The Ring Virus

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The Ring Virus
Directed by	Dong-bin Kim
Produced by	Mauricio Dortona
Written by	Dong-bin Kim, Kôji Suzuki (novel Ringu)
Starring	Eun-Kyung Shin, Seung-hyeon Lee, Jin-yeong Jeong
Music by	Il Won
Cinematography	Mauricio Dortona, Chul-hyun Hwang
Editing by	Mauricio Dortona
Release date(s)	1999
Running time	108 min
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Ring Virus (aka 링(링 바이러스), 'Virus' Ring) is a South Korean horror adapted from a novel by Koji Suzuki. A joint project between Japan and Korea, this version has Park Eun-Suh as the creator of the cursed videotape. Although the film-makers claimed that the film was adapted from the novel, there are various scenes in the film that match the 1998 film Ringu, such as the gender of the lead character, some of the scenes on the videotape as well as copying other film scenes directly from the original film, including the film's climax.

[edit] Differences between Film and Book

As opposed to the japanese adaptation Ringu, this movie follows more closely Koji Suzuki's storyline, while keeping some elements first introduced with Ringu.

• The main character from the novel is a man called Kazuyuki Asakawa, while in the film, the main character is a woman called Eun-Kyung Shin.
• The villain from the novel is called Yamamura Sadako, while in the movie, she is called her Eun-Suh.
• Ryuji in the novel is a philosophy professor that also achieved medical studies, wheras in the movie, Choi is a doctor who made a mystical pronouncement at the scene of one the the deaths about supernatural forces having been at work.
• Even though the film kills its supporting character the same way Ringu did, the movie shares the book views on a pseudo-science-fictitious medical-mystery approach with its title and Choi's scientific research on viruses and the conclusions that he does before his death.

[edit] Similarities between Film and Book

Here is a list of similarities between this movie and the novel that contrast with Hideo Nakata's adaptation.

• The cursed tape in the movie is very similar from the one in the movie, although the book-version was much longer and more complicated. Both videotapes features a message at the beginning along the lines of "Watch until the end, you will be eaten by the lost..." and ending with "Those that have viewed this tape are fated to die at this exact time seven days from now. In order to survive, you must...", the rest of the end message is taped over, and it isn't until the end that Eun-Kyung Shin realized that the rest of the message was about copying the tape and showing it to someone else.
• Choi also analyze the tape sequences the same way Ryuji does in the book. He categorize every parts in two categories: real scenes and abstract scenes. The realistic scenes are easy to spot, since they have dark blury edges, and instant of darkness. Choi quickly concludes that those instant of darkness are eye blinks. The average man blinks 20 times per minutes, wheras the average women blinks 15 times per minute. Considering this fact, this video was "produced" by a woman, scenes filmed through her own eyes and images in her mind.
• Sadako / Eun-Suh is hermaphrodite in both the movie and the book. She has Testicular Feminization Syndrome, meaning she is anatomically female, except she has a pair of testes beneath her vagina (she evidently does NOT possess a penis). The movie starts with Eun-Kyung Shin interviewing a gallery owner that explains the theme of her exposition: the beauty of women and the strength of men combine in one individual, a hint for those who have read the book.
• The movie is faithful to the storyline of the book, when it comes to search for Sadako / Eun-Suh's clinical records, her theater background story and the way she lost her virginity before she died.

[edit] External links

• The Ring Virus at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ring Virus at All Movie Guide
• the Ring AREA - Contains clips of the cursed videos of the Ring cycle and their scene-by-scene analyses, as well as lots of other useful information.
• Snowblood Apple Ring Comparison Comparison of Ringu, The Ring, and The Ring Virus movies.