضا صحفي
الرواية هنا تقدم لنا شخصيات على قدر كبير من العادية (الصحفيين) وشخص تكره ما يذكر عنه غالبا طوال الرواية وإن كان مفروضا عليك كبطل رئيسي وهو ريوجي ... شخص تكرهه أغلب الوقت لماضيه المظلم ... تستغرب تناقضاته الفجة ... وتتألم لأجله في مرحلة ما
محتوى الفيديو في الرواية أكثر قدرة على إحداث الرعب وأكثر منطقية إلى حد كبير عنه في الفيلم ... والرواية مليئة بالمعلومات والحوارات الفلسفية والفكاهة والرعب وكله بأسلوب بسيط جدا
النهاية كانت حزينة وصادمة وغريبة وغير متوقعة بالمرة ويبدو أنني سأصدم مع كل رواية يابانية أقرأها غالبا
لا أعلم إن كان ما سأقوله يعتبر مقبولا أم مستهجنا ولكنني أقوله لإرضاء ضميري ... الرواية لا تصلح للمراهقين والقراء حديثي السن وهي في هذا تختلف عن الفيلم كثيرا
July 24, 2018
Well… that was disappointing. I guess I should start by saying that Ring is not a bad novel. It is simply and okay time killer. There’s some entertainment to be had with it and a few interesting twists and turns.
It is also one of those rare examples where the film (in this case I’m referring to the original Ringu rather than the American remake) is significantly better. Not only does the film have more tension, but several of the changes from novel to screen actually improved the story in a significant way.
Rather than do a full plot based review, I’ve decided to do a little compare and contrast from book to film. Just as a heads up, there will be some spoilers, but most of them are already pretty well known plot points, but just in case you know nothing about the plot, consider yourself warned.
First lets talk about fear. Fear, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So, I obviously can’t speak for everyone, but to me this novel was about as unnerving as my one year old daughter trying to pull off an evil laugh. More than anything, its a little silly and kind of cute in how scary it thinks it’s being. In the film Sadako is an overwhelming force, she's not seen much but her presence is in every scene. When we finally do see her, it is one of the most shocking (and now imitated and parodied) scene in the film. Here so much time is spent on the investigation and getting to know who Sadako was, that there's less mystery to her. Sometimes (especially in a horror story) less is more.
In comparison in terms of fear the character presents:
Sadako of the movie:
Sadako in the book:
Second: in the film Asakawa (our protagonist) is a woman named Reiko and in the book though Asakawa is a man named Kazuyuki. This one I feel is another positive change, as it also becomes about a mother trying to save her child. While Asakawa of the novel also tries to save his family, there is something more powerful about the way the film presents this (and I say this as a father with a young daughter as well). This is also helped by the third point.
Third: In the film, Ryuji (our secondary protagonist aiding Asakawa in finding out the secret of the tape) is her ex-husband. This works well in the film, as although they are separated Ryuji also is trying to save his son as well. Again our two leads have a strong connection of a family bond and are not only protecting themselves but their child. In the book though, Ryuji is an academic who is a darkly snarky character and has a backstory in which he claims to have raped three girls. He is only helping because he finds the idea of the tape fascinating and wants to be a part of something that could potentially bring about such chaos. He is an unpleasant character who in his own words "wants front row seats for the end of the world." While I'm all for despicable characters, I think this is another case where it worked better in the film in terms of motivation and capturing a further sense of urgency (because frankly, do we really care if this guy dies in the novel? He comes off as slasher film cannon fodder).
Finally they explain way too much here. They try to give everything a scientific explanation (at least science mixed with supernatural). In the film, it's a ghost story with little explanation. Here they want to give you answers to why this is happening... and again, this may just be me, but not knowing the full "why" is much more frightening. I don't care that the tape acts like a sort of virus, all that's needed is that it's an evil tape and a ghost kills you if you watch it. What more does one really need to know?
There are several other differences (mostly in Sadako's backstory). While some of the differences are interesting, most really don't change my opinion in terms of story quality. More than anything they add a reason to actually read the novel, as you get a different take on the person behind the curse.
In terms of other points about the book, I have very little to offer. The translation is fine, though there feels like some awkward phrasings occasionally. I don't know if the novel was originally written in a similar way or if that is a translation issue, but it's not cause to deter a reader as it's perfectly serviceable.
In closing: the book is decent at best. There's interesting ideas, but this is one of those extremely rare cases where I can honestly say that the book is entirely skippable if you've seen the superior film. 2/5 stars for being adequate.
It is also one of those rare examples where the film (in this case I’m referring to the original Ringu rather than the American remake) is significantly better. Not only does the film have more tension, but several of the changes from novel to screen actually improved the story in a significant way.
Rather than do a full plot based review, I’ve decided to do a little compare and contrast from book to film. Just as a heads up, there will be some spoilers, but most of them are already pretty well known plot points, but just in case you know nothing about the plot, consider yourself warned.
First lets talk about fear. Fear, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So, I obviously can’t speak for everyone, but to me this novel was about as unnerving as my one year old daughter trying to pull off an evil laugh. More than anything, its a little silly and kind of cute in how scary it thinks it’s being. In the film Sadako is an overwhelming force, she's not seen much but her presence is in every scene. When we finally do see her, it is one of the most shocking (and now imitated and parodied) scene in the film. Here so much time is spent on the investigation and getting to know who Sadako was, that there's less mystery to her. Sometimes (especially in a horror story) less is more.
In comparison in terms of fear the character presents:
Sadako of the movie:
Sadako in the book:
Second: in the film Asakawa (our protagonist) is a woman named Reiko and in the book though Asakawa is a man named Kazuyuki. This one I feel is another positive change, as it also becomes about a mother trying to save her child. While Asakawa of the novel also tries to save his family, there is something more powerful about the way the film presents this (and I say this as a father with a young daughter as well). This is also helped by the third point.
Third: In the film, Ryuji (our secondary protagonist aiding Asakawa in finding out the secret of the tape) is her ex-husband. This works well in the film, as although they are separated Ryuji also is trying to save his son as well. Again our two leads have a strong connection of a family bond and are not only protecting themselves but their child. In the book though, Ryuji is an academic who is a darkly snarky character and has a backstory in which he claims to have raped three girls. He is only helping because he finds the idea of the tape fascinating and wants to be a part of something that could potentially bring about such chaos. He is an unpleasant character who in his own words "wants front row seats for the end of the world." While I'm all for despicable characters, I think this is another case where it worked better in the film in terms of motivation and capturing a further sense of urgency (because frankly, do we really care if this guy dies in the novel? He comes off as slasher film cannon fodder).
Finally they explain way too much here. They try to give everything a scientific explanation (at least science mixed with supernatural). In the film, it's a ghost story with little explanation. Here they want to give you answers to why this is happening... and again, this may just be me, but not knowing the full "why" is much more frightening. I don't care that the tape acts like a sort of virus, all that's needed is that it's an evil tape and a ghost kills you if you watch it. What more does one really need to know?
There are several other differences (mostly in Sadako's backstory). While some of the differences are interesting, most really don't change my opinion in terms of story quality. More than anything they add a reason to actually read the novel, as you get a different take on the person behind the curse.
In terms of other points about the book, I have very little to offer. The translation is fine, though there feels like some awkward phrasings occasionally. I don't know if the novel was originally written in a similar way or if that is a translation issue, but it's not cause to deter a reader as it's perfectly serviceable.
In closing: the book is decent at best. There's interesting ideas, but this is one of those extremely rare cases where I can honestly say that the book is entirely skippable if you've seen the superior film. 2/5 stars for being adequate.
March 28, 2023
Tanto la película original como su remake me habían parecido fabulosas, por eso quería conocer el libro que originó todo. A pesar de que las películas son adaptaciones poco precisas, el eje es el mismo: una cinta de video medio maldita que mata a todo aquél que la ve al cabo de siete días, si es que no revierte la maldición antes. Hay algunas figuras que hubiera deseado ver con mayor frecuencia y en otras circunstancias, pero sería absurdo reclamarle al libro lo que la película mostró por cuenta propia. Pero a grandes rasgos me gustó mucho, y quisiera leer el resto de la saga.
November 15, 2010
Well, that was disappointing.
Predictable, not especially well written (but that might be the translator's fault) and just not scary at all.
And apparently being a rapist is just being "eccentric".
Ok then.
Predictable, not especially well written (but that might be the translator's fault) and just not scary at all.
And apparently being a rapist is just being "eccentric".
Ok then.
February 11, 2020
One of the few times where I've thought 'the movie was better'.
August 19, 2023
Cuatro adolescentes mueren de forma súbita. En el intento de descubrir qué lazos los unen y cómo se explica tan fatídico destino, un periodista acaba viendo una cinta de video que sentencia a muerte a sus espectadores exactamente una semana después de su visualización. ¿Pero es real? El sentido común dice que no, pero los hechos, unidos a un malestar que se le hace notorio en todo el cuerpo, dice lo contrario.
Inmerso en una carrera a contra reloj para no morir, Asakawa se propone descubrir el sortilegio que, borrado de los últimos segundos de la cinta maldita, suponía una posibilidad de salvación. En este viaje, unido a un excéntrico amigo de la adolescencia, explotando sus habilidades y conexiones periodísticas y ya no sólo contra el tiempo sino también contra el pánico y la posible pérdida de la cordura que deriva de él, nuestro protagonista va desentrañando el pasado en una historia de horror, marginación, abuso y rencor que sumerge al lector en la cultura japonesa y en el eco de sus creencias.
Kōji Suzuki, su autor, hace un trabajo espléndido creando una aventura perturbadora, no frenética pero sí ágil, que en poco menos de 300 páginas, dividida en días de la semana para acentuar que cada día, cada hora y cada minuto cuenta, nos sumerge en la desesperación, el ansia de entendimiento y la incertidumbre. Sí, incertidumbre, porque aunque uno haya visto las adaptaciones fílmicas de esta historia, son tan significativas algunas de sus diferencias que una llega a sentirse desorientado y alerta como si no la conociese en absoluto.
Sadako, la fuerza maldita capaz de condenarnos por medio de la fuerza demoníaca condensada en un video, fue una vez una mujer marginada, ultrajada, furiosa contra una sociedad y con motivos para cada ápice de rencor que se sembrase en ella. Constituye un personaje complejo del que conocemos sólo pinceladas pero que se siente profundamente vivo y menos maligno o menos -esencialmente- perverso que su contraparte fílmica, Samara.
En conclusión, ring constituye una lectura excelente para los amantes del horror que buscan sentirse inquietos, que disfrutan desentrañar un misterio y encuentran satisfacción en una historia bien contada. Esto sin mencionar que ofrece una análisis acerca de la existencia de los virus, su eterna lucha con la humanidad y un más corrosivo análisis moral acerca de lo que uno está o no dispuesto a hacer cuando se sitúan en distintos platos de la balanza el amor de los suyos y el bienestar de la sociedad en su conjunto.
Inmerso en una carrera a contra reloj para no morir, Asakawa se propone descubrir el sortilegio que, borrado de los últimos segundos de la cinta maldita, suponía una posibilidad de salvación. En este viaje, unido a un excéntrico amigo de la adolescencia, explotando sus habilidades y conexiones periodísticas y ya no sólo contra el tiempo sino también contra el pánico y la posible pérdida de la cordura que deriva de él, nuestro protagonista va desentrañando el pasado en una historia de horror, marginación, abuso y rencor que sumerge al lector en la cultura japonesa y en el eco de sus creencias.
Kōji Suzuki, su autor, hace un trabajo espléndido creando una aventura perturbadora, no frenética pero sí ágil, que en poco menos de 300 páginas, dividida en días de la semana para acentuar que cada día, cada hora y cada minuto cuenta, nos sumerge en la desesperación, el ansia de entendimiento y la incertidumbre. Sí, incertidumbre, porque aunque uno haya visto las adaptaciones fílmicas de esta historia, son tan significativas algunas de sus diferencias que una llega a sentirse desorientado y alerta como si no la conociese en absoluto.
Sadako, la fuerza maldita capaz de condenarnos por medio de la fuerza demoníaca condensada en un video, fue una vez una mujer marginada, ultrajada, furiosa contra una sociedad y con motivos para cada ápice de rencor que se sembrase en ella. Constituye un personaje complejo del que conocemos sólo pinceladas pero que se siente profundamente vivo y menos maligno o menos -esencialmente- perverso que su contraparte fílmica, Samara.
En conclusión, ring constituye una lectura excelente para los amantes del horror que buscan sentirse inquietos, que disfrutan desentrañar un misterio y encuentran satisfacción en una historia bien contada. Esto sin mencionar que ofrece una análisis acerca de la existencia de los virus, su eterna lucha con la humanidad y un más corrosivo análisis moral acerca de lo que uno está o no dispuesto a hacer cuando se sitúan en distintos platos de la balanza el amor de los suyos y el bienestar de la sociedad en su conjunto.
March 14, 2023
أصبت بفتور القراءة منذ بداية العام ، أبدأ وأتوقف أو أقرأ ببطء ، حاولت التنويع لتفادي الملل ، هذه الرواية حللت وضعي قليلاً ، شدني التشويق فيها حتى المنتصف تقريباً
تم أكملتها بدافع الفضول.
لم تكت اليابان كما تعودت قرأتها في أدب هاروكي موراكامي ، لربما استحوذ عليَّ أسلوبه لدرجة لا يرضيني غيره.
سعيدة أنا بإنجازي البسيط في إكمال رواية متوسطة الطول.
٢٩/٨/٢٠٢١ م
تم أكملتها بدافع الفضول.
لم تكت اليابان كما تعودت قرأتها في أدب هاروكي موراكامي ، لربما استحوذ عليَّ أسلوبه لدرجة لا يرضيني غيره.
سعيدة أنا بإنجازي البسيط في إكمال رواية متوسطة الطول.
٢٩/٨/٢٠٢١ م
November 1, 2021
I think I'm the only person on the face of the earth who has never seen the horror movies based on this trilogy. I was in the mood to read some horror stories and for no particular reason I chose this one.
The basic plot is really brilliant.....the curse and evil transmitted as an infection and transmission of a virus. The characters in this book are very well characterized but strangely enough they didn't draw me in emotionally.
Did I like it? I would say yes, I read the book in a day and a half, definitely in the coming days I will read the second chapter of the trilogy. However, there is something in the plot that makes it all too dragged, thus preventing a visual involvement.
Fear, anxiety, terror? No, at least in my case.....I have not found any of this.
Penso di essere l'unica persona sulla faccia della terra non aver mai visto i film horror tratti da questa trilogia. Avevo voglia di leggere qualche storia horror e senza un particolare motivo ho scelto questo.
La trama di base è veramente geniale.....la maledizione e la malvagità trasmessa come infezione e trasmissione di un virus. I personaggi di questo libro sono molto ben caratterizzati ma stranamente non mi hanno coinvolto emotivamente.
Mi è piaciuto? direi di sì, ho letto il libro in un giorno e mezzo, sicuramente nei prossimi giorni leggero il secondo capitolo della trilogia. Viè però qualche cosa nella trama che rende il tutto troppo trascinato impedendo quindi un coinvolgimento visivo.
Paura, ansia, terrore? No, almeno nel mio caso.....non ho trovato niente di questo.
The basic plot is really brilliant.....the curse and evil transmitted as an infection and transmission of a virus. The characters in this book are very well characterized but strangely enough they didn't draw me in emotionally.
Did I like it? I would say yes, I read the book in a day and a half, definitely in the coming days I will read the second chapter of the trilogy. However, there is something in the plot that makes it all too dragged, thus preventing a visual involvement.
Fear, anxiety, terror? No, at least in my case.....I have not found any of this.
Penso di essere l'unica persona sulla faccia della terra non aver mai visto i film horror tratti da questa trilogia. Avevo voglia di leggere qualche storia horror e senza un particolare motivo ho scelto questo.
La trama di base è veramente geniale.....la maledizione e la malvagità trasmessa come infezione e trasmissione di un virus. I personaggi di questo libro sono molto ben caratterizzati ma stranamente non mi hanno coinvolto emotivamente.
Mi è piaciuto? direi di sì, ho letto il libro in un giorno e mezzo, sicuramente nei prossimi giorni leggero il secondo capitolo della trilogia. Viè però qualche cosa nella trama che rende il tutto troppo trascinato impedendo quindi un coinvolgimento visivo.
Paura, ansia, terrore? No, almeno nel mio caso.....non ho trovato niente di questo.
Want to read
March 29, 2018This review is for the hardcover edition. The books' dust wrapper is this plastic/acetate cover and the end flaps are impossible to read when removed from the book.
June 8, 2021
Shook me harder than the movie, which says a lot because seeing the movie in middle school made my life flash before my eyes
February 10, 2022
Y’all remember when this movie came out???? I’m a geezer with a super sketch memory so it took me awhile to remember the details while I was reading this blast from the past, but when I did????
Yeah . . . .
Turns out the book? Notsamuch. While the premise remains the same - there’s a VHS tape that if watched will wind up with the viewer dead in seven days - there’s really only one dude and his rapey buddy who are trying to get to the bottom of things. Said dude (Asakawa) is a journalist who ends up traveling the countryside in search of the origin of this tape after four teens (one his niece) all die of random heart failure and then he (and rapey pal, his wife and his daughter) all watch it too. The countdown is on. Seven days to solve the mystery or . . . .
This pales in comparison to the sheer terror provided by the film, buuuuuuuut it’s also the first in the series so maybe the chills and thrills ramp up in future volumes. And speaking of chills and thrills, you know this was a recommendation for the . . . .
I already won my major award, but I’m still reading all the things.
Yeah . . . .
Turns out the book? Notsamuch. While the premise remains the same - there’s a VHS tape that if watched will wind up with the viewer dead in seven days - there’s really only one dude and his rapey buddy who are trying to get to the bottom of things. Said dude (Asakawa) is a journalist who ends up traveling the countryside in search of the origin of this tape after four teens (one his niece) all die of random heart failure and then he (and rapey pal, his wife and his daughter) all watch it too. The countdown is on. Seven days to solve the mystery or . . . .
This pales in comparison to the sheer terror provided by the film, buuuuuuuut it’s also the first in the series so maybe the chills and thrills ramp up in future volumes. And speaking of chills and thrills, you know this was a recommendation for the . . . .
I already won my major award, but I’m still reading all the things.
October 27, 2022
3.5 stars. This book, which was the basis for 1998’s masterful Ringu as well as the American remake The Ring, started out relatively slowly, but built up a good deal of tension, suspense, and dread as it went along. There were also quite a few genuinely disquieting moments that had me feeling more than a little uneasy; more than once I literally looked over my shoulder as I was reading, just to make sure that some shadowy, evil thing wasn’t lurking behind me, prowling closer and closer while I was unaware, absorbed in the book. I do prefer the Japanese film adaptation, Ringu, though—it felt more frightening and atmospheric to me, with a quiet elegance to it that this book didn’t quite manage, although the translation may be to blame there, I’m not sure. But this was definitely worth reading overall—it contained some intriguing and unsettling details that the film omitted, and gradually but steadily became a true page-turner that I didn’t want to put down!
And many thanks to Claudia for such a wonderful buddy read experience, and for finding out about this book in the first place! Wouldn’t have been the same without ya :)
And many thanks to Claudia for such a wonderful buddy read experience, and for finding out about this book in the first place! Wouldn’t have been the same without ya :)
September 6, 2015
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is no scarier horror book or movie than a book or a movie that comes from Japan. It chills one to the bones, makes you want to cry and curl under blankets, trembling in fear. Every single thing in this story is unsettling or creepy, even a little girl sleeping peacefully. Even someone's smile. Or a simple writing. Koji Suzuki infected me with terror.
April 8, 2014
This book was meant to be a horror and I can safely say the only thing scary about this book was how totally fine people seemed to be about rape. I can handle unlikeable characters, I've read and enjoyed American Psycho and The Wasp Factory, but the way rape was treated in this book was complete abhorrent to me. I don't know if it's a cultural thing? Although I doubt it.
Other than that I was just completely bored by this book, I don't know if there was something lost in translation or not but the writing was repetitive and bland. It also suffered from a lot of telling and not showing. There was no build-up, no suspense at all, which is pretty unforgivable in a horror novel.
I found myself dreading picking this book back up each time, I was just so frustrated and bored by it all that I had to give myself a pep talk each time I attempted it.
Should you read this book? Nah, spare yourself the pain and try some other Japanese literature instead.
Other than that I was just completely bored by this book, I don't know if there was something lost in translation or not but the writing was repetitive and bland. It also suffered from a lot of telling and not showing. There was no build-up, no suspense at all, which is pretty unforgivable in a horror novel.
I found myself dreading picking this book back up each time, I was just so frustrated and bored by it all that I had to give myself a pep talk each time I attempted it.
Should you read this book? Nah, spare yourself the pain and try some other Japanese literature instead.
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