FAQ

Nineteen-year-old Sadako Yamamura (Yukie Nakama), a shy girl with a troubled past, has been sent to Tokyo to join a drama troupe. The director of the group, Isamu Shigemori (Takeshi Wakamatsu), sees the talent in her, but the rest of the troupe resent her because of her creepiness and the hold she seems to have over Shigemori. Only the sound technician, Hiroshi Tôyama (Seiichi Tanabe), befriends her and eventually falls in love with her. Meanwhile, reporter Akiko Miyaji (Yoshiko Tanaka), whose fiancé was a reporter killed during a demonstration of the psychic powers of Sadako's mother, has become interested in tracking down information about Sadako's past, which eventually leads her to the theater troupe.

The story in Ringu 0: Bâsudei (Ring 0: Birthday) is taken from the fourth book, Bâsudei (1999), in a series of four horror novels by Japanese writer Kôji Suzuki. However, Bâsudei is actually an anthology consisting of three short stories, each occurring in a different timeframe but all related to the Ringu universe. The screenplay for Ringu 0, written by Japanese screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi, is based on the anthology's second short story, "Lemonheart". The film Ringu 0 was preceded by Ringu (1998) (1998) and Ring 2 (1999) (1999).

Ringu 0 is actually a prequel to Ringu and Ringu 2 and takes place 30 years prior, when Sadako was 19 years old.

Chronologically, the order of the films is Ringu 0, the original Ringu, and finally Ringu 2, although Ringu 0 was the last movie to be released. The series could be watched in chronological order (with Ringu 0 first) but, if you don't want the mystery of the first two movies spoiled, then watch the prequel last. Be forewarned that watching Ringu 0 first will affect your perspective of the other two movies. In Ringu and Ringu 2, Sadako is portrayed as a vengeful, murdering spirit who has been imprisoned in a well and who has found a way to make a cursed videotape that, in exactly one week's time, kills everyone who watches it. Ringu 0 presents Sadako in a much more sympathetic light and explains how she became imprisoned in the well. By watching Ringu 0 first, viewers warn that you'll never get the full effect of Ringu and Ringu 2 as they were meant to be viewed.

Since Ringu 0 takes place 30 years before the first two movies, only Sadako and her "father" Doctor Heihachirô Ikuma (Daisuke Ban) are in this. Sadako's mother Shizuko (Masako) and maternal uncle Takashi (Mahito Ôba) Yamamura, are present only in photos and some archived film.

In part. The inspiration for Suzuki's character Shizuko Yamamura (Sadako's mother) come from the real world case of Mifune Chizuko, , a woman who claimed to have developed both clairvoyance and nensha through breathing and mental exercises. She was studied extensively in 1913 by Tomokichi Fukurai, an assistant professor of psychology at Tokyo University, who eventually wrote about her in a book called Tôshi to nensha (1931), published in English as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography (reprinted, 2003).

Technically it's not a real play. "Mask," the play that appears in Ring Ø, is rather an adaptation of the 1959 Franco-Italian classic Les Yeux Sans Visage ("Eyes Without a Face") directed by Georges Franju. It details the story of Parisian surgeon Prof. Genessie. Who, with his assistant Louise, kidnaps girls similar in build to that of his daughter Christiane. Then performs heterografs to reconstruct Christiane's face, which was mutilated in a car accident.

The play's telephone scene in Ring 0 shows a key moment in the original as Christiane (renamed Anna), whom her father had claimed died in the automobile accident, calls her boyfriend Jacques (renamed Andre in Ring 0).

It happens three times. It appears on the tape when Aiko dies. It's also on the tape of the ESP experiment where the reporter was killed. It happens a third time during the play just before Doctor Kuno (Ryûshi Mizukami) suffers a heart attack. It's a signal that evil Sadako is there and is about to kill someone. Dr Imura explained in the previous movies that, through the use of nensha, focused human thought can become a living thing turned to energy, causing it to become captured on media such as a tape recording, a television, or a videotape.

Dr Izuma explains that, at some point in her life, Sadako split into two persons, and he points to drawings of Siamese twins to illustrate his explanation. One twin (the good one) took after her mother Shizuko, and the other (the evil twin) was "probably like her real father." It drove her mother mad, which is why Shizuko jumped into the volcano. Izuma attempted to use drugs to stop the evil twin from growing physically and psychically. Still, evil Sadako had strong powers, witnessed by her ability to astral project to the theater to kill Aiko Hazuki (Kaoru Okunuki). Only by keeping the twins separated was Izuma able to maintain control over evil Sadako. Unfortunately, when Tôyama brings good Sadako with him to Izuma's house, their proximity allows evil Sadako's spirit to merge with good Sadako's body.

No, the purpose of the video is not explained in Ringu 0. Viewers of the series mostly conclude that Sadako made the tape to inform the world about what was done to her. The books, however, explain it differently. The video spreads a "ring" virus so that Sadako can find a partner, make a copy of herself, and come back to life again. The movie must be passed on because it increases her chances of finding this partner.

As in the first two movies, the identity of Sadako's father is only hinted at being either the sea itself or a sea demon. The book hints at an ascetic monk from the 1300s, who had power over gods and demons. Sadako's mother had an experience while trying to save his statue, and two years later Sadako was born. However, no mention of him is made in the movie.

After Miyaji goes upstairs looking for the evil Sadako, Tôyama realizes that the actors in the troupe are going to kill good Sadako, too, and he tries to flee with her. Sadako warns him to get away, but Tôyama won't listen and follows her to the top of a cliff. The evil twin reunites with Sadako and kills Tôyama, then turns to the rest of the troupe, taking them out one by one. Dr Ikuma tries to stop her, to no avail. Ikuma takes a weeping Sadako back to the house and gives her a tranquilizer. Once again, she asks him the identity of her real father, and Ikuma replies, "I am, of course." Suddenly, Sadako has trouble breathing and, realizing that Ikuma has poisoned her, runs from the house. She crawls toward the old well and pulls herself up next to it. Ikuma grabs a cleaver and bashes her over the head with it, then dumps her into the well, all the time begging her forgiveness. Sadako awakens in a bed with Tôyama looking down at her. He tells her that she was dreaming, and they smile at each other. Sadako reaches out her hand to him but, in the final scene, grasps only the side of the cold well wall. As Sadako screams, the cover is placed over the well, and everything goes dark.

People who have seen The Ring series often compare it to Dark Water (2002) (Dark Water) (2002) and the English language remake Dark Water (2005) (2005) because the story was written by Kôji Suzuki, the same author who wrote the books on which the Ringu series is based. In fact, Dark Water is based on "Floating Water", the first short story from Suzuki's horror anthology Birthday. Also recommended are the Japanese Grudge movies, Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) (2002) and Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003) (2003), both of which revolve around a curse that keeps cycling through anyone who comes in contact with it. (There is also an American-made Grudge series that consists of The Grudge (2004) (2004), The Grudge 2 (2006) (2006), and The Grudge 3 (2009) (2009), a straight-to-DVD sequel.) A third series (Chinese) with a tone similar to the Ringu movies is The Eye series, which consists of The Eye (2002) (2002), The Eye 2 (2004) (2004), and The Eye 3 (2005) (2005). Gin gwai was also remade in English as The Eye (2008) (2008). Other Japanese movies that have been recommended include: Pulse (2001) (Pulse) (2001), Séance (2000) (Séance) (2000), Versus (2000) (2001), Spiral (2000) (Spiral) (2000), and Cure (1997) (1997). Finally, Ringu 0 has often been likened to Stephen King's Carrie (1976) (1976) because both movies feature a young, shy, creepy girl who finds it hard to make friends and, at the end, takes out her wrath on her tormentors. It Follows (2014) (2014) may also be of interest.