Spiral (1998 film)

Spiral
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Hiragana	らせん
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Rasen
Directed by	George Iida
Screenplay by	George Iida[1]
Based on	Spiral by Koji Suzuki
Produced by	Takashige Ichise Shinya Kawai Takenori Sento[1]
Starring	Kōichi Satō Miki Nakatani Shingo Tsurumi Hinako Saeki Hiroyuki Sanada
Cinematography	Makoto Watanabe[1]
Edited by	Hirohide Abe[1]
Music by	La Finca[1]
Production company	Ring/Spiral Production Committee Production[1]
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	January 31, 1998 (1998-01-31) (Japan)
Running time	98 minutes[1]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Spiral (らせん, Rasen) is a 1998 Japanese supernatural horror film and a sequel to Ring (1998). It is directed by Jōji Iida and is based on the novel of the same title by Koji Suzuki. It is titled The Spiral (stylized as the Spiral) in English on the Japanese poster and video packaging, and it was previously released in North America as Rasen (a transliteration of the Japanese title) and in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Philippines as The Spiral.^[2]

Ring and its sequel Spiral were released in Japan at the same time. The studio hoped this would increase revenues, because the Ring story was already a successful novel and television film. The two films shared a few cast members and had the same production team, but different directors and screenwriters; Spiral was written and directed by Jōji Iida whereas Ring was written by Hiroshi Takahashi and directed by Hideo Nakata. After their release, Ring became an enormous success while Spiral floundered, quickly becoming the "forgotten sequel".

Takahashi and Nakata were later recruited to produce another sequel, Ring 2 (1999), which replaced Spiral as the sequel to Ring, not based on Suzuki's works, and thus ultimately ignores the story of Spiral.