Reviews - Ring | The StoryGraph

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1.76k reviews for:

Ring

Kōji Suzuki

3.57 AVERAGE

mason3299's review against another edition

5.0

dark tense fast-paced

sammthrush's review against another edition

2.75

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gcramer3's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

some very compelling writing and plot befitting of an instant horror classic - and some choices that were so bizarre they needed to be cut from the films.

looking back from a 2025 lens, the role that gender plays in this story is so old-fashioned that it feels at-odds with some of the more contemporary subject matter. the conclusion that Sadako, being intersex, was so distressed by her inability to bear children that her violent death unleashed a viral curse is a whole can of worms. then there's the whole bit with Ryuuji claiming to be a serial rapist (which Asakawa "naturally" fails to report to the police) that Suzuki tries to plot-twist away at the last second, which I'm totally not buying. some girl that Ryuuji knows saying she thinks he died a virgin isn't exactly evidence to the contrary, plus it's framed as indisputable because it's a "woman's intuition" - meanwhile Asakawa's wife has hated Ryuuji for years but her intuition is conveniently left out of the equation.

bigworm's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

mrsbliss's review against another edition

1.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

This is the exception to the rule. In this case, the movie is better than the book.

Content Warnings

sa1twaterfish's review against another edition

2.0

2.0⭐ Wow.

Both Ring films (and the first Japanese sequel) are some of my absolute favorites. If they get to stand hand-in-hand rather than fighting amongst themselves, they easily clear my top 10 favorite horror films of all time.

They found me at a formative age and I think they woke something creative in me. I can see the original plot skeleton that informed those films, and they’re still wonderfully weird storytelling with lots of original notes. That said, the screenplay writers did this story an amazing service by gutting a lot of the internal organs.

I was really hoping the author had been like, early to mid-twenties when he wrote this? He was not.

I’m just so confused by some of these characterization and plot choices. I think a lot of writers go through dark phases and explore shit that should never see the light of day, but occasionally one of those explorations is freed into the world, and oops, this one spurred an enigmatic cultural shift in its genre.

IDK maybe it's like Stephen King's It, you try to ignore *those* scenes and appreciate the genius. But fuck.

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