Synopses & Reviews
One night in Tokyo, four healthy teenagers die one after another of heart failure. A journalist, the uncle of one of the victims who is intrigued by the coincidence, investigates and learns of a videotape that the four watched together a week before dying. Amid a series of bizarre and frightening images is a warning that the viewer will die in exactly one week unless a certain act is performed. The description of the act, of course, has been erased from the videotape, and the journalist's work to solve the mystery assumes a deadly urgency.
Ring is not only a chillingly told horror story but also a shrewdly intelligent and subversive commentary on the power of imagery and contagious consumerism. Ring spawned one of Japan's highest-grossing films ever, as well as the blockbuster DreamWorks remake starring Naomi Watts. The Japanese version of the novel has sold almost 3 million copies.
Review
"Despite a somewhat pedestrian and unintentionally comic prose style that seems derived from manga comics...fans of the movie won't be disappointed....[A] fascinating, and ultimately highly disturbing, experience." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Told with a minimum of horror cliches, the novel creates a sense of slowly mounting dread....[T]his novel is sure to be much in demand among both mystery and horror fans." David Pitt, Booklist
Synopsis
The Inspiration for the New Major Motion Picture RINGS A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.
Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society's fears to a rural Japan--a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic--haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late--for everyone--assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.
The success of Koji Suzuki's novel the Ring has lead to manga, television and film adaptations in Japan, Korea, and the U.S.
Synopsis
A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.
Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society's fears to a rural Japan--a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic--haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late--for everyone--assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.
The success of Koji Suzuki's novel the Ring has lead to manga, television and film adaptations in Japan, Korea, and the U.S.
About the Author
In addition to being dubbed "the Stephen King of Japan," Koji Suzuki is a respected authority on childrearing. He likes to roam Japan in his RV and has written about fulfilling his lifelong dream of riding his motorcycle across the United States, from Los Angeles to Key West. Suzuki is based in Tokyo.