Ring Saishushou; or, Race Against Time
Why must you hate mankind? Even till now, there’s someone
who loves you with all his heart. You didn’t expect it?
Right after the premiere of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu in 1998,
the Ring craze took Japan by the storm. In spite of a sequel (more about it
soon) released by Toho simultaneously with the original, FujiTV commissioned a
TV drama. Ring: Saishushou, also known as Ring: The Final Chapter, is a
12-episode-long adaptation of Koji Suzuki’s famous novel. If counting the preceding
films, Ring: Kanzenban and Ringu, then Ring: Saishushou is actually the third
re-telling of the novel since its publication in 1991.
Release Info
Directed by: Fukumoto Yoshito, Hidetomo Matsuda, Yoshihito Fukumoto Starring: Toshiro Yanagiba, Tomoya Nagase, Kotomi Kyono, Hitomi Kuroki
Language: Japanese Original Title: リング ～最終章～ No. of eps: 12
Synopsis
Kazuyuki Asakawa (Toshiro Yanagiba) is a newspaper reporter
who investigates the case of teenagers who died simultaneously in various
places due to myocardial infarction. He arrives at a cabin in the countryside
and finds the VHS tape which was viewed by the teenagers. The tape turns out to
be… a music video by a pop idol Nao Matsuzaki. With the help of a specialist in
paranormal phenomena, Ryuji Takayama (Tomoya Nagase), Asakawa discovers that
the video contains a hidden, subliminal curse which causes people to die 13
days after watching it. Together with a fellow reporter, Akiko Yoshino (Kotomi
Kyono), and a scientist, Reiko Miyashita (Hitomi Kuroki), Asakawa sets out on a
search to find a person behind the curse…
Sadako Ain’t Letting It Go
As some other blogger rightfully stated in his review of the drama, each entry in the Ring franchise is bound to be compared with Hideo
Nakata’s acclaimed work. It is understandable, in my opinion; however, every
Ring adaptation should also be set against its original source
material, Koji Suzuki’s novel. The drama only seemingly resembles the literary
work in its first few episodes. For example, Asakawa is, indeed, a male reporter,
but he is also a widower in this version who single-handedly raises a son. The
tape is at first turned into a joke, with its true contents only to be revealed
later. In addition, the curse’s time span is stretched so as to accommodate new
characters and their subplots.
I don now want to get into the spoiler territory, so just let
me say that the liberties this drama takes to change the story are not
outrageous or particularly bad. In fact, they actually seem to work. I love the
new take on the VHS tape and the search for Sadako in this series. We do get to
know a lot of details about her life this time, and even some relatives pop up
for a moment. Sadako herself (played brilliantly by Tae Kimura) does not do her
iconic “coming out of a TV” gig, but she has a whole set of other haunting
tricks (for instance, telepathic communication or materialising through a sink).
Unfortunately, it is obvious that this drama was made on a
tight budget, so do not expect any spellbinding special effects. The only
disadvantage that really struck me was an underworked music score which was
painfully overused in the key scenes.
What I appreciated the most in this adaptation is that it really
focused on an aspect from the novel that was conveniently omitted by the
movies. Namely, a scientific explanation is implied behind Sadako’s curse. The
VHS is merely a stimulant which initiates a virus in bodies of poor people who
watch it. By the way, I was surprised to find out that Nao Matsuzaki is a real J-singer. Way to go with promoting your brand via Ring!
With regard to performances, Toshiro Yanagiba at first seems
to be ardently working on material that was not written for him, but with
each consecutive episode he begins to own the part (best confrontation-in-the-well
scene in the franchise!). Tomoya Nagase is a worthy addition; however, he gets
sidelined halfway through the series. Kotomi Kyono and Akiko Yada are a-okay as
an annoying reporter and a distressed sister, respectively. A wonderful icing on the cake is
Hitomi Kuroki as a scientist who tries to find a cure for the Ring Virus.
Recommendations
If you are as equally obsessed as me about checking out Ring
adaptations, then Ring: Saishushou is the stuff for you. You can easily check
it out on Youtube. I would not label the drama as scary, but it undoubtedly has
the right atmosphere and a few very creepy moments. I’m really keen on watching
FujiTV’s follow up to this series, which is Rasen (1999), the adaptation of
Suzuki’s second Ring novel.
Overall score: 8/10
