Ringu (リング, The Ring) is a 1997 Japanese horror film by Hideo Nakata, later remade and released in the United States by director Gore Verbinski as The Ring. Both films have to do with a bizarre videotape which kills its viewer within a week of watching it.
There were two sequels in Japan, The Ring 2 and The Ring 0. There was also a Korean remake titled The Ring Virus. The international success of the original launched a revival of horror filmmaking in Japan that resulted in such pictures as Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse and Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on.
The film was derived from a best-selling novel of the same name, by Koji Suzuki, often referred to as Japan's Stephen King.
