The Ring

is a 1998 Japanese supernatural psychological horror film directed by Hideo Nakata, based on the 1991 novel by Koji Suzuki. The film stars Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani and Hiroyuki Sanada, and follows a reporter who is racing to investigate the mystery behind a cursed video tape; whoever watches the tape dies seven days after doing so. The film is titled The Ring (stylized as the Ring) in English in Japan and released as Ringu in North America. Production took approximately nine months. Ring and its sequel Spiral were released in Japan at the same time. After its release, Ring was a huge box office success in Japan and was acclaimed by critics. It inspired numerous follow-ups in the Ring franchise, popularized Japanese horror (or "J-horror") internationally, and triggered a trend of Western remakes of J-horror films, including the 2002 American film The Ring. Plot During a sleepover, high schoolers Tomoko and Masami discuss an urban legend about a video tape that curses its viewers to die in seven days after a foreboding phone call. Tomoko then confesses that last week she and her friends watched a strange video tape and received an inexplicable phone call afterward. They receive a false alarm phone call, and then Masami goes to the toilet. Tomoko witnesses the TV turn on by itself and is killed by an unseen presence. Reiko Asakawa, Tomoko's aunt and a journalist investigating this urban legend, attends her funeral and learns that three of Tomoko's friends, who watched the tape with her, all died at the same time she did. Reiko visits the resort cabin where the four stayed and finds an unmarked video tape. It contains brief, seemingly unrelated scenes accompanied by screeching sounds, and ends with a shot of a well. After watching, Reiko sees an apparition and receives a phone call emitting the screeching sounds from the tape. Convinced she has been cursed, Reiko takes the tape and leaves the cabin.