ArkaEvren
リング

FILM · 1998 · JAPAN

リング

Directed by
Hideo Nakata
Runtime
96 min
Studio
KADOKAWA Shoten, Omega Project, Rasen Production Committee

110 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.

  • リング — production image

110 Interesting Facts About リング

Interesting Facts (27)

  1. #001

    The back cover of the 2001 UK DVD carries a warning: the distributor accepts no responsibility "for any injuries or fatalities that may occur during or after the viewing of this videocassette."

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  2. #002

    Came 6th in the UK's "Greatest Scary Moments" for its shock ending.

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  3. #003

    (at around 1h 27 mins) The close-up of Sadako's eye near the end of the film was performed by a male crew member, Norihiko Miyazaki. Miyazaki had to chop off his eyelashes to make the shot more disturbing.

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  4. #004

    A big part of why director Hideo Nakata decided not to show Sadako's face was because of a regret he had with his earlier J-horror film Don't Look Up (1996), where the ghost's face was shown too much during scare sequences.

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  5. #005

    Money was tight, so Sadako's crawl out of the well and into the room came down to one simple trick. Rie Ino'o, a Kabuki theater student trained in the exaggerated, convulsive movements Kabuki uses to heighten emotion, did much of the work of shaping the character. She was filmed walking backwards and the footage was run in reverse, so Sadako seems to move forward in that eerie, unnatural way.

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  6. #006

    Shizuko Yamamura is modeled on Chizuko Mifune, a real woman born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1886 who was said to see the future. After a demonstration in 1910 she was branded a fraud, and a year later she killed herself with poison.

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  7. #007

    Read the back of the 2001 United Kingdom DVD and you'll find the distributor disclaiming responsibility for "any injury or death that may occur during or after viewing this videotape."

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  8. #008

    In Japanese, Sadako's psychic power is called Nensha, a kind of spirit photography that lets a person burn images from their mind onto any solid surface by thought alone. It also brings nightmares and terrible visions to everyone around her, and it's ultimately how she imprinted her mind's images onto the videotape.

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  9. #009

    When it came out, no horror film in Japanese history had made more money.

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  10. #010

    Sadako comes from the Onryo of Japanese legend: usually a woman, a ghost who dies in the grip of overwhelming rage and returns as a very physical spirit bent on revenge against the living. The same legend also inspired the Ju-On series.

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  11. #011

    The close-up of Sadako's eye near the end isn't an actress at all but a male crew member, Norihiko Miyazaki, who trimmed off his eyelashes to make the shot creepier.

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  12. #012

    The director wanted a stranger, less "Hollywood" ring, so the phone sound was built by blending four different kinds of telephone.

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  13. #013

    Kôji Suzuki has said the idea for his novel Ringu came from his favorite horror film, Poltergeist (1982).

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  14. #014

    Hideo Nakata was later hired for The Ring Two (2005), the follow-up to the American remake of his own film.

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  15. #015

    In the novel Sadako is intersex, with undeveloped male organs in her reproductive system; the film gives her entirely female characteristics. The difference may carry supernatural implications rooted in how she was conceived.

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  16. #016

    Japanese cultural imports were banned in South Korea when Ringu came out, so it couldn't be shown there. Instead, the Japanese company behind it joined forces with a Korean studio on a local version, released as The Ring Virus (1999).

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  17. #017

    The book was first adapted for television as Ring (1995). Ringu (1998), the first feature film, was a box-office smash. Spiral (1998) followed but was poorly received, so Ring 2 (1999) was made as a direct sequel to the original Ring, picking up a few weeks later, ignoring Spiral and bringing back the original cast. Ring 0: Birthday (2000) is a prequel to the first Ringu, drawn from a short story by the novel's author. The Ring Virus (1999) is the Korean adaptation, and it sticks closer to the Japanese Ringu film than to the book.

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  18. #018

    Released in Hong Kong in 1999, Ringu took HK$31.2 million (US$4.03 million) in two months in theaters, the best result there for any Japanese-language film, until Stand by Me Doraemon (2014) beat it in 2015.

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  19. #019

    Sadako's haunting draws on the legend of Okiku, the ghost of a tortured woman who climbs out of a well; the well said to be hers is at Himeji Castle in Japan. Her disfigured look probably comes from Oiwa, another onryo legend, about a murdered woman who comes back as a ghost to punish her husband.

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  20. #020

    The tape's first victims are four friends in cabin B4. In Japan and some other Asian countries, 4 is an unlucky number linked with death, because the words for 4 and death sound alike. This fear, tetraphobia, is taken seriously enough there that the number 4 is sometimes skipped in homes, hospitals, workplaces and other buildings.

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  21. #021

    Hideo Nakata later adapted Kôji Suzuki again, with Dark Water (2002).

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  22. #022

    Its shock ending put it 6th on the UK's "Greatest Scary Moments" list.

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  23. #023

    You never see Sadako's face. The nearest thing to it is the close-up of her eye.

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  24. #024

    The American trailer for Ringu says the title as "ring-oo." The word comes from the Anglo-American verb, a nod to the endlessly circling nature of Sadako's curse.

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  25. #025

    The camp Reiko and her niece go to is Camp Village America in Okutama, Tokyo, where cabin L-6 stood in for cabin B4.

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  26. #026

    Spain got a one-day theatrical run in 2016, at a single cinema, Barcelona's Phenomena, which showed the film on 35 mm with subtitles for 1 day.

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  27. #027

    Hideo Nakata kept Sadako's face hidden largely because he regretted his earlier J-horror film Don't Look Up (1996), where he felt the ghost's face was shown too much in the scare scenes.

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Production Story (49)

  1. #028

    In 2016 the film had a brief theatrical comeback in Spain: one cinema in Barcelona (Phenomena), 1 day, a subtitled 35 mm print.

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  2. #029

    Hiroshi Takahashi's screenplay reworked the hero: a man became a woman, Kazuyuki Asakawa became Reiko Asakawa, married became divorced, and daughter Yoko became son Yoichi.

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  3. #030

    The franchise started on TV, with the made-for-television Ring (1995). Ringu (1998), the first theatrical film, was a huge hit; its sequel Spiral (1998) flopped with audiences. Ring 2 (1999) was then made as a direct sequel to the original Ring, set a few weeks after it, discarding Spiral and reuniting the original cast. Ring 0: Birthday (2000) is a prequel to the first Ringu, adapted from a short story by the original book's author, and The Ring Virus (1999), the Korean take, follows the Japanese Ringu film more closely than the book.

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  4. #031

    Hideo Nakata put up most of the shoestring budget of $1.2 million himself.

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  5. #032

    From start to finish the production took just nine months and one week. By director Hideo Nakata's count: three or four months for the script and pre-production, five weeks of shooting and four months of post-production.

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  6. #033

    On the American trailer, Ringu is pronounced "ring-oo." The title comes from the Anglo-American verb, used because Sadako's curse goes round and round.

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  7. #034

    Poltergeist (1982), Kôji Suzuki's favorite horror film, was what sparked his Ringu novel.

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  8. #035

    Because South Korea banned Japanese cultural imports at the time, Ringu couldn't be released there, so its Japanese producers partnered with a Korean company to make a version for that market: the remake known as The Ring Virus (1999).

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  9. #036

    (at around 1h 26 mins) With their limited budget the effect of Sadako coming out of the well and walking into the room was accomplished with only one simple special effect. Rie Ino'o, who is a student of the Kabuki theatre, which uses exaggerated motion and jerking movements to emphasize emotion, was heavily involved in the development of the Sadako character. Ino'o was filmed walking backwards and the film was run in reverse - the end result is Sadako walking forwards with unnatural motions.

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  10. #037
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Sadako and Shizuko take their names from, and are loosely based on, two real women. Both were mentored by Professor Fukurai Tomokichi; they weren't mother and daughter, but Takahashi Sadako did start working with the professor soon after Chizuko's suicide. Neither had the gift of nensha, though another of his students, Nagao Ikuko, was believed to. In 1931 Fukurai published "Clairvoyance and Thoughtography", a detailed record of all his experiments with psychics, and much of what ended up in "Ringu" is already there, including Chizuko and Sadako and their psychic experiments.

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  11. #038
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    The novel's Sadako is an intersex woman with rudimentary male reproductive organs, while the film's Sadako is wholly female, a change that may have supernatural implications tied to her conception.

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  12. #039
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    In the original Ringu, Sadako is believed to have somehow survived thirty years inside the well. In the U.S. remake The Ring (2002), it's just seven days.

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  13. #040
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    The real woman behind Shizuko Yamamura was Chizuko Mifune, born in 1886 in Kumamoto Prefecture and rumored to have the gift of foresight. Declared a charlatan after a demonstration in 1910, she poisoned herself a year later.

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  14. #041

    Of the film's modest $1.2 million budget, the lion's share came out of Hideo Nakata's own pocket.

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  15. #042

    The whole film was made in only nine months and one week. Director Hideo Nakata breaks it down as three or four months of script and pre-production, five weeks of filming and four months of post-production.

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  16. #043

    The back cover of the 2001 UK DVD release carries a warning that the distributor is 'not responsible for any injury or death that may occur during or after viewing this videotape.'

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  17. #044

    At the time of its release, the film earned the title of the highest-grossing horror film in Japanese cinema history. It stayed in theaters in Hong Kong for two months in 1999, grossing HK$31.2 million (US$4.03 million) and becoming the region's highest-grossing Japanese-language film. That record was later broken in 2015 by Stand by Me Doraemon (2014).

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  18. #045

    Most of the film's modest budget of roughly $1.2 million was covered personally by director Hideo Nakata.

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  19. #046

    The novel was originally science fiction-based and blended with supernatural horror elements. Hideo Nakata chose to remove the science fiction elements in order to create a more traditional ghost story. The sequel Spiral (1998) remained more faithful to the source material by preserving the story's science fiction portions.

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  20. #047

    Kôji Suzuki drew inspiration for the novel Ringu from his favorite horror film, Poltergeist (1982).

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  21. #048

    The film's entire production process was completed in just nine months and one week. According to director Hideo Nakata, the script and pre-production took three to four months, shooting took five weeks, and post-production took four months.

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  22. #049

    Hideo Nakata later directed The Ring Two (2005), the sequel to the American adaptation of this film. He also directed Dark Water (2002), another film adapted from Kôji Suzuki's works.

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  23. #050

    When Ringu was first released, it could not open in South Korea because Japanese cultural imports were banned there. The film's Japanese production company then partnered with a Korean production company to make a Korean version of the film for the Korean market. This adaptation is known as The Ring Virus (1999).

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  24. #051

    Ring (1995) was a television adaptation of the book. The first theatrical film, Ringu (1998), achieved great box office success. The follow-up, Spiral (1998), received poor reviews. Ring 2 (1999) was created as a direct sequel to the original Ring; it picks up the story a few weeks after the events of the first film and ignores the events of Spiral. It also brings back the original cast in their roles. Ring 0: Birthday (2000) is a prequel that tells the story before the first Ringu and is based on a short story by the author. The Ring Virus (1999), meanwhile, is a Korean adaptation that stays faithful to the original Japanese Ringu film rather than the book.

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  25. #052

    With its shocking finale, the film placed sixth on the 'Greatest Horror Moments' list in the UK.

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  26. #053

    It was included in the list '1001 Films You Must See Before You Die,' edited by Steven Schneider.

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  27. #054

    In 2016, a limited screening was held in Spain only at the Phenomena cinema in Barcelona. The film was shown for just one day, in 35 mm format and with subtitles.

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  28. #055

    Working with a limited budget, the team handled the scene in which Sadako climbs out of the well and walks into the room with a single simple effect. Rie Ino'o, a Kabuki theater student, played a key role in developing the character of Sadako through her exaggerated, jerky movements. Ino'o was filmed walking backwards, and the footage was played in reverse to achieve Sadako's unnatural, eerie walk.

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  29. #056

    The close-up of Sadako's eye that we see near the end of the film actually belongs to male crew member Norihiko Miyazaki. To make the scene more unsettling, Miyazaki had to cut his eyelashes.

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  30. #057

    Because the director wanted an unusual, non-Hollywood telephone sound, the sound of the ringing phone was created by mixing the sounds of four different phone models.

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  31. #058

    The cursed videotape and the special effects in some sections of the film were shot on 35 mm film, with a grainy effect added by computer in the lab.

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  32. #059

    The camp that Reiko and her nephew visit is America Camp Village in Okutama, Tokyo. The cabin used as cabin B4 in the film was actually cabin L-6.

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  33. #060

    A major reason director Hideo Nakata decided not to show Sadako's face was his regret over showing the ghost's face too much in the horror scenes of the earlier J-horror film Don't Look Up (1996).

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  34. #061

    The character Shizuko Yamamura was inspired by Chizuko Mifune, born in Kumamoto in 1886 and said to have had precognitive abilities. Declared a fraud after a demonstration in 1910, Mifune committed suicide a year later by drinking poison. The names and stories of Sadako and Shizuko are based on two real women under the patronage of Professor Fukurai Tomokichi; Takahashi Sadako worked with the professor shortly after Chizuko's death.

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  35. #062

    In the novel, Sadako is an intersex woman with primitive male organs in her reproductive system. In the film, she is portrayed with entirely feminine features; this may contain hints about her supernatural origin.

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  36. #063

    In the film adaptation, screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi changed the main character's gender from male to female, her name from Kazuyuki Asakawa to Reiko Asakawa, her marital status from married to divorced, and her child's gender and name from a daughter, Yoko, to a son, Yoichi.

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  37. #064

    Sadako's face is never shown throughout the film; the closest the film comes to her face is the close-up of her eye. This choice stands out as a cinematic trick that multiplies the character's mystery and eeriness.

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  38. #065

    On the back cover of the 2001 UK DVD release, there is a warning from the distributor that it is 'not responsible for any injury or death that may occur during or after viewing this videotape.'

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  39. #066

    At the time of its release, the film earned the title of the highest-grossing horror film in Japanese cinema history. In 1999, it stayed in theaters in Hong Kong for two months, grossing 31.2 million HK dollars (4.03 million US dollars) and becoming the region's highest-grossing Japanese-language film. This record was later broken in 2015 by Stand by Me Doraemon (2014).

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  40. #067

    Most of the film's modest budget of about 1.2 million dollars was covered personally by director Hideo Nakata.

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  41. #068

    The novel was originally science fiction-based and blended with supernatural horror elements. Hideo Nakata chose to remove the science fiction elements in order to create a more traditional ghost story. The sequel Spiral (1998) remained more faithful to the source material by preserving the science fiction parts of the story.

    PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

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  42. #069

    The film's entire production process was completed in only nine months and one week. According to director Hideo Nakata, the script and pre-production took three to four months, shooting took five weeks, and post-production took four months.

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  43. #070

    Ring (1995) was a television adaptation of the book. The first theatrical film, Ringu (1998), achieved great box office success. The follow-up, Spiral (1998), received poor reviews. Ring 2 (1999) was created as a direct sequel to the original Ring; it picks up the story a few weeks after the events of the first film and ignores the events of Spiral. It also brings back the original cast in their roles. Ring 0: Birthday (2000), meanwhile, is a prequel that tells the story before the first Ringu and is based on a short story by the author. The Ring Virus (1999), on the other hand, is a Korean adaptation that remains faithful to the original Japanese Ringu film rather than the book.

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  44. #071

    With its shocking finale, the film ranked sixth on the 'Greatest Horror Moments' list in the UK.

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  45. #072

    Sadako's psychic ability is called Nensha in Japanese. This is a kind of spiritual photography that allows a person to burn the images in their mind onto any solid surface simply by thinking about them. For this reason, anyone close to her can see nightmares and terrible visions. Ultimately, this is how she transferred the images in her mind onto a videocassette.

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  46. #073

    Sadako was inspired by the Onryo ghost of Japanese legends. Usually female, this spirit appears after dying in intense rage and manifests as a physical being in order to take revenge on the living. The Ju-On series was also inspired by the same legend. Sadako's manner of haunting is based on the legend of Okiku, in which the ghost of a tortured woman emerges from a well; the real well attributed to this legend is located at Himeji Castle in Japan. Sadako's distorted appearance most likely comes from Oiwa, another Onryo legend about a murdered woman who takes revenge on her husband as a ghost.

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  47. #074

    At the beginning of the film's story, the videocassette kills four friends at cabin B4. In Japan and some Asian countries, the number 4 is considered unlucky and is associated with death (because in local languages the words for 4 and death have similar sounds). This fear of the number 4 is called tetraphobia, and in some Asian countries it is taken so seriously that the number 4 is avoided in homes, hospitals, workplaces and other properties.

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  48. #075

    In the American trailer for Ringu, the word is pronounced "ring-u." The word is taken from the Anglo-American verb, referring to the cyclical nature of Sadako's curse.

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  49. #076

    In the original Ringu, Sadako is thought to have somehow survived inside the well for thirty years. In the US adaptation The Ring (2002), however, this period is only seven days.

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Behind the Scenes (11)

  1. #077

    Four different types of telephone were mixed together for the ringing sound, because the director wanted something less common and less "Hollywood".

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  2. #078

    Reiko and her niece visit the America Camp Village in Okutama, Tokyo; its cabin L-6 plays cabin B4.

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  3. #079

    The effects on the cursed videotape, and parts of the film itself, were shot on 35 mm and then run through a laboratory where a computer added a "grainy" look.

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  4. #080
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Sadako's face never appears. The closest the film comes is the close-up of her eye.

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  5. #081

    To get the "grainy" look of the cursed videotape and some other sequences, the footage was shot on 35 mm film and processed in a lab where a computer added the grain.

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  6. #082

    Working with a limited budget, the team handled the scene in which Sadako climbs out of the well and walks into the room with a single simple effect. Kabuki theater student Rie Ino'o played a key role in developing the character of Sadako with her exaggerated, jerky movements. Ino'o was filmed walking backwards, and the footage was played in reverse to achieve Sadako's unnatural, eerie walk.

    BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  7. #083

    The close-up of Sadako's eye that we see toward the end of the film actually belongs to male crew member Norihiko Miyazaki. Miyazaki had to cut his eyelashes to make the scene more unsettling.

    BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  8. #084

    Because the director wanted an unusual, non-Hollywood-style telephone sound, the sound of the ringing phone was created by mixing the sounds of four different phone models.

    BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  9. #085

    The cursed videotape and the special effects in some sections of the film were shot on 35 mm film, with a grainy effect added digitally in the lab.

    BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

    ShareReport
  10. #086

    The camp that Reiko and her nephew visit is America Camp Village in Okutama, Tokyo. The place used as cabin B4 in the film was actually cabin L-6.

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  11. #087

    A major reason director Hideo Nakata decided not to show Sadako's face was his regret over showing the ghost's face too much in horror scenes in the earlier J-horror film Don't Look Up (1996).

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Characters & Cast (7)

  1. #088

    Ringu was the second time Hiroyuki Sanada and Nanako Matsushima worked together; they had already co-starred in the 1997 TV Series Kon'na koi no hanashi (1997), known by its English title "Story of Love".

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  2. #089

    The character of Shizuko Yamamura was inspired by Chizuko Mifune, born in Kumamoto in 1886 and said to possess precognitive abilities. Declared a fraud after a demonstration in 1910, Mifune committed suicide a year later by drinking poison. The names and stories of Sadako and Shizuko are based on two real women under the patronage of Professor Fukurai Tomokichi; Takahashi Sadako worked with the professor shortly after Chizuko's death.

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  3. #090

    In the novel, Sadako is an intersex woman with primitive male organs in her reproductive system. In the film, she is portrayed with entirely feminine features; this may carry hints about her supernatural origin.

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  4. #091

    In the film adaptation, screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi changed the protagonist's gender from male to female, her name from Kazuyuki Asakawa to Reiko Asakawa, her marital status from married to divorced, and her child's gender and name from a daughter, Yoko, to a son, Yoichi.

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  5. #092

    Sadako's face is never shown throughout the film; the closest the film comes to her face is a close-up of her eye. This choice stands out as a cinematic trick that multiplies the character's mystery and eeriness.

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  6. #093

    Ringu is the second joint project of Hiroyuki Sanada and Nanako Matsushima. The pair had previously appeared together in the 1997 TV series Kon'na koi no hanashi, whose English title is "Story of Love."

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  7. #094

    The film is the first production in Yûko Takeuchi's film career, and this debut, with which she stepped into acting, laid the foundation for her later successful career.

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Deeper Meaning (10)

  1. #095

    The film opens with the tape killing four friends who stayed in cabin B4. In Japan and some other Asian countries the digit 4 is considered unlucky and is linked with death, since the words for 4 and death sound similar. Tetraphobia, as the fear is called, is taken so seriously in some Asian countries that the number 4 is sometimes left out in homes, hospitals, businesses and other properties.

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  2. #096

    The novel was originally science fiction based, while also blending in elements of supernatural horror as well. Hideo Nakata opted to remove the science fiction elements in favor of a more traditional ghost story. The sequel Spiral (1998) is more faithful to the source material, keeping the science fiction portions of the story.

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  3. #097
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Behind Sadako's haunting is Okiku, the legendary ghost of a tortured woman who rises from a well; the real well tied to the tale is at Himeji Castle in Japan. Sadako's disfigured appearance most likely comes from Oiwa, another onryo legend, a murdered woman who takes her revenge on her husband as a ghost.

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  4. #098
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Sadako is modeled on the Onryo, the legendary Japanese ghost, usually a woman, who dies consumed by rage and returns as a very physical spirit to take vengeance on the living. The Ju-On series grew out of the same legend.

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  5. #099
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Nensha, the Japanese name for Sadako's psychic gift, is a form of spirit photography: just by thinking about an image, she can burn it onto any solid surface. It's also why those near her suffer nightmares and disturbing visions, and ultimately how her mind's images end up on the video tape.

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  6. #100

    Sadako's psychic ability is called Nensha in Japanese. It is a kind of spiritual photography that allows a person to burn the images in their mind onto any solid surface simply by thinking about them. For this reason, anyone close to her can see nightmares and terrible visions. Ultimately, she transferred the images in her mind onto a video tape in this way.

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  7. #101

    Sadako was inspired by the Onryo ghost of Japanese legends. This spirit, usually female, appears after dying in intense rage and manifests as a physical being to take revenge on the living. The Ju-On series was also inspired by the same legend. Sadako's manner of haunting is based on the legend of Okiku, in which the ghost of a tortured woman emerges from a well; the real well attributed to this legend is located at Himeji Castle in Japan. Sadako's distorted appearance most likely comes from Oiwa, another Onryo legend about a murdered woman who takes revenge on her husband as a ghost.

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  8. #102

    At the beginning of the film's story, the video tape kills four friends at cabin B4. In Japan and some Asian countries, the number 4 is considered unlucky and associated with death (because in local languages the words for 4 and death have similar sounds). This fear of the number 4 is called tetraphobia, and in some Asian countries it is taken so seriously that the number 4 is avoided in homes, hospitals, workplaces and other properties.

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  9. #103

    In the American trailer for Ringu, the word is pronounced "ring-u." This word is taken from the Anglo-American verb, referring to the cyclical nature of Sadako's curse.

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  10. #104

    In the original Ringu, Sadako is thought to have somehow survived inside the well for thirty years. In the American adaptation The Ring (2002), however, this period is only seven days.

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Career & Awards (6)

  1. #105

    Yûko Takeuchi made her screen debut here.

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  2. #106

    Hideo Nakata went on to direct The Ring Two (2005), the sequel to the American remake of this film.

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  3. #107

    It's one of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", in the book edited by Steven Schneider.

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  4. #108

    Ringu's 1999 Hong Kong run lasted two months and earned HK$31.2 million (US$4.03 million), a record for a Japanese-language film there that stood until Stand by Me Doraemon (2014) topped it in 2015.

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  5. #109

    On release it became the top-grossing horror film in Japanese box-office history.

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  6. #110

    Nakata's next Kôji Suzuki adaptation was Dark Water (2002), which Hideo Nakata also directed.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work