• The success of Koji Suzuki’s novel the Ring has lead to manga, television and film adaptations in Japan, Korea, and the U.S. Spiral (1995) Dr. Ando who has yet to recover from his son's death at sea, conducts an autopsy on an old friend who has died under unusual circumstances.
• Published by fleuve noir (2003) ISBN 10: ISBN 13: 225. Seller: RECYCLIVRE, Paris, France Contact seller Seller Rating: Used - Softcover Condition: Bon US$ 8.21. Convert currency.

Kōji Suzuki (鈴木光司 Suzuki Kōji born May 13, 1957) is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and currently lives in Tōkyō. Suzuki is the author of the Ring cycle of novels, which has been adapted into a film series. 1 Career 2 Works 2.1 Novels 2.2 Short stories 2.3 Collections 2.4 Films adapted from his works Before he wrote his novel Ring, he already published a novel entitled. Sep 18, 2020 Each of the installments of the franchise are based on Koji Suzuki’s novels. The novel series was first adapted into the 1995 television movie, Ring, by director Chisui Takigawa. It wasn’t until 1998 that Suzuki's story would receive larger recognition.

Spiral (らせん, Rasen) is a 1995 Japanese novel, a part of author Koji Suzuki's Ring series.^[1] It is the second in the Ring series, and a film based on the book was released in 1998. The English translation of the book was published by Vertical Press in the United States and by Harper Collins in Britain.

Plot[edit]

The events in the story occur one day after the events of the 1st book. It introduces Ando Mitsuo, a coroner still struggling with his son's death, being assigned to do the autopsy of his old classmate, Ryūji Takayama. He and his colleague, Miyashita, find a tumor in Ryūji's heart, which is believed to be his cause of death. Puzzled as the tumor appears similar to smallpox (which was eradicated in 1979), Ando completes the autopsy and, upon finding a newspaper poking through a suture, is reminded of Ryūji's cryptography hobby. Finding the newspaper numbers interesting, he decodes them and discovers that they spell 'RING', perplexing Ando.

In the search for the message's meaning, Ando soon meets Ryūji's assistant and lover, Mai Takano. Mentioning a videotape that Ryūji watched before dying, Mai believes that it is connected to his death through a curse. Learning of Kazuyuki Asakawa, Ryūji's friend and the protagonist of Ring, Ando considers speaking to him, only to learn that Asakawa and his family were involved in a car accident. Finding that Asakawa is the sole survivor and catatonic, Ando investigates relevant evidence and learns that his wife and child were dead well before the car crashed and that a tape recorder and word processor were in the vehicle.

Trying to reach Mai, Ando finds her missing and investigates her seemingly abandoned condominium; he finds what he believes to be a copy of the supposedly cursed videotape, albeit almost entirely recorded over, and believes an unknown entity is hiding somewhere in the condo. Learning that Asakawa's tape deck and word processor went to his next of kin, Ando retrieves the word processor from his brother and copies the files.

Finding a document about the videotape, Ando reads that the curse spreads through a tape and can only be stopped by copying and sharing it with someone else; despite disputing the files as pseudoscientific, Ando and Miyashita continue reading into them, and discover that the Ring Virus started with the murder of psychic Sadako Yamamura. Additionally, Miyashita soon discovers that a virus connects all of the victims and comes in two forms: a ring-shaped virus which kills the host, and a broken version of the same virus (similar to a sperm cell) which is dormant.

One week after Mai's disappearance, her corpse is found in the ventilation shaft of a barely used office building. Additionally, despite having given no physical indication that she was pregnant, Mai's corpse shows signs that she gave birth prior to her death. Upon visiting the crime scene, Ando meets a beautiful woman named Masako who introduces herself as Mai's older sister. After having sex with Masako, Ando later receives a fax containing information on Sadako from Miyashita, only to realize that Masako is identical to Sadako.

Believing that Masako is Sadako reborn, Ando receives a note from her explaining that Mai was infected with the 2nd 'sperm' ring virus which targeted her womb; this allowed Sadako to conceive herself within Mai and control her, before birthing herself within a week and disposing of Mai's corpse. Also revealing that the Ring Virus can also spread through literary descriptions, Sadako has ensured that Asakawa's brother is able to publish a book on Kazuyuki's files, allowing the virus to spread internationally. She then concludes that Ando is infected with the dormant virus and, should he interfere in any way, she will activate it and kill him; conversely, in exchange for Ando's co-operation, Sadako will resurrect Ando's dead son.

Finally learning that Ryūji worked with Sadako to ensure her resurrection, Ando realizes that Ryūji deliberately influenced both himself and Mai. By supernaturally causing the paper code to appear to Ando and making Mai watch the tape when she was most fertile, Ryūji was the mastermind behind the plan, doing so to be spared and revived by Sadako. An epilogue shows Ando playing with his son, Takanori, whereupon Ryūji arrives and implies that he acted for the greater good.

Adaptations[edit]

Ring Koji Suzuki Book

A film of the same title was released in 1998 which was based on the book. It was poorly received and later another sequel to the 1998 Ring film was made, Ring 2. A 13-episode TV drama was broadcast in 1999 on Fuji Television. Elements of Spiral were adapted in the 2017 American film Rings.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Kalat, David. J-Horror: The Definitive Guide to The Ring, The Grudge and Beyond. Vertical, Inc. p. 38. ISBN978-1-932234-08-4.

External links[edit]

• SaruDama – Contains reviews of Spiral and other Suzuki novels.
• Vertical, Inc. – Publisher of English translations of the Ring novels.

Ring
by
Suzuki Koji

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

• Japanese title: Ringu
• Translated by Robert B. Rohmer and Glynne Walley
• Ring has been filmed twice, as
  • Ringu (Japan, 1998), directed by Nakata Hideo
  • The Ring (US, 2002), directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Naomi Watts, Brian Cox, and Jane Alexander

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Our Assessment:

B : passable thriller, cleverly resolved

See our review for fuller assessment.

• 'Suzuki builds tension brilliantly early on: the details he accumulates on the page are banal in themselves, but the narrative voice lurches among them like a stalker-camera, or a malevolent spirit. (...) But inevitably the book's presentation of the video feels more like an intriguing puzzle than a sensuous demonstration of evil, and the last two-thirds of the novel degenerates somewhat (.....) This is not helped by an extremely annoying translation into American slang' - Steven Poole, The Guardian
  
• 'With the clock ticking, the pace doesn't slacken for a moment, even as the plot becomes more complex. Although the prose style is occasionally dull, Ring is a guaranteed page-turner.' - Peter Guttridge, The Observer

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

Ring begins with some unusual and inexplicable deaths -- two young people die in separate incidents, for no apparent reason, but practically at the same moment.
Kazuyuki Asakawa, a journalist, happens to be the uncle of Tomoko Oishi, one of the victims. And he happens to hear from a taxi driver about the other victim. The coincidences -- the victims are about the same age, died at almost exactly the same time, and there is no good explanation of what happened to them -- make him curious, and he looks into the matter. A bit of research and he discovers two more victims who died at the same time and in the same manner.
A bit of digging around reveals that the four teens knew each other and spent a few days together at a resort exactly a week before they died. Asakawa follows the trail, and checks into the same Cabin B-4 where the four stayed, thinking he might discover the casue of their deaths here -- maybe a virus or something.
Instead: 'Never in his wildest dreams could he imagine what awaited him there.'What he eventually finds is deeply disturbing -- a videotape full of unsettling and confusing images. Worse is what comes at the end of the video: a warning that: 'those who view these images are fated to die at this exact moment one week from now' unless some instructions are followed carefully. Unfortunately, those instructions have been erased from the tape .....
The race is on.Asakawa isn't entirely convinced by what he's seen, but it seems almost plausible. He turns to the only person he imagines can help him, an old schoolfriend who finished medical school and also has a Ph.D. in philosophy, Ryuji Takayama.
Ryuji also watches the tape, and then they try to figure out what's behind it. The story unfolds as a decent little action-mystery, though unfortunately the explanation largely turns out to involve the supernatural (which makes it considerably less compelling than one would have hoped for).
Still, the tension mounts as the clock winds down for Asakawa (and Ryuji, though since he only watched the tape later he has a bit more time). Suzuki chases his characters around Japan, has them dig up some ugly old stories that explain what happened, and even throws in some bad weather for them to contend with. The pressure mounts too because Asakawa's wife and young child have seen the tape, and Asakawa worries that they too might suffer the same terrible fate.
Discovering what's behind the tape isn't sufficient to discover the 'charm' that offers release from the death sentence -- or is it ? Asakawa and Ryuji can't be sure until the moment, a week after they each first saw the video, when they are meant to die .....
It's only at the end of the book, when it's finally clear how the death-sentence can be staved off, that Suzuki offers a truly ingenious turn: it's a nice and very satisfying twist.
Ring is a passable thriller: there's tension, excitement, some neat little stories explaining various pieces of the puzzle. Unfortunately, the central conceit -- the videotape-message -- relies on a ridiculous supernatural explanation and can't be taken seriously, which completely undermines the rest of the book. The writing isn't particularly polished, but Suzuki does create some decent characters, and even the exaggerated Ryuji is an entertaining presence.
Overall: an undemanding quick read, with a few decent thrills and chills.

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Links:

• Koji Suzuki at Vertical

• Inside a Dream(French)
• The Observer(scroll down for review)

• IMDb page
• The Ring - Official Movie Site

• IMDb page

Koji Suzuki Loop

• See Index of Japanese literature
• See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers

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About the Author:

Japanese author Suzuki Koji (鈴木光司) is apparently an authority on childrearing.

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