From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat 06 Sep 2003 - 23:11:12 GMT
OK, I'm hooked on the Ring myth, started by Koji Suzuki with his book _Ring_
(as translated from Japanese). I think this story captures how an idea in a
book can inspire a movie (the Japanese _Ringu_) and then jump overseas to
inspire another movie (the American _The Ring_). The Suzuki book supplied
the raw material for the Japanese movie which inspired the American movie.
The core story is similar across all three works, but there are variations
on the theme. Neither the Japanese book nor movie have anything to do with
lighthouses nor horses dying on a beach, which were added in apprently for
the American movie. The Japanese book and movie get into more detail on the
life and psychic powers of the girl in the well, but there's still some
variation here. The Japanese book is quite different from the American
movie, where in the former a sanatorium doctor rapes the psychic girl and
throws her in the well, where in the American movie it is her mother that
throws her in the well, perhaps because of the girl's evil powers.
In the book it is explained how the girl has abilities to make psychic
imprints onto film and there's extrapolation from this ability to how she
was able, even "dead" in a well, to coopt the TV set in the infamous cabin
so her evil viral message could be copied on a VHS tape, which the
subsequent victims watch before they are killed by a heart condition exactly
seven days later to the second.
This videotape is the ultimate viral message as it has an implied message
"copy me or else". At the end of the book it seems that the main character
survives merely because he has copied the video and shown it to others (his
firend and unfortunately, by accident his wife and baby). This is like a
chain letter with teeth. Apparently Suzuki has written a trilogy based on
this theme, but I'm not sure if any of the books other than _Ring_ have been
translated into English. It would be interesting to see how the trilogy
plays out.
The viral theme permeates throughout the book as the doctor who rapes the
girl and throws her in the well is apparently the last smallpox victim in
Japan. It is also hashed out by one of the main characters, the philosopher
dude, that viruses may be escaped genes. He also intimates an idea of how
ideas can take on lives of their own, thus becoming organisms. In the
context of the book, this seems to have paranormal importance, but he
animism inherent in this notion should not be lost on adherents of memetics.
I'll have to review the Japanese movie again, as I'm having a memory block
right now, after reading the book. Comparing the Japanese book and American
movie, the former dwelled on images of a volcano which helped the main
characters find the island where the well imprisoned the girl's corpse. In
the American movie the images of the cursed video were of a lighthouse and
dead horses on a beach, which helped the main character pinpoint the island
where the well was. Maybe when they Americanized the story, they decided
that island lighthouses were a better plot device than island volcanoes.
What can capture the hearts of an American audience more than dead horses on
a beach.
I thought one of the more interesting parts of the book was the psychic
girl's mom retrieving a Buddhist statue from the clutches of the sea, diving
in the buff no doubt. Apparently post WWII occupation forces had thrown said
statue into the sea in a policy of removing Buddhist icons from Japan's
landscape. Has this piece of historical fiction any veracity? Were there
instances of post WWII occupation forces removing or destroying icons of
Buddhist significance? The statue "thanked" the woman by giving her powers,
but not quite as strong as her evil vengeful daughter Sadako. The evil,
vengeful girl in the American movie is named Samara.
The outcome in the general Ring storyline hinges upon whether the main
character decides to follow the "copy me" viral message of the tape which
was psychically imprinted by the girl in the well beneath the cabin
according to the book, which launched the eventual movies.
Kinda makes me glad I've switched to DVD, though maybe the cabin could have
been outfitted with a DVD recorder to bring it into the 21st century. I
doubt the psychic girl in the well would cotton to McLuhan's claim that the
medium is the message ;-)
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