An Intellectual Approach That Involves Readers to Participate - A Review of Suzuki Koji's 1991 Novel Ring

Ring, originally titled Ringu, is a Japanese mystery horror novel from 1991 that propulsed young author Suzuki Koji to national and later on even international stardom. It took the novel twelve years to be published in English. Ring was followed by two sequels entitled Spiral in 1995 and Loop in 1998. Short story collection Birthday consisting of three separate tales was released in 1999. The novel series was unexpectedly rebooted with its fifth entry S in 2012 and continued with its sixth and apparently final entry Tide in 2013. This first novel was adapted into four different movies, with the first two in 1995 and 1998 hailing from Japan, the third one from 1999 coming from South Korea and the fourth one from 2002 being an adaptation from the United States of America. Furthermore, this novel was made into a Japanese television series in 1999. Three manga volumes were released between 1996 and 1999. Audio dramas were produced in 1996 and 2015. It certainly wouldn't be a exaggeration to call the original novel a contemporary classic of horror literature.

The great thing about the original novel is that you can read it without needing to pick up its sequels afterwards. The same thing cannot be said about any other entry in the franchise. Now, please be aware that the horror described in this novel is ambiguous, mild and mysterious. People who might be familiar with the movies will find out that some iconic scenes from those are actually missing from the novel. It might also be important to know that the original novel doesn't have a clear ending. Readers are thus invited to imagine the rest and fill in the holes in the story. Whether such trains of thought might lead to a happy ending or a worst-case scenario is up to every individual reader.

The story begins with the tale of two teenage couples, involving two girls who are sixteen years old and their boyfriends who are aged nineteen. They die almost simultaneously of cardiac arrest. One girl dies at home in her kitchen. One boy collapses on his motorcycle while waiting at a traffic light. The remaining couple dies as they are about to have sexual intercourse in a car on an abandoned parking lot. Asakawa Kazuyuki is the uncle of the first victim and a journalist for Daily News. When he hears about the death of the young man on his motorcycle from a cab driver, he starts investigating what might have happened. He learns that the four young people have secretely been spending a night at a recently opened log cabin one week before their sudden demises. Upon investigating further, Asakawa Kazuyuki discovers a mysterious video tape at the lodge that consists of real sequences and surreal passages. The dreadful tape ends with a curse telling the journalist that he will die in exactly one week. The charm by the end of the video that is supposed to tell the viewer how to beat the curse seems to have been overwritten by the four young people who didn't take its message seriously. Asakawa Kazuyuki contacts philosophy professor Takayama Ryuji and journalist Yoshino Kenzo to discover a way to survive the curse.

This novel convinces on several levels. First and foremost, the novel has an eerie atmosphere from start to finish. It would be much more accurate to describe the novel as a psychological drama, mystery or thriller rather than a horror novel in my opinion. Instead of telling the readers every single thing that the characters are experiencing, numerous scenes are cut short before characters die or their deaths are described from the perspectives of bystanders such as a cab driver or a lover on the telephone. Personally, I find this approach creative, intriguing and refreshing as readers are requested to get mentally involved in the story.

Up next, most of the characters from the novel are very interesting. Lead character Asakawa Kazuyuki can neither be described as a hero or a villain which makes him quite authentic and believable as his actions, emotions and thoughts are gradually spiraling out of control. The same thing can be said about supporting character Takayama Ryuji who is willing to help unconditionally and supports his friend tremendously but who has a strange fascination with death and has raped a high school student when he was a teenager himself. Even the novel series' antagonist Yamamura Sadako can't be described as a heroine or villainess. She might be responsible for a terrible curse that kills many people but she is also a victim herself who had to deal with bullying at school, her mother's suicide and being raped and murdered by a doctor. The lines between guilt and innocence constantly blur in this novel.

Another element that is worth to be mentioned is the attempt to explain the curse and its related events from a philosophical as well as a scientific perspective. Instead of just describing the dreadful things that are going on, the author tells through the efforts of Asakawa Kazuyuki and Takayama Ryuji what processes and thoughts might have been leading to the curse. Readers are thus invited to familiarize themselves with these theories in order to accept or reject them as the author doesn't fully reveal what's true and what's false. This intellectual approach to the horror genre is quite unique and should even appeal to those who usually reject horror literarure.

The novel is however not without a few flaws. It has a few lengths in the opening third before Asakawa Kazuyuki actively starts his investigation and Takayama Ryuji as well as Yoshino Kenzo get involved.

It also needs to be stated that the novel's horror elements are particularly mild as long middle sections can be described as a personal drama and an investigative thriller instead. A few more well-dosed thrills would have rated this novel up in my opinion as several of the movie adaptations have actually proven.

Last but not least, the novel's ending is indeed quite abrupt, asking more questions than providig actual answers. While I have been mentioning that Ring can be read on its own if you imagine the rest, the novel's ending might still make you feel obligated to read the sequel that offers many answers but also asks many new questions.

At the end of the day, Suzuki Koji's Ring has been aging reasonably well and is most recommended to readers who like mysterious psychological dramas and thrillers. It should also be noted that readers should be willing to get involved mentally and establish theories on their own while reading the novel. This intellectual approach to literature makes readers participate rather than just entertaining them. Ring has ultimately more convincing strengths than minor flaws and qualifies as a very good to excellent novel that I have been able to read in only three days.

Final Rating: 85%