I was floored with the film, The Ring. And I nearly enjoyed the 1998 Japanese film, Ringu, as much as I did the American version. However, the more I dug around behind the scenes of these two films, I discovered how much I feel the American version truly improved on the original story (Ringu is not actually the "original").

The first thing you will notice watching both films (The Ring and Ringu) is that the first 30 minutes of the films follow virtually scene-for-scene, character-for-character, dialog-for -dialog. That's not necessarily a bad thing, they set the tone for the story and brilliantly written from a screenplay view. But I became annoyed by it, and nearly stopped watching the rest of Ringu for fear that I would not see anything different. Fortunately, the story shifts to a Japanese perspective and it's culture begins to blossom for the remainder of the film.

Ringu does not provide English voice-overs, so be prepared to read subtitles. In the latter portion of the film, that becomes a BIG plus. It will confuse you early, trying to figure out what the word "Sada" means, however. Just try to stick it out. If it isn't a recognizable word, it is either the name of a person or place. The film gives away much more than it's American cousin. While that helps to explain things more clearly, it spoils some of the surprises in store for the audience. This is one of the more important reasons why I recommend watching the latter American version, The Ring , before viewing this film.

After doing background research for this film, I would treat The Ring and Ringu as two separate entities. I say this because Ringu is not really the "original" story. Ringu is a film version remake of a 1995 Japanese television movie, Ringu: Kanzen-ban. The earlier television movie was adapted from the 1991 novel, Ringu by Suzuki Koji. More novels followed - Rasen (or the Spiral) in 1995 which sequels Ringu, Loop in 1998 which takes on new characters to new places and begins to mutate the story, and the Birthday in 1999 which is a collection of 3 short stories filling in gaps in the first 3 books.

Ohhh, but things don't get truly interesting until the 1998 films, Ringu and Rasen, are thrown out to Japanese audiences, at the same time. I would have thought that was a brilliant marketing strategy, but somehow Rasen got lost in all the hype. But wait, it gets better ... in 2000, Ringu gets ANOTHER sequel ... no no no, not a third one, they just sorta pretend Rasen never was made and create a new Rasen or Ringu 2. They immediately follow with a prequel, Ringu 0: Birthday, also in 2000.Now, backtrack to 1999, while the Japanese begin their franchise onslaught, now Korea wants a piece of this action. Their version entitled, The Ring Virus , is another retelling of the first story. Confused yet? Well, it gets really tricky from here ... the same year Korean filmgoers are getting their taste of the Ring, television viewers in Japan get a new series called, Ringu: Saishuushou (or The Final Chapter). Which is immediately followed with another series, Rasen ..... whew!

Aside from the madness of movie making, this has become a worldwide cult phenomenon. And not surprising, the Americans have recently announced their own sequel to The Ring, emphasizing that it will NOT be related to the Japanese sequels. Gotta love it!.