List of Ring characters

This article lists the characters who have appeared in the Japanese Ring films, based on a trilogy of novels written by Koji Suzuki. The series is made up of Ringu, Rasen, Ring 2, Ring 0: Birthday and Sadako 3D. The films have also been adapted into the Korean film The Ring Virus, and the American series The Ring, Rings, and The Ring Two. In television the first novel has been adapted into the television film Ring: Kanzenban as well as Ring: The Final Chapter a 13 episode series. A follow up series, Rasen was also made.

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.

Main characters

Kazuyuki Asakawa

Main article: Kazuyuki Asakawa

Kazuyuki Asakawa (浅川 和行 Asakawa Kazuyuki) is the lead character in the first novel of the series, Ring. He is married to Shizu Asakawa and they have a one-year-old daughter named Yoko. His best friend is Ryuji Takayama, a college professor and 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. While Kazuyuki manages to narrowly escape the curse by showing Ryuji with a copy of the video tape, his daughter and wife are not, and they are both killed before they manage to pass the video to others. Kazuyuki himself is involved in a car accident that leaves him catatonic as the sole survivor for several weeks before he dies as well, as revealed in the second novel, Spiral.

In Ring: Kanzenban (1995), Asakawa is played by Katsunori Takahashi with little difference except for an unborn child rather than a one year old daughter. In the 1999 television series, Ring: The Final Chapter, he is played by Toshirô Yanagiba. In this carnation, he is a widow with a young son while Ryuji is not a friend of his and it is not speculated that the two have previously known each other. In the film series, Kazuyuki's role is played by Reiko Asakawa (浅川 玲子 Asakawa Reiko), who, other than the obvious gender change and her relationship with Ryuji, is otherwise unchanged from Kazuyuki's persona. The producers opted this because they felt a woman would have more appeal to box office audience.

Ryuji Takayama

Ryuji Takayama (高山 竜司 Takayama Ryūji) is a major character in the series, first appearing in Ring. 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, Ando, 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 is traced to a code, utilizing a sequence of Ryuji's DNA. The message contained was "mutation". Ando later discovers that Ryuji decided to join forces with Sadako, and is blackmailed by Sadako into bringing Ryuji back to life. Sadako and Ryuji then plot to spread the virus throughout the world using the diary of his dead friend, Asakawa.

In Loop, protagonist Kaoru Futami (二見 馨 Kaoru Futami) discovers that he is actually a clone of Ryuji, who realized he was living in an artificial world right before his death and asked the outside world to help him escape. 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 Ryuji Takayama. After six months of research, Kaoru/Ryuji creates a vaccine for the Ring virus, a sample of which he gives to Ando. 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". In the novel S, set twenty five years after the events of Ring, Ryuji has been reborn again and takes up the identity of Seiji Kashiwada (柏田 誠二 Seiji Kashiwada). He creates a video showing him killing himself, which the protagonist, Takanori Ando investigates at. It is later revealed that he is the father of Takanori's girlfriend, Akane Maruyama, through a woman who possessed Sadako's DNA.

In the film series, Ryuji is portrayed by Hiroyuki Sanada. In the films, Ryuji is nicer and is not implied to be a rapist like in the novel. He is also the ex-husband of protagonist Reiko Asakawa, which is the gender flipped version of Kazuyuki, Ryuji's best friend in the novel. Ryuji also possesses ESP powers similar to Sadako which he passes down to his family. Yoshio Harada portrays him in Ring: Kanzenban, while Tomoya Nagase portrays him in Ring: The Final Chapter. His second resurrected form, Seiji Kashiwada, is played by Yusuke Yamamoto in the adaptations of S, Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2; however, this version of Kashiwada is not connected to Ryuji, but instead a person whom Sadako uses in aid of her revival.

In the television series, Ryuji is instead a sociopathic occultist who is revealed to be the son of Sadako having been passed on her powers. His relationship with Asakawa is not close but rather exists in the purpose of solving the curse of the videotape.

Ryuji's counterpart in the American film series is Noah Clay, portrayed by Martin Henderson, while in the Korean version, his counterpart is Dr. Choi Yeol.

Mitsuo Ando

Mitsuo Ando (安藤 満男 Andō Mitsuo) is the protagonist of the second novel, Spiral. 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. However, it is revealed that both are manipulated by Ryuji, who is working with Sadako to ensure his survival; in return, he will help her resurrect Sadako. Ando is forced to agree to spread the curse as he already has sex with Sadako and caused the dormant Ring virus to reside in his body; in exchange, Sadako will resurrect Ando's son by making him reborn through her DNA. In the third novel, Loop, Ando receives a sample of a vaccine for Ring virus which he mass-produces to finally neutralize all viruses in their artificial world, Loop. In the film Rasen, Ando is played by Kōichi Satō.

Takanori Ando

Takanori Ando (安藤 孝則 Andō Takanori) is the protagonist of the fifth novel of the series, S. He is the eldest son of Mitsuo, a forensics doctor and protagonist of the novel Spiral. Takanori once died of illness that led to Mitsuo becoming almost suicidal. As part of the agreement to help Sadako spread the Ring virus, she promises Mitsuo that she will resurrect Takanori through her DNA. Fast forward to twenty five years later, the 28-year-old Takanori is now an image processing specialist who works at a CG company. He is also in a relationship with Akane Maruyama, who is pregnant with his child. After being handed a USB drive by his boss, he notices a video of a man named Seiji Kashiwada who killed himself. His investigations led him discovering about Kashiwada's true self, Ryuji Takayama, and his connections with Akane and the Ring virus.[1]

In the film series, Takanori is portrayed by Ryuichi Sugahara in Rasen and Kōji Seto in Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2. Unlike in the novel S, which has him as the protagonist, he is only a supporting character in the novel's adaptations, although he still played major roles; the role of protagonists are instead given to his girlfriend, Akane, and his younger sister, Fuko, in Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2, respectively.

Sadako Yamamura

Main article: Sadako Yamamura

Sadako Yamamura (山村 貞子 Yamamura Sadako) is the primary antagonist in most novels in the series, although she is the protagonist in the short story "Lemonheart" in the anthology novel The Birthday. Sadako is born hermaphrodite (she has the body of a woman but possesses a male and female genitalia). She is the daughter of psychic Shizuko Yamamura; it is never known who her actual father was, although Sadako is hinted to be the daughter of an oceanic deity, making her a quasi-oceanic demigod. She has the ability to project imagery onto a digital recording, most notably the iconic cursed videotape.

In the film series, Sadako is not hermaphrodite but fully female. She is portrayed by Ayane Miura in Ring: Kanzenban, Rie Inō in Ring and Ring 2, Hinako Saeki in Rasen, Yukie Nakama in Ring 0: Birthday, Tae Kimura in the TV series Ring: The Final Chapter and Rasen, and Ai Hashimoto in Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2.

Sadako has counterparts in remakes from other countries. In the American film series, Sadako's counterpart is Samara Morgan, played by Daveigh Chase in The Ring and Kelly Stables in The Ring Two, while in the Korean version, her counterpart is Park Eun-Suh, played by actress Bae Doona.

Other characters

References

  1. 1 2 "S". J'Lit. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
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