Ring (Kanzenban) - 1995. 95 minutes.

DIRECTOR: Takigawa Chisui. SCRIPT: Iida Joji & Soshigaya Daizo.

The very first Ring adaptation was this tepid movie-of-the-week version, which aired on Fuji Television. While it stays closer to the novel than Nakata's 1998 theatrical version, this Ring is nonetheless creatively and stylistically void, the only suspense coming from wondering when the next pair of breasts will flash onscreen. Oddly enough, screenwriter Iida Joji would later direct and co-write the excellent  Another Heaven.

As in the novel, the lead for this story is Asakawa Kazuyuki (Takahashi Katsunori), the change to a female Asakawa Reiko being unique to the theatrical release. Takahashi (Salaryman Kintaro) is rather like a Japanese Matthew Perry (Friends) in that he's a decent enough actor so long as he doesn't venture beyond his range. Unfortunately, he has most definitely left the safety of this range.

Takahashi's Asakawa spends most of his time pouting and being school-boyishly deferential toward the swaggering Takayama Ryuji (Harada Yoshio, in a precursor to the role of Tobitaka that he would perfect in Another Heaven). Granted, the Asakawa of the novels is something of a whiner himself, but given Yanagiba Toshiro's weighty, thoughtful performance in Saishusho, this Asakawa comes across as especially lacking.

Meanwhile, one-time pinup girl Miura Ayane does a decent (in a TV-movie sort of way) job as Sadako. She's best in those scenes when Sadako is shown as a pure, pretty young girl: it's when she has to show the character's malefic side that her performance becomes rather wooden. Incidentally, the unusually busty Miura was known for her nude roles before signing on for Ring -- which may be why her Sadako appears almost exclusively sans clothing. As aesthetically pleasing as this may be, even at her best, Ayane falls far short of the depth that Nakama Yukie would later bring to the character in Ring Ø.

That being said, this Sadako is noteworthy for being fairly true to the book, both in terms of her genetic makeup (see the FAQ) and in that her assailant is Nagao Jotaro, the man who treated her bedridden father, rather than the father himself. Unfortunately, this falls apart when a needless plot change has Sadako engaging in an incestuous relationship with said father.

Overall, Fuji's Ring never manages to get off the ground. While it does attempt to incorporate more material for the book, it doesn't seem concerned with creating any real suspense. I've seen this version twice now, and I honestly can't think of a reason to watch it again.

1/2 star.

Cast - ASAKAWA KAZUYUKI: Takahashi Katsunori. TAKAYAMA RYUJI: Harada Yoshio. OISHI TOMOKO: Hinagata Akiko. YAMAMURA SADAKO: Miura Ayane.

Story - Newspaper reporter-turned-proofreader Asakawa Kazuyuki reluctantly enlists the help of a former contact by the name of Takayama Ryuji to break the curse of a killer videotape.

Spoilers!

The Ring TV movie is one big mess of a reinterpretation (reimagining?) of the source material. If you've read the novel, you'll remember the baby that appeared in the cursed video; this is obviously -- as author Suzuki Koji has confirmed -- Sadako's dead brother, the one who died four months after being born (see the timeline for more). Not only did the TV movie decide to mix things up by making Sadako involved in an incestuous relationship with her father, when she shows up at the film's "climax" to collect Ryuji, she appears (naked, of course) clutching a baby...at which Ryuji utters, "That's your child, isn't it?" Thus, we're led to infer that Sadako had this child with her father. Ugh.

Not only does this stray wildly from the metaphoric aspect of the novels (in that what Sadako "gave birth" to was in fact the Ring Virus) and not only is it nasty, it makes -- at the risk of repeating a comment from my Rasen review -- no damn sense. As in the novel, this Sadako has Testicular Feminization Syndrome. People with TFS are unable to conceive. The fact that someone as astute as Ryuji would make so ridiculous a commment is...well, it's ridiculous.

More trivia - There are actually two flavors of the Ring TV movie: the one that was broadcast and the one released on video. The latter was given the extended title of Ring: Kanzenban, meaning "the complete edition" -- with "complete" apparently referring to nudity. As if the original weren't breast obsessed enough, Kanzenban actually re-shoots scenes to add more nudity. In fact, the scene where Tsuji Yoko and Nomi Takehiko are fooling around gets so graphic that the censoring reserved for pornographic films kicks in to cover Yoko's naughty places.

The Kanzenban version was the one used for this review. Make of that what you will.