Ring (film)

Ring
Japanese theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Katakana	リング
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Ringu
Directed by	Hideo Nakata
Screenplay by	Hiroshi Takahashi[1]
Based on	Ring by Koji Suzuki
Produced by	Shinya Kawai Taka Ichise Takenori Sento[2]
Starring	Nanako Matsushima Hiroyuki Sanada Rikiya Otaka Miki Nakatani Yuko Takeuchi Hitomi Sato Yutaka Matsushige
Cinematography	Junichiro Hayashi[2]
Edited by	Nobuyuki Takahashi[1]
Music by	Kenji Kawai[1](soundtrack) HIIH (theme song: feels like 'HEAVEN')
Production company	Ringu/Rasen Production Committee[1]
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	January 31, 1998 (1998-01-31) (Japan)
Running time	95 minutes[1]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	$1.5 million[3]
Box office	$19.5 million (est.)

Ring (リング, Ringu) is a 1998 Japanese supernatural psychological horror film directed by Hideo Nakata and written by Hiroshi Takahashi, based on the 1991 novel by Koji Suzuki. The film stars Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, and Hiroyuki Sanada, and follows a reporter who is racing to investigate the mystery behind a cursed video tape; whoever watches the tape dies seven days after doing so. The film is also titled The Ring (stylized as the Ring) in Japan and was released in North America as Ringu.

Production took approximately nine months, and the film was shot back-to-back with a sequel, Spiral, featuring much of the same cast but involving neither Nakata or Takahashi; both films were released together in Japan on January 31, 1998, with the studio hoping for the popularity of the novel to make both films successful.^[4] After its release, Ring was a box office hit in Japan and internationally and was acclaimed by critics, who praised its atmosphere, slow-paced horror and themes.

Spawning a popular franchise, the film has been deemed very influential, triggering both a western popularization of Japanese horror, including with its own English-language adaptations starting with 2002's The Ring, and a renaissance of Japanese horror films, inspiring other successful franchises such as Ju-On and The Grudge and spearheading Hollywood's transition from slashers into more atmospheric films in the 2000s. Despite the success of the original film, Spiral was largely ignored upon release, leading to Nakata and Takahashi making Ring 2 (1999), another sequel ignoring the events of Spiral.