Ringu: Saishûshô

I was surprised at this. I've seen the original Ring, Ring 2, Ring 0, the American "The Ring", the Korean "Ring Virus", read the manga, and will read the novel this spring. I would think that ring has been beaten to death. But this proves that it can still be a good story. Saishuushou is like a Ring joke to ppl, a lot of ppl don't really like it. I absolutely loved all 12 hours of it. It was very clever, and the cursed video was amazing (episode 2). Asakawa is a guy in this, and the man who plays him is just great. Everything about this series was wonderful. NOTE: it's NOT scary! It is not a horror series. It is strictly a drama, wich maybe a few starts in it. Keep that in mind when watching, please don't expect a scary imitation of "Ring". Saishuushou is it's own thing, and take it that way. Go into it with an open mind, and you'll love it!

Before watching this, I had seen every Ring film except Rasen. Rasen was released with English subtitles in 2003, and I plan to see it soon. I am a diehard fan. So, maybe I am a little biased.

The series has a completely different take on the characters of Ringu, and a lot of major events are changed. Some of these changes were clearly made to stretch the story out over 12 episodes. Other changes are just inexplicable; like the video being "hidden" inside a J-pop music video. However unnecessary the changes may seem, they did keep the story fresh and interesting.

The closest American comparison I could make is to the TV soap opera Passions. The format is different, but this is still at heart a TV drama series involving the supernatural. It also has elements of The X-Files and E.R. If that sounds bizarre, just bear in mind that this is a Japanese program.

For the first six episodes, I was hooked. Edge of the chair suspense, real caring for the characters. However, it did start to get hokey as time wore on. By the end, I began to see Ringu as an allegory against multi-level marketing schemes. In fact, the final episode was hokier than the final episode of Hack Dusk and John Galt's final speech in Atlas Shrugged put together.

All that said, the good outweighed the bad. There's no other series quite like it, and it's a must-see for Ringu fans.

Asakawa is amazing. This show is so incredibly melodramatic, almost telenovela levels, and Asakawa's expressions are all so memable. Plus, Ryuji is ripped straight from my mind's eye from the novels. Not a ton of horror, but the extreme cheese more than makes up for it. It stays close to the books for a good amount of the story. The soundtrack is also fairly phenomenal, switching from serious dark tones to beautiful jazzy moments. The main actress is adorable and strong, a perfect fit against Asakawa's fairly overdramatic self. There's some great twists, and the few times liberties are taken, they pay off nicely. I absolutely love this show.