Ring: The Final Chapter (TV) - 1999. Twelve episodes.

DIRECTOR: Fukumoto Yoshito. SCREENPLAY: Makita Kouji & Takayama Naoya.

A strange amalgam of book- and movie-based storylines, with plenty of changes to plot and characters. As in the original Ring TV movie, the lead is again portrayed as the male Asakawa Kazuyuki. In the novel, however, Kazuyuki was married and had a young daughter: the Asakawa of this series is a widower with a young son.

Other notable changes include Takayama Ryuji now being a young scholar of cultural anthropology, Yoshino (portrayed by the unrelentingly annoying Kyono Kotomi) being Asakawa's female junior instead of his male senior, and those watching the cursed videotape dying after thirteen days, not seven as in the book / theatrical releases.

Sigh.

While Ring: Saishusho manages to achieve an across-the-board level of badness, my biggest beef with this series has to be the bizarre treatment given its characters. For example, both Yoshino and Miyashita are suddenly female, Sadako's surname has become "Ikuma" (the fact that in the novel, Shizuko and Heihachiro never married, notwithstanding), and Takayama Ryuji is now a pseudo-rocker in his early twenties with perfect hair. Granted, I found this Ryuji (played by real-world rocker Nagase Tomoya) to be refreshing at first, but there are only so many times you can deadpan and dramatically face the camera, or have people walk into the room to find you standing with your back to them, hands contemplatively behind you.

		And then there's the music. Imagine the unholy union of Philip Glass (on speed, no less) and Ennio Morricone, with a healthy dollop of Disney for good measure. Now imagine that same music looped repeatedly, over and over again. I pray you will never know what I'm talking about. Vitriol aside, Saishusho isn't without its saving graces. Yanagiba Toshirou turns in a solid performance as Asakawa Kazuyuki, and Fukugawa Yuta is surprsingly good as Yoichi. While I was initially unhappy at seeing Miyashita's character so dramatically altered, Kuroki Hitomi is a talented actress and one of this series' highlights.
Aargh! My head!

1 star.

Cast - ASAKAWA KAZUYUKI: Yanagiba Toshirou. TAKAYAMA RYUJI: Nagase Tomoya. TAKANO MAI: Yada Akiko. YOSHINO: Kyono Kotomi. IKUMA SADAKO: Kimura Tae.

Story - Reporter Asakawa Kazuyuki stumbles across Sadako's curse (hidden inside a music video!) while investigating the death of his niece. He enlists the help of brilliant young cultural anthropologist Takayama Ryuji, who treats their race to break the thirteen-day deadline as a kind of game.

Triva - The two-volume manga adaptation of the Ring featured the theatrical Ring's Asakawa Reiko, but based the character of her ex-husband on the Takayama Ryuji of this TV version.

LINK - See Shuji's Drama Universe for a synopsis of all 12 episodes of this series.

Special thanks to Chris Watkins and Far East DVD, both of whom generously sent me this series in its entirety.