Ring

In Yokohama, four teenagers die at the same hour, and one is the niece of journalist Kazuyuki Asakawa. He follows the trail to a lodge in Hakone and watches an unlabeled tape. At the end a voice warns that the viewer will die in a week. The part explaining how to escape has been erased. With his friend Ryuji Takayama, Asakawa digs into the life of Sadako Yamamura, from Izu Oshima, before his wife's and daughter's deadline runs out. First volume of the trilogy, published in 1991, and the basis of the American film.

1. ChangeFrom Asakawa to Rachel

   In the book the investigator is Kazuyuki Asakawa, a Tokyo reporter, and the story moves across Japan: Yokohama, Hakone and Izu Oshima island. The film swaps all that for Rachel Keller, a Seattle journalist.

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2. ChangeThe friend becomes an ex-husband

   Asakawa's ally is Ryuji Takayama, a high-school friend and philosophy professor. In the film that role goes to Noah, Rachel's ex-husband and a video analyst. In both versions he asks for a copy of the tape to study.

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3. ChangeA virus instead of a ghost

   In the book the tape works like a virus: Sadako's powers fused with the smallpox virus, and all it wants is to be copied. The film leaves the curse supernatural, without that explanation.

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4. ChangeWho Samara is

   Sadako is the daughter of a famous psychic, Shizuko Yamamura. In the film Samara is adopted by the Morgans, horse breeders. The horses that throw themselves into the sea exist only in the American version.

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