For the German release of  Ring 2 on DVD, German distributors Anolis Entertainment caught up with director Nakata Hideo while he was in France promoting Dark Water. I had the privilege of being asked to contribute questions for the interview, some of which were retained for the DVD. Below is a partial translation of the interview made from the original Japanese.

How did you come to be involved with the production of  the Ring?

Some producers who saw Joyuu-Rei *1 thought I'd be right for the job, so they offered it to me. The offer itself came from Sento Takenobu, who called me up and asked if I'd like to direct  the Ring.

How did you prepare for the film? Did you watch the Ring: Kanzenban TV series, or read the original novel?

Well, of course, the first thing I did was read the book, following which I and [scriptwriter] Takahashi Hiroshi spent about six months thinking about the screenplay. I also watched the TV version.

Many fans wonder why you didn't also direct Rasen. Could you comment a bit about Rasen having been done by a different crew, as well as Ring 2 having been made?

Well, Ring and Rasen were conceived as a single project, so that, in Japan, they would open at the same time, in the same theaters. So, to the producers, having the same director would be... well, at the time, [this] was my first time to do such a large-scale film, so rather than have the same director [do both films], I think they thought that having a different director, different cameramen and whatnot would make for a more interesting approach. Only the set designer was the same [for both films].

In Japan, the sequel to Ring is Rasen. That's how it was with both the films and the original novels. However, this creature, Sadako that appeared in both Ring and Rasen became really popular with the younger people, with teenagers, so the president of Kadokawa publishing *2 told me, "The movie was a hit. Let's make a Ring 2 as soon as we can" [laughs]. Both my screenwriter and I were at a loss--there's already a Rasen, so why [do] a Ring 2? Well, we tossed around different ideas for more than six months, and then we made the film. In fact, around the time [when it was decided to make] Ring 2, screenplays were recruited from many, many different people, but none of them were used. *3

In the original script for the Ring, there was a scene where Takayama Ryuji is possessed by a ghost *4 and writes the phrase "Hell is real." Why was this scene cut from the film?

That [idea] was actually cut before shooting on the film began. When Takahashi found out, he got very angry. But I felt--well, I and producer Ichise both felt that even if that phrase had appeared onscreen, the audience... how can I put this? Even though Takahashi, the scriptwriter, thought it was good, it was decided that the scene didn't really convey anything to the audience. From a producer's point of view, Mr. Takahashi is a hardcore horror scriptwriter, fanatical even. [That scene] was just a little too hardcore, and it was thought that [the audience] just wouldn't get it.

Where did the idea come from in Ring of having people's faces appear blurred in photographs?

Well, those kinds of things really exist in Japan. They're called shinrei shashin *5, and in them the faces of ghosts [that appear in the photograph] generally appear blurred. It's also a nod to some other movies, though. Those kinds of photographs were in The Amityville Horror Part 3, as well as Ghost Story, which was an English film, I think. There was a snapshot in that film where everyone lined up in a shot together, and those whose faces were all twisted would go on to die.

There's a rumor that a different version of  Ring was shown at the Brussels Film Festival, where the scenes of those who'd been killed by Sadako were shown, and...

And the faces of those people were different or something, right?

That's right.

I don’t know anything about that rumor. There shouldn't be [any other version]. *6

(To be continued)

*1 - aka Ghost Actress aka Don't Look Up, Nakata's prior film.

*2 - The company that published the Ring novels in Japan.

*3 - Nakata is referring to the "script drive" that ultimately led to Ring: Motto Kowai Yottsu no Hanashi being published. See the second note on the books page for more.

*4 - The original script said that Ryuji's hand began writing "of its own accord," not that he was possessed by a ghost.

*5 - aka "spirit photographs," a not uncommon occurrence in Japan. The popular television show Unbelieveable often has shinrei shashin specials where viewers write in with their own experiences (recreated for TV), followed up by the actual picture in question.

*6 - This question is in reference to the so-called Brussels cut, a long-standing rumor among Ring fans. At this point in the interview Nakata broke into an odd smile, causing speculation that he was actually hiding some in-joke. I decided to put the question to him again in my own interview, where he stated unequivocally that there is no alternate version of his film.