Ring

A strange videotape. A young girl, Tomoko, suddenly dies after watching it. Soon three other girls, all friends of Tomoko, also die. Tomoko's aunt, TV-reporter Reiko, starts to unravel the mystery together with her ex-husband. Little by little she begins to understand why some, but not everyone, dies after viewing the cassette. To survive you must get someone else to see the film within a week. Ring is based on a best-selling novel by Japanese master of suspense Suzuki Koji and the film has become a major success in horror-crazed Japan as well. That's not surprising, and it wouldn't be at all surprising if it got a rapid distribution in the rest of the world as well- on video! Ring updates the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan's old aphorism that the medium is the message. The medium, in this case the video film, is most definitely performative, that is, it does what it says. It's not about death, it kills! But there is an opening, if the audience understands what the film is about. If it doesn't all that is left is to pass on the film to someone else. Could criticism of passive video-watching get any clearer? If you don't do anything the TV will kill you. And if you can't trust your TV, then who can you trust? But could the lethal powers of the videotape spread to theatres? Will we also get stuck in this ring of death as soon as we see the film? Maybe. In that case, if you don't make sure someone else sees the film within a week, you never know what will happen ...