Plot Summary
After four teenagers mysteriously die simultaneously in Tokyo, Kazuyuki Asakawa, a reporter and uncle to one of the deceased, decides to launch his own personal investigation. His search leads him to "Hakone Pacific Land", a holiday resort where the youths were last seen together exactly one week before their deaths. Once there he happens upon a mysterious unmarked videotape. Watching the tape he witnesses a strange sequence of abstract and realistic footage that ends with the warning "You, who watched this tape, are going to die in one week from now. There's only one way to survive. And that is—" but the end of the tape has been overwritten by an advertisement. The tape has a horrible mental effect on Asakawa, and he doesn't doubt for a second that its warning is true. The only problem is he has no idea how to avert his fate.
Returning to Tokyo, he enlists the help of his curious friend Ryūji Takayama, a self-professed rapist who apparently (most likely due to some psychotic defect) has no fear, and who admits he would see the end of the world if he could, out of curiosity. As soon as Asakawa explains the story, Takayama believes him and wants nothing more than to see the tape. Asakawa shows it to him and although Takayama remains cool and nonchalant, he agrees there is a powerful aura around it and asks Asakawa to make him a copy to study at home, which Asakawa does.
Now, both men share the seven day deadline and must fight against the clock to unravel the mystery of the tape, Sadako Yamamura, and the potentially life-saving riddle.
Read more about this topic: Ring (Suzuki Novel)
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