List of Ring characters

This article lists the characters who have appeared in the Ring Trilogy franchise. The series, originally a trilogy of novels written by Koji Suzuki, but mostly known as the Japanese horror films directed by Hideo Nakata. The original film series is made up of Ringu, Rasen, Ring 2, and Ring 0. The films have also been adapted into the Korean film The Ring Virus, and the American films The Ring, the short film Rings, and The Ring Two.

The books and films revolve around a mysterious video cassette which is said to curse those who watch it so that they will die within a week of viewing. The main characters discover this to be true and must solve the videotape's origins to save themselves and other characters from the deadly curse.

Kazuyuki Asakawa

Kazuyuki Asakawa (浅川 和行, Asakawa Kazuyuki^?) is the lead character in Koji Suzuki's novel Ring, published in 1991. He is married to Shizu Asakawa and they have a one-year-old daughter named Yoko. His best friend is Ryuji Takayama, an alleged rapist. After his wife's niece Tomoko dies and he comes across another boy who died on the same day on his motorbike, Asakawa tries to find out why which then links him to the cursed videotape. After watching it, he is left with just seven days to figure out how to break the curse.

Other incarnations

Asakawa is better known in the female guise of Reiko Asakawa in the 1998 film adaptation of Suzuki's book of the same name, played by Nanako Matsushima. The reason for the change was because the film makers felt a female character would be more appealing at the box-office for the more maternal job of going to great lengths to protect her son. It also enabled a more intimate relationship between Asakawa and Takayama. Apart from being a different sex, Reiko differs from Kazuyuki because:

• Rather than being married, she is divorced.
• Ryuji is no longer her best friend but her ex-husband and father of her child.
• Rather than having a one-year-old daughter, she has a seven-year-old son, Yoichi.
• Time of viewing the film has changed.
• Tomoko is her niece by blood, rather than by marriage.

Other versions of Kazuyuki Asakawa are two other female characters, Rachel Keller from The Ring and Sun-joo from The Ring Virus. These two characters are more adaptions of Reiko Asakawa, than Kazuyuki Asakawa.

• Rachel Keller, in the 2002 American remake of the 1998 Japanese film, a single mother with a son.
• Sun-joo Hong, in the 1999 South Korean remake of the 1998 Japanese film, a single mother with a daughter

Reiko Asakawa

Reiko Asakawa (浅川 玲子, Asakawa Reiko^?) is a character in the 1998 film adaptation of Koji Suzuki's novel Ring, published in 1991, portrayed by Nanako Matsushima. She also plays important roles in Ring 2 and Rasen. She was adapted from Suzuki's original protagonist, Kazuyuki Asakawa, who was originally male. Producers changed the character's gender because they felt that a woman would be more appealing to the box office audience.

Ringu

Reiko Asakawa is a single mother in her mid-twenties who struggles to juggle both her job as an investigative journalist and raising her seven-year-old son, Yoichi. After her niece Tomoko dies under mysterious conditions, she investigates the death and discovers that three of Tomoko's friends also died the same way, on the same day and at the same time. This connects to another story Reiko has been doing, the cursed videotape rumor centred around teenage girls. The urban legend, which started in Izu, claims that, "within seven days of watching a normal videotape, you receive a phone call, saying you will die in a horrible and painful way".

After learning her niece had stayed in Izu, Reiko goes travels to Izu and discovers the videotape at the resort cabin Tomoko had been staying at. She watches the video and receives a strange phone call. Deciding to take the threat of death seriously, she calls Ryuji Takayama, her scientist ex-husband and father of her child to help her. Ryuji also has ESP, similar to the supernatural instincts that Reiko herself also demonstrates, but to a larger extent. Reiko makes Ryuji a copy of the tape and he watches the video, promising to help her figure who made the videotape and why.

They study the images of the videotape and discover several things: the face of a woman named "Shizuko Yamamura", the sign "sada", the word "eruption" and words "play in salt water, monster will come." During the investigations, Yoichi happens upon the tape and watches it. This action gives Reiko and Ryuji the extra motivation to figure out the riddle of the curse. Their investigations lead them to Oshima Island and Shizuko's family home. It is then they discover that Shizuko had a daughter: Sadako.

Sadako was the daughter of Shizuko Yamamura and her scientist lover, Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma. Just like the Takayama/Asakawa family, the Yamamura Family had ESP. Ikuma peddled the theory that some humans possess supernatural powers, such as ESP. Shizuko possessed these powers, as did Sadako. At a public demonstration, Shizuko supposedly killed one of the reporters watching, but Sadako was, in fact, the culprit. Reiko and Ryuji realise that Sadako’s powers went far beyond her mother’s; so much, that the people who knew her considered her to be a monster. This leads them to believe that Sadako created the videotape.

Reiko realises that the phone did not ring when Ryuji and Yoichi watched the tape, but it did when she watched it. After threading everything together, Reiko and Ryuji return to the holiday resort and discover a well, as seen in the video, under the cabin Reiko and Tomoko had both stayed at. Ryuji climbs down the well and they try to empty the well enough to look for Sadako's body, believing that if they find Sadako's body and lay her to rest, they will break the curse and save Yoichi. However, Reiko's deadline approaches, and she becomes too tired to pull up the buckets of water from the well. Ryuji decides it's time to trade places, so he tells her to go down the well and he can pull the buckets up instead. Reiko goes down the well but decides to look for Sadako rather than help empty the well. She feels around the bottom and discovers a chunk of Sadako's hair, and rather than her finding Sadako, Sadako finds her, as her hand grabs her wrist as she had in the vision. However, Reiko does not panic and finds that it is merely the skeleton remains of Sadako's body. The deadline passes and Reiko appears to be saved.

However, the next day, Reiko calls Ryuji and hears his death over the phone and rushes to his house in an attempt to help him. By the time she gets to his apartment, however, he has already died. It had turned out that Sadako crawled out of his TV and killed him; thus meaning that the curse was not broken from Ryuji. Reiko is distraught, and realises that if Ryuji has now died, Yoichi will probably die too. Unable to understand how it is possible she is alive and Ryuji is dead, she almost gives up hope. However, Ryuji's spirit appears in the form of the towel-headed man and guides her towards the shocking truth; she survived because she showed Ryuji the tape and copied the videotape. Realising what she has to do, Reiko gathers up her things and drives to her father's house with the intention of showing him the tape.

Ring 2/Rasen

In Ring 2, after the death of his father, Yoichi has started to become more and more like Sadako and is unable to speak. Reiko and Yoichi go into hiding from the authorities but are tracked down by Mai Takano, one of Ryuji's students, and she promises to help Reiko solve the problem with Yoichi. However, when another person dies from the curse of the videotape, Mai tells the police about Reiko and they arrest her. Scientists plan to do tests on Yoichi to test his level of ESP. Yoichi cries out to Reiko in a panic. When the policemen call Yoichi a "monster", Yoichi launches a physic attack on two doctors. The police chase the two of them and they try to escape. While trying to cross a road, Reiko falls into one of her terrible visions; her father telling her that Yoichi is not himself anymore. She did not have enough time to escape; she is hit by a truck and is killed. The shock of seeing his mother killed prompts Yoichi to nearly kill one of the policemen. It appears that Reiko's spirit is watching him still and Yoichi is saved from Sadako by the spirit of his father Ryuji.

Although she does not appear onscreen in Rasen, Reiko plays an important role in the outcome of the film. After she and Yoichi turn up dead following a car crash, her superior Yoshino finds both the videotape and Reiko's diary in her car. Following Reiko's death, many people begin to die after a week as they did after watching the video. While the hero, Andou, thinks that it is the video causing the deaths, he discovers that none of them watched the video tape. At the end of the film, it turns out that it is Reiko's diary; she and Ryuji were helping Sadako all along. Consequently, the reincarnation of Ryuji takes the diary with the intention of publishing it to spread the curse even further.

Other appearances

Reiko Asakawa also appears in the movie-tie-in manga series. In the first manga, Reiko has a similar backstory as in the films; she is divorced with one son but works for a newspaper, rather than a TV company. Also, Reiko and Ryuji discover that Sadako was killed by a doctor who attempted to rape her, as in the novel, rather than murdered by her adoptive father as in the film.

The background between Reiko, Ryuji and Yoichi is further explained. It is revealed that they were separated, rather than divorced, three years prior to the manga's beginning. None of the family shows signs of ESP. Ryuji is also closer to Reiko in age. The manga hints towards the love-interest between Reiko and Ryuji more obviously. He attempts to make her jealous throughout the manga, and she is troubled by the fact he appears to have a girlfriend, Mai Takano. However, at the end of the manga Takano later puts Reiko's mind to rest when she explains that she and Ryuji are just friends and that he has not been in any relationship.

Other incarnations

• Kazuyuki Asakawa, in Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel Ring, a married man with a wife Shizu and a daughter Yoko. Difference between him and Reiko Asakawa is his gender, family and relation to Ryuji, who is an old school friend rather than an ex-lover/spouse.
• Rachel Keller, in the 2002 American remake of the 1998 Japanese film, a single mother with a (supposedly 9-year-old) son. Unlike the Japanese film, this version of the character was never married to her child's father, but he was indeed her boyfriend before. There is another minor difference; the fact that in Ringu, Reiko still had slight interest in Ryuji, while in The Ring, Noah still had more noticeable interest in Rachel.
• Sun-joo Kong, in the 1999 South Korean remake of the 1998 Japanese film, a single mother with a daughter.

Yoko Asakawa

Yoko Asakawa (浅川 陽子, Asakawa Yōko^?) is a character in Koji Suzuki's novel Ring, published in 1991. She is the one-year old daughter of Kazuyuki Asakawa and Shizu Asakawa.

Other incarnations

Asakawa is better known in the male guise of Yoichi Asakawa, portrayed by Rikiya Otaka in the 1998 film adaptation. Apart from sex, Yoichi differs from Yoko because:

• Rather than having married parents, he has divorced parents.
• Rather than being one, he is seven years old.
• He appears more often than her, especially in the scene when he watches the cursed videotape.
• Time of viewing the film has changed.
• Tomoko is his cousin by blood, rather than by marriage.

• Aidan Keller, in the 2002 American remake of the 1998 Japanese film, is the son of single-mother Rachel Keller.
• Hong Booram, in the 1999 South Korean remake of the 1998 Japanese film, is the daughter of single-mother Sun-joo Hong.

Yoichi Asakawa

Yoichi Asakawa (浅川陽一, Asakawa Yōichi^?) (Sometimes called Yoichi Takayama) is a character of the 1998 film adaptation of Koji Suzuki's novel Ring, published in 1991, portrayed by Rikiya Otaka. He is based on the novel character Yoko Asakawa, daughter of Kazuyuki Asakawa. He also appears in the "official" sequel to the Ringu cycle, named Ring 2. He is the son of Reiko Asakawa and Ryuji Takayama, is about seven years of age and like his parents (particularly his father) is gifted from supernatural powers, namely ESP. He, like Sadako, has been considered a monster due to his strange powers and mysterious personality.

To close family members in Ring and Ring fans (ringworms) his pet name is "Yo-chan"

Characterisation

Yoichi Asakawa, born 1990, is the seven-year-old son of Reiko Asakawa and Ryuji Takayama. He lives with his mother in a small flat in Tokyo. His parents divorced when he was young (four-years-old, it is suggested), and he has very little contact with his father, if any. He was very close to his cousin, Tomoko Oishi (whom he and his mother call "Tomo-chan"), daughter of his mother's elder sister, Ryomi, and was badly affected by her death.

Yoichi is very independent and quiet for a boy of his age. Without a male role-model, he has made himself "man of the house", and takes it in his stride to help look after his mother. He tries to support her by helping her; he lays out a change of clothes for her when she comes home from work, walks to school alone and prepares his own dinner. The only person he seems to have a close relationship with is his maternal grandfather, Koichi Asakawa, with who he acts like a normal seven-year-old.

Yoichi is very similar to his father in looks, behaviour and feelings; both are aloof and suppress their feelings. Despite their estrangement, they appear to have a special connection, in which they can sense when they are both in danger. He clearly loves both his parents, as demonstrated in Ring 2, but his relationship to both of them is also on a supernatural level, too. He is able to see his cousin, Tomoko, who tells him to watch the cursed vidoetape that his parents are investigating.

After Yoichi watches the videotape, his parents begin to force themselves further to try and find a way to save themselves. They leave Yoichi with his grandfather and learn more about the video. They discover its origin and its creator, Sadako Yamamura. Upon finding her body and laying it to rest, Reiko does not die and they believe she is saved.

Following the events they have been through, a reconciliation between Yoichi's parents seems likely, as Reiko and Ryuji appear ready to try again at being a family. However, the hope amounts to nothing as Ryuji dies the next day at his deadline. Reiko realizes (with the help of Ryuji's spirit) that the way to save yourself is to copy the tape and show it to someone else. She travels to her father's house and Yoichi does the same thing as his mother did, giving his grandfather the tape.

Extra-sensory perception

Yoichi, like his parents, is clairvoyant and seems to each have a certain amount of ESP. Ryuji and Reiko have both demonstrated signs that they can sense spirits when they are in the same room. The three are connected on a supernatural level; if one is in danger the other two family members know it.

Ring

Yoichi see and feel his dead cousin Tomoko's presence in her old bedroom and, like Ryuji, he appears to receive a headache upon entering places where spirits are present. This leads him to him watching the videotape like his parents when Tomoko's spirit tells him to do so. Ryuji felt Yoichi's danger when he watched the video and sent out a warning. Upon his father's death, Yoichi appears to feel the loss of his father's aura.

Ring 2

Yoichi takes a more direct role in the plot to the sequel. Following his father's death he is rendered unable to speak. He takes to hiding in public places near where his father lived, leading to Mai Takano finding where he and Reiko are hiding. He begins to develop supernatural powers beyond those he had in the original film that take a less realistic effect.

Yoichi recovers his speech once he realizes the police are trying to take him away from his mother, subsequently leading to Reiko's death when she enters one of her visions from which she never awakens as she is hit by a truck. After this Yoichi begins to lose control of his powers from the hate he has for the circumstances that led to his parents' deaths.

At the Yamamura Inn Yoichi causes a huge paranormal disturbance in which Shizuko and Sadako appear. Yoichi is used a medium to summoned Sadako as he is judged the only one strong enough to do it. He refuses to cooperate with Dr. Kawajiri at first and is only coaxed into using his power when Mai is blamed for his mother's death, provoking his hate. He loses control of his power as a result and causes the death of three people.

Yoichi transports Mai and himself to the well and tells her leave to let him fall. However Ryuji recovers Yoichi from the bottom of the well and takes his hate, preventing him from becoming like Sadako.

Relationship with Ryuji

Although the reasons for Ryuji and Reiko’s divorce are never explained, Yoichi and Ryuji appear to hold a close supernatural bond despite having little contact with each other. He resembles Ryuji not only in clairvoyance but also personality and even mathematic ability. Ryuji is also seems to feel the need to look out for Yoichi; during the first film he asks after him to Reiko and asks if he will be okay being left alone late, to which Reiko replies sadly, "He's used to it."

In Ring 2 Ryuji's death, and then Reiko's, leads Yoichi's powers to become more sinister and like Sadako's. It is Ryuji who saves Yoichi when he tries to kill himself and takes his hate away, saving him from Sadako's influence.

In Rasen the relationship is slightly more complex. Takano tells Andou that Ryuji did not want Yoichi or Reiko to die although he always regretted having a child. Ryuji does not desire to bring Yoichi back to life through Sadako as Andou does with his son, stating that he "couldn't be so cruel" to bring Yoichi back into this world. This suggests that he has foreseen the destruction Sadako will bring and feels it is better that Reiko and Yoichi are dead.

Relationship with Reiko

Yoichi seems to have a normal relationship with his mother Reiko. He supports her by helping her as demonstrated in Ring. Yoichi is badly affected by her death in Ring 2, seeing as how his father Ryuji had already died, Reiko was all he had left. He loses control of his powers after she dies, but it is revealed that her spirit is still watching over him.

Other incarnations

Yoichi Asakawa is the movie version of Yoko Asakawa from the novels. However, the novel character is a baby, and does not participate in the plot of the book, except having watched the videotape, when her mother Shizuka Asakawa plays it and watches it.^[1]

In the Korean film adaptation, The Ring Virus, Hong Booram, is the daughter of single-mother Sun-Joo Hong. In fact, she appears to be about the same age as Yoichi, but other than having watched the videotape, does not participate in the plot.^[2]

In the American film adaptations, Aidan Keller, is the son of single-mother Rachel Keller, and has psychic powers, and participates in the plot, similar to Yoichi.^[3]

Ryuji Takayama

Ryuji Takayama is a character in the Ring cycle, appearing and mentioned in Koji Suzuki's novels Ring, Rasen, Loop and The Birthday as well as in the films Ring, Ring 2 and Rasen. Ryuji is played by Hiroyuki Sanada in the movie series. He has also been played by Yoshio Harada in Ring: Kanzenban and Tomoya Nagase in Ring: The Final Chapter who also was used in the Ring manga.

Suzuki's novels

In Ring, Ryūji Takayama is a strange man who claims to be an occasional rapist, and seems to fear nothing. As soon as Asakawa explains the story Ryūji believes him, and wants nothing other than to see the cursed videotape. Asakawa shows it to him, and although Ryūji remains nonchalant he agrees there is a powerful aura around the tape. He asks Asakawa to make him a copy to study at home, which Asakawa does. By the end, he and Asakawa believe they have solved the mystery surrounding the series' central character, Sadako Yamamura; The following day, however, Sadako's malignant spirit emerges from the tape and kills him.

In Spiral a former medical school classmate, Andou, performs the autopsy on Ryūji. He discovers a bit of newspaper sticking out of Ryuji's stomach sutures, with two sets of numbers on it: "178" and "136". Later on, it's traced to a code, utilizing a sequence of Ryuji's DNA. The message contained was "mutation". After watching the tape, Ryūji's girlfriend Mai Takano becomes pregnant with Sadako's spirit. She dies and Sadako is reborn. With Andou's help, they bring Ryūji back to life through advanced cloning. Sadako and Ryūji then plot to spread the virus throughout the world using the diary of his dead friend, Asakawa.

In Loop, protagonist Kaoru Futami discovers that he is actually a clone of Ryūji Takayama, who apparently cracked the code to a secret government project called LOOP code and called the outside world. Kaoru realises that he is the cure to the virus that afflicts his girlfriend Reiko and is implanted into the Loop; in order to obtain the cure to the virus to save his girlfriend, he has to die. When in the Loop, Kaoru is reborn through Sadako instead of Ryūji, and Kaoru from then on lives under the name of Ryūji Takayama.

After six months of research, Kaoru/Ryuji creates a vaccine for the Ring virus, a sample of which he gives to Andou. The vaccine is then mass-produced, neutralizing the effects of the Ring virus. He also creates a virus designed to accelerate the Sadako clones' aging rate and kill them, ridding the Loop of Sadako Yamamura forever. However, the virus also affects Ryuji, and he eventually dies his second death. His last thoughts are of Reiko and her face, attempting to say "happy birthday".

Ring Movies

Ryuji Takayama's character in the film series is very different from the novels. In the films, Asakawa becomes Reiko Asakawa, his ex-wife and mother of his child, Yoichi. Ryuji and his family all have a similar power to what Sadako and her family had called ESP.

Other variations include his relationship to other characters, in particular Mai Takano. In the novels, his relationship with Mai appears to be romantic. In the films, however, only in Rasen is she ever mentioned as being his girlfriend. In the rest of the series, such a relationship does not exist.

Other incarnations

In the US remakes of the Japanese films, the character is named Noah Clay, and is similar to the Japanese Ring movies' (not Rasen) character.

In the Korean film remake, the character is Dr. Choi Yeol, a pathologist, and is similar to the character Mitsuo Ando from the second novel, Spiral (Ryuji's best friend), also a pathologist.

Sadako Yamamura

Sadako Yamamura (山村貞子, Yamamura Sadako^?) is the antagonist in Koji Suzuki's novel Ring and the 1998 film adaptation. She returns as the antagonist in Rasen and the protagonist in Ring 0: Birthday, and appears in the Korean and American remakes of the Ring cycle films, although as different characters. Her American movies' counterpart is Samara Morgan

In the original novel, Sadako is a hermaphrodite. In both the novels and movies, it is hinted that she is the daughter of some oceanic based entity, making her a quasi-oceanic demigod.

Her name combines the Japanese words for "chaste" (sada) and "child" (ko).

Character

Sadako's character is not directly portrayed in Ring, but is expanded briefly in Rasen and to a much greater extent in Ring 0: Birthday, although there are differences in these various portrayals.

Most other incarnations share one thing in common: Sadako's need to reproduce, something she can not do herself, as she is portrayed as an intersexual. This is generally the reason why she creates the "Ring Virus", since she will "live on" in it, as long as her DNA (merged with that of the smallpox virus) still exists. In some incarnations where the "Ring Virus" is just treated as a mysterious phenomenon, and not a biological virus, she generally created it for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on humanity.

Gender

In the Ring novel, Jotaro Nagao claims that when he raped Sadako (shortly before murdering her), he discovered she had androgen insensitivity syndrome; despite having the external characteristics of a young woman, Sadako had a male chromosomal genotype. The only visible sign of her condition is the fact that she has external testes. This aspect of Sadako's character is not included in the film versions of Ring (or its American remakes), though that aspect was included in Ring: Kanzenban and the Korean remake, The Ring Virus.

When Sadako is reborn in Spiral she has changed, physically; The "new" Sadako has a womb and ovaries, and also states in a letter to Ando that "the man in me can ejaculate." However, it would appear that she does not have a penis as such; rather, her ejaculations are internal — into herself.

Although Sadako inseminates herself twice in Spiral, she never carries an egg fertilised only by herself to term, and as such it cannot be said how such a pregnancy would operate. The following details are based on her "resurrections".

By removing the DNA in one of Sadako's fertilized eggs and replacing it with that of another (then returning the egg to her womb) Sadako can "resurrect" the dead (or potentially clone the living). Her pregnancies, in these cases, last about a week, and the offspring grows back to their age/level of physical development from when the sample was taken in another week. The offspring retain all their memories from when the sample was taken, which Suzuki explains by claiming that memories are stored in the intron of DNA.

Two Sadakos

The filmed version of Ring 0: Birthday introduced the concept of two Sadakos — an idea not present in the earlier Ring books or films. The movie implies that after her mother is mocked and insulted by reporters at her demonstration, Sadako killed the reporter who started the chaos with her powers, Sadako split into two identical girls — one relatively normal, the other a violent sociopath. This second Sadako is imprisoned by her father and drugged so that she would not physically mature. The second Sadako is never seen clearly, so it's not clear just what her physical state is, only that she has the size and proportions of a child.

Both Sadakos possesses psychic powers, although it is never clear whether they are the same. The "normal" Sadako exhibits, at one point, healing powers and the ability to see ghosts. She is also linked to the other Sadako, who wields more destructive powers (such as psychokinesis) and uses them to defend the "normal" Sadako when she is under distress — even if it is her own powers causing said distress.

After "normal" Sadako is murdered, the evil Sadako merges with her. This merger involves no physical contact, as the child Sadako is locked in a room when it occurs (and vanishes afterwards), and two characters watching over the nearby corpse of older Sadako witnesses only the reanimation of her corpse.

The "restored" Sadako acts like her younger, evil self, but her appearance is based on her older self, although her face is obscured by her hair and she moves mostly in shadow.

The split between the two Sadakos in the film canon is detailed in a prequel manga to Ring 0.

History

Sadako's initial origin story alters between the novels and films. In the novels, she was born to Shizuko Yamamura and Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma. Shizuko had renowned psychic powers, and eventually was convinced by Dr. Ikuma to give a public demonstration. However, Shizuko bowed out of the demonstration due to migraines brought on by her powers and was labelled a fraud by the press. Shizuko eventually went into a deep depression and committed suicide by jumping into Oshima Island's volcano, which Sadako had correctly predicted would erupt at a specific date and time. Sadako remained living with her family on the island, whilst Dr. Ikuma attempted to awaken potential psychic powers within himself by standing under waterfalls, but gained an illness and was hospitalised for many years.

At the age of nineteen, Sadako joined a Tokyo-based acting troupe and fell in love with the sound operator Hiroshi Toyama. He learnt of her powers but accepted them. Unfortunately, an early form of the curse was created in the form of a sound recording which killed four people including the troupe's director, resulting in Sadako fleeing and leaving Toyama heartbroken. Sadako visited Ikuma in hospital, only to be raped by a doctor named Nagao Jotaro. However, he discovered her darkest secret, finding she is a hermaphrodite, and possesses a man's privates. Sadako attacked him with her powers, forcing Nagao to toss her down a nearby well and he sealed her within. Foreseeing herself being reborn years later, Sadako vowed revenge on the world and died.

Her past alters in the films after the demonstration. During which, a journalist named Miyaji accused Shizuko of being a fraud. An angry Sadako killed him using her powers, giving him a heart attack, which becomes Sadako's main form of killing her victims in the films. At this point, Sadako split apart into two identical girls. One was kind and gentle, whilst the other was cold and destructive. After Shizuko's suicide, Dr. Ikuma moved to Izu County where he locked up the evil twin and drugged her to prevent her from aging, but allowed the good twin to live a normal life. The good Sadako joined the acting troupe like in the novels and fell in love with Toyama. However, Miyaji's wife Akiko arrived to avenge her husband. Sadako's evil twin called out of her other self, causing her to lose control of her powers and murder the doctor helping her control her abilities. The troupe members save Toyama killed the good twin, and drove to Ikuma's house to kill the evil one, only for her to escape and bond with her revived good self. Unable to recognise friend from foe, Sadako goes on a murderous rampage and kills everyone including Toyama. The good Sadako re-emerges only to be attacked by a distraught Ikuma and pushed down the well where she is trapped.

During her entrapment, a summer resort is built over the well. Using her powers, Sadako projects a series of images from her past into a cursed videotape which, when watched, kills the viewer after seven days. In the films, it is revealed Sadako survived down the well for over thirty years by sheer will but died after creating the videotape.

Appearance

The most recognizable image of Sadako is a shadowy young woman whose face is hidden behind long black hair. She is often seen crawling out of a television screen, usually just after a depiction of her crawling out of a well. This appearance is typical of yūrei, a kind of Japanese ghost bound to the physical world through strong emotions which do not allow them to pass on. Specifically, Sadako is a type of yūrei known as an onryō, bound by a desire for vengeance.

Like many creatures of folklore, yūrei have a traditional appearance and follow a certain set of rules. They are generally depicted as female, although the legends also include male yūrei. They wear white clothing, which is the color of clothing that corpses are traditionally dressed with in Japan. They have long, often unkempt black hair and white faces, which comes from Kabuki theater where each character has a particular type of wig and make-up that identifies them to the audience. (Although it may also come from the fact that while Japanese women usually wore their hair in a bun, for funeral and burial, their long hair is let loose)

In addition to the standard yūrei appearance, Sadako is also an amalgamation of two famous Japanese ghosts, Oiwa and Okiku. From Oiwa, Sadako takes the single, misshapen eye. From Okiku, the style of murder, of being thrown down a well and then having the ghost rise from the well to seek vengeance.

The success of the 1998 film Ring brought the image of the yūrei to Western popular culture for the first time, although the image has existed in Japan for centuries. This image is often used in J-Horror films, such as Ju-on (and its remake The Grudge), One Missed Call and Dark Water.

Sadako is also based on the life of early-20th century psychic Sadako Takahashi, who in 1931 was studied by psychologist Tomokichi Fukurai for his book, Clairvoyance and Thoughtography^{[citation needed]}.

Powers

Sadako has a variety of psychic powers throughout all the Ring cycle books and films. The most famous is her ability to create the "cursed" video tape.

Videotape

In the films her method of killing with the video curse is not explained, but when someone is killed by it she is seen climbing out of the nearest reflective surface (the most famous portrayal of this being her crawl from a television screen) and approaching them. The corpses are discovered with looks of unearthly anguish on their faces, so it could be presumed that they "die of fright", i.e. a heart attack. In Spiral, the curse is explained in detail, and is discovered to in fact be a virus. When someone watches the cursed tape (or something else carrying the curse) some of their DNA is changed to become that of the Ring Virus (i.e. a hybrid of Sadako's DNA and that of the smallpox virus). This travels through their body and in most cases causes a sarcoma to form on one of the arteries of their heart. If the curse has not been appeased within seven days, the sarcoma detaches from the artery and clogs it, causing heart failure. Eventually, however, the Ring virus is able to infect people through means other than videotapes, such as a report detailing the events of Ring written by Asakawa which the virus had entered from Asakawa's body, a novel version of the report published by Asakawa's brother, a movie based on the novel (which Sadako was cast as herself in), and finally the Metastatic Human Cancer virus, a mutated form of the virus which escaped the Loop and plagued the real world.

Other powers

In Ring 0 Sadako exhibits a variety of abilities (mentioned above), including telekinesis, the ability to kill people instantly with psychic powers, healing abilities, ESP, and possibly the ability to split herself into two beings and merge them again.

Due to her curious new biology, Sadako also seems to be able to resurrect people (with some help from a genetic scientist) at the end of Spiral.

In Ring 2 the protagonists discover that Sadako was alive in the well for 30 years, dying shortly before she was uncovered in the previous film by Reiko Asakawa. This implies that she had remained alive until she imparted her curse onto the tape, meaning that she also had superhuman endurance and longevity, as well as inedia (the ability to live for extended periods without nourishment).

In the original Japanese films, Sadako's tapes cause their victims to have odd and malformed images when photographed. These images remain until Sadako kills the victim.

Lastly, she imparts her curse onto the video tapes, implying the ability of projected thermography.

Other versions

Park Eun-Suh

Sadako was the source for the character Park Eun-Suh from the 1999 Korean remake, The Ring Virus. She is portrayed by Korean actress Bae Doo-na.

Park Eun-Suh more closely resembles the Sadako from the novels. She appears to be about the same age as Sadako (19-years-old), though her age was never confirmed. She and her mother both had supernatural powers (similar to Sadako and Shizuko) and were rumored to be witches. After Eun-Suh's mother throws herself off a cliff into the sea, Eun-Suh's powers mysteriously disappear. As she grew older, she worked at a nightclub under the name "Sunny Park". Due to her powers, she was a suspect in the death of one of her co-workers.

Eun-Suh was raped by her half brother shortly before her death, during which he discovered that she was a hermaphrodite. She was ashamed (it was her secret), and telepathically threatened to kill him if he told anyone. Horrified, he strangled her until she was unconscious and dropped her in a nearby well.

Samara Morgan

Sadako was the main influence on Samara Morgan from the 2002 American remake, The Ring, and its sequel, The Ring Two. She was played by Daveigh Chase and Kelly Stables. Samara Morgan is depicted as an otherworldly little girl (Born 1970, died 1978) responsible for the creation of the cursed videotape from the American version of the Ringu story. Her usual appearance is of a girl with long, dark hair covering her face and wearing a white dress. Her personality is shown to be generally innocent but reclusive and needy. Samara possesses the power of nensha (thoughtography), capable of burning images onto surfaces and into people's mind. Using these powers, Samara makes the cursed videotape, projecting her mental images onto a blank tape, and installing it with the power to kill the viewer within seven days. She also has other abilities such as body possession, water manipulation, and can climb out of electrical screens like television sets. In the short film Rings, a character tries to prevent Samara's escape from a television set by breaking the screen but she then tries to emerge through the screen of a video camera as the character records her appearance.

Samara's fictional history is covered through the American films. She was born to a woman named Evelyn who suspected her daughter of being born with a demon inside her, and so tried to drown her child to exoricse the demon, but she was prevented by nuns. Evelyn was sent to an insane asylum, whilst Samara was put up for adoption and then adopted by Anna and Richard Morgan (Shannon Cochran and Brian Cox), who owned a horse ranch on Moesko Island, Washington. Anna had several miscarriages in the late 1960s, and was thrilled to have a child, but as Samara grew older her powers burnt horrible images into her adoptive mother's mind, nearly driving her mad. Richard banished Samara to live in the ranch's barn, but she used her powers to drive Anna's beloved horses to suicide. At some point, Samara was taken to a psychiatric hospital but they were unable to explain how she created the images. Eventually, the family went to Shelter Mountain for a vacation, but Anna attacked Samara as she stood before an old well, suffocating her with a garbage bag and then dropping down the well. Anna then committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. Samara died seven days later.

Eventually, a set of rental cabins were built near the well, one on top of it. This allowed Samara to project her visions into a VCR tape, and creating the seven-day curse. In The Ring, Samara's curse kills Katie, the niece of Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), leading the journalist to investigate the tape's origins. Rachel, her ex-boyfriend Noah Clay (Martin Henderson) and their son Aidan (David Dorfman) all watch the video. Rachel meets Richard, who warns her to stay away and then kills himself. Rachel and Noah eventually find Samara's corpse in the well and bury it, but this releases a corporeal form of Samara's spirit and she kills Noah by crawling out of his television and scaring him to death. Rachel destroys the original video cassette in a fit of rage, but uses a copied version of the video to continue the curse in order to save Aidan.

In The Ring Two, Samara deliberately manipulates the tape to get back to Rachel, having decided to make her her new mother. After Rachel burns the tape, Samara possesses Aidan. Rachel drugs Samara and then nearly drowns Aidan to pull Samara out of his body. Samara retreats to a television set, Rachel being willingly pulled into Samara's visionary world and down the well. Rachel climbs out of the well with Samara pursuing her, but Rachel covers the seal on the well just in time.

Others

In August 2000, The Ring: Terror's Realm was released on Dreamcast. It portrays a world where the cure to Sadako's virus resides in virtual reality. All references are primarily from Ringu.

Sadako was later spoofed in a skit in the Robot Chicken episode "Operation Rich In Spirit". She was voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The Dutch metal band Thanatos released a song titled "The Sign of Sadako" on their album, Undead, Unholy, Divine. The lyrics directly relate to the character, with lines such as "One became two, then two became one" (referring to the splitting into good/evil Sadako, and subsequent remerging) and "The curse was spread and visualized/Watch the images within seven days you'll die".

Yukie Nakama, who portrayed Sadako in Ring 0: Birthday, performed the famous "Sadako crawl" in the movie Trick, in which she played Naoko Yamada.

Like many aspects and symbols of Japanese pop culture, she has also been referred to by 2ch and 4chan in memetic fanart depicting her in a more positive way. She has been called "Japan's most popular psychic ghost." Much fanart depicts her emerging from ipod screens and mini TV sets, resulting in her being equally small.^{[citation needed]}

Portrayals

The Sadako, Eun-Suh, and Samara characters are played by a number of different actresses:

Sadako

• Rie Inō - Ring, Ring 2
• Hinako Saeki - Rasen
• Ayane Miura - Ring: Kanzenban
• Kimura Tae - Ring: The Final Chapter, Rasen
• Yukie Nakama - Ring 0: Birthday

Eun-Suh

• Bae Doona - The Ring Virus

Samara

• Daveigh Chase - The Ring, also archival footage in The Ring Two
• Kelly Stables - The Ring Two

Other Characters

• Jotaro Nagao - A young doctor who was responsible for tossing Sadako down the well in the novels. He raped Sadako, passing on the smallpox strand that would become the virus in the cursed tape. He discovered she had Testicular Feminization Syndrome after raping her and threw her down the well.

• Shizuko Yamamura - Sadako's mother. Shizuko gave birth to Sadako under mysterious circumstances. She possessed the power of foresight, which was eventually put on display by Doctor Ikuma and Shizuko's cousin Takashi for the press. However, one journalist mocked Shizuko and labelled her a fraud. He was murdered by a young Sadako. Shizuko eventually went insane, spending hours on end standing in front of a mirror combing her hair. She predicted the eruption of a nearby volcano on Oshima Island, and her prediction came true the day she committed suicide by leaping into the volcano. She was played by actress Masako.
  • Her American counterpart is Anna Morgan, played by Shannon Cochran. She was a famous horse breeder but suffered from hallucinations caused by Samara, leading to her trapping Samara down a well. She committed suicide moments after by falling off a cliff.

• Doctor Heihachiro Ikuma - Shizuko's lover and Sadako's stepfather. In the books, he had an affair with Shizuko whilst working as a professor at Tokyo University. He gained tuberculosis after Shizuko's suicide whilst to activate possible psychic powers of his own and was hospitalsied for many years. In the films, he cared for Sadako but locked her evil twin away for years. He eventually tossed her down the well after both girls reunited and killed numerous people. He died shortly after. He was played by Daisuke Ban.

• Takashi Yamamura - Shizuko's cousin, Takashi was responsible for setting up Shizuko's public demonstration and was the catalyst for the events following to Sadako's imprisonment in the well. In Ring 2, he shows regret for his actions and allows Sadako's ghost to kill him. Played by Yoichi Numata.
  • His American counterpart is Richard Morgan, played by Brian Cox. Samara's adoptive father, Richard hates Samara for her powers effects on Anna and banishes her to the family barn before her death. He kills himself in The Ring via electrocution in a bath after being visited by Rachel.

• Ando Mitsuo - The protagonist of the second novel Spiral and the retconned film sequel Rasen. A forensics doctor and autopsy surgeon, Ando was friends with Ryuji Takayama in medical school before he turned to mathematics and has to perform an autopsy on his body. His young son Takanori died of an unknown illness. Ando and Ryuji's student Mai Takano destroy the original tape after he watches it to end Sadako's curse for good, only to both become pawns in Sadako's resurrection. Ando agrees to help spread her curse and his son is reborn using Sadako's DNA. Played by Kōichi Satō.

• Mai Takano - Ryuji Takayama's student and possibly girlfriend, Mai has a minor role in the first novel and film but finds his body after Sadako kills him. She was played by Miki Nakatani in the films. Her character role differs between the sequels. In Spiral and Rasen, Mai helps Ando Mitsuo investigate what truly killed Ryuji and learns of the tape and Sadako. The two end up sleeping together, leading to Sadako's resurrection, Mai used as an incubator for Sadako in her fertile stage and is killed. Her body is oddly found in a pipe by the authorities. In Ring 2, Mai investigates Ryuji's death and learns of the tape, etc. However, she becomes attached to Reiko and Yoichi and helps them flee the police, but Reiko is hit by a truck and dies. Mai becomes Yoichi's guardian and looks after him. At the end of Ring 2, Mai and Yoichi are involved in an experiment by Dr. Kawajiri to remove Sadako's powers from the boy. The experiment goes awry and everyone present save Mai and Yoichi die, who end up in the well but escape thanks to Ryuji and Sadako allowing them to leave.

• Tomoko and Masami - A pair of girls seen at the start of the novel and film, the two discuss the rumours of the cursed tape which turn out to be true. Tomoko watched the tape a week ago in the Izu County with three others, and is killed by Sadako at the start of the film. Masami witnessed the death and went mad, ending up in hospital. In Ring 2, Mai encounters Masami in hospital and she is used by Doctor Kawajiri in his first attempt to destroy Sadako's powers but is killed in the process. They are played by Yuko Takeuchi and Hitomi Sato.

• Okazaki - A journalist who works alongside Reiko Asakawa. He has a brief role in the first film, but reappears in Ring 2 investigating Reiko's disappearance and helps Mai for a part of the film. He gets a copy of the tape from a girl named Kanae Sawaguchi who he promises to save after she watches the tape, but lies and allows her to die. This comes back to literally haunt him as Kanae's ghost stalks him until he ends up in hospital.

• Hiroshi Toyama - Sadako's lover. Working as the sound operator in the acting troupe Sadako joined, Toyama learnt of her nensha powers but accepted them, promising to run away with her. Unfortunately, an early form of Sadako's curse started killing troupe members and Sadako fled to avoid killing Toyama. Years on, an elderly Toyama is on his deathbed but is visited by the resurrected Sadako who eases his passing, promising that they will be together in death. In the film prequel Ring 0, Toyama is dating Etsuko Tachihara but leaves her for Sadako. He is killed by the reunited forms of Sadako, who is unable to recognise friend from foe.

References

1. ^ Ring, Koji Suzuki
2. ^ The Ring Virus
3. ^ The Ring