The following is a transcription of a phone interview between myself and Ring author Suzuki Koji in 2003. It is translated here from the original Japanese.

What is the the relationship between En no Ozunu, Shizuko and Sadako?

Well, simply put, En no Ozunu was a figure in ancient Japan who possessed paranormal abilities. And these abilities were inherited -- though the logic of it is not entirely clear -- first of all by Yamamura Shizuko, and then by Sadako from Shizuko, her mother.

And now, Sadako desires humanity’s extinction?

I wouldn’t really say that she desires it. Sadako was more...well, like a cancer cell. A group of cells, not a living creature per se. So Sadako can be considered more like humanity’s cancer. This “substance” that we call Yamamura Sadako is more like a cancerous metastasization of the Earth itself, one that grew exponentially.

I see. So it’s not so much that she desires humanity’s extinction as it is, she's simply operating as an organism.

That’s right. It’s not in cancer’s nature to want to kill. Cancer is actually quite contradictory. If the cancer spreads to too great an extent, the host will end up dying. And if the host dies, it dies, too [laughs]. So it’s contradictory.

But...well, Loop [the third volume in the Ring series] is a story involving artificial reality, isn’t it?

Yes.

So ultimately, all this is taking place inside of a computer program. And if Yamamura Sadako is, as you stated before, a kind of cancer, is this because she was programmed that way?

Well...She wasn’t intentionally programmed that way. It was a mistake.

[non-forthcoming silence]

I see. In the Ring novel, one of the images on the so-called “cursed video” is of an infant. That would be Yamamura Sadako’s brother, the one that died, correct?

That’s right.

I'd also like to ask about Takayama Ryuji. By chance, is he based on a real person?

[laughs] About 50% is based on me, Suzuki Koji [laughs again].

Fifty percent? And what about the other 50?

I just made up the other half.

So what parts of Ryuji are specifically you?

His forward-looking attitude...his ability to overcome difficulties.

And his stocky build?

That’s right [laughs]! That, too.

If we’re talking about the Ring series as a whole, what exactly is this person -- or program, if you will -- called Takayama Ryuji?

Well, in the end he becomes the savior of the world, doesn’t he?

In the first two novels, he looks more like humanity's betrayer...

[laughs] That’s not the case at all. It becomes clearer if you read [Loop]. There’s a big reversal of events at the end.

I see. I read in another interview with you that it's your opinion that the Ring story has an American feel to it.

That’s right.

What exactly about it is American?

Well, it’s quite logical, isn’t it? Simply put, Japanese horror up to that point hadn’t been...it wasn’t logical in approach. The series of  Ring, Rasen and Loop places a great importance on logic, and on science as well.

Rasen especially had a great emphasis on science...speaking of which, the movie Rasen is actually one of two sequels, isn't it? There's also Ring 2.

[laughs] That’s right.

Of course Rasen was based on your book, but Ring 2 was an original story. What are your thoughts on these two films?

Well, in Japan, only in Japan, the Ring and Rasen movies were released concurrently...

Right, in 1998.

I think that was somewhat...problematic. Because [Ring] was a hit. And, the same as in America, if a movie is a big hit then a sequel gets made. But because Rasen had already been made, they couldn’t very well do it again [laughs]. So there wasn’t much else but for them but to make Ring 2.

But Ring 2 completely contradicts Rasen, doesn’t it?

That it does. And I guess you could say I was...troubled at those changes.

Really?

Mm-hmm.

[Short silence - Suzuki clearly doesn't wish to say more]

Well, when the Ring novel was published in 1991, I imagine you never thought that more than decade later it would become the number one movie in America.

[laughs] Yeah.

What are your thoughts on that? That a story you wrote back in 1988 became America’s The Ring? Have you seen the film?

Of course.

What did you think of it?

I thought The Ring was exceedingly well done. I was very satisfied.

Even with all the changes in the story?

I didn’t...well, that’s something that can’t be helped, isn’t it? When a book is turned into a movie, it can’t very well be filmed exactly according to the book. So in that respect, I actually welcome changes to some extent. My biggest hope is that the movie is done well. That it’s interesting and done well. If that’s the case, then I don’t mind any changes that are made to the source material. The Ring was so interesting and so well done that I was quite satisfied.

Even though Samara was so different from the Sadako of the book...

I felt she was actually truer to the novel. Truer than the Sadako of the Japanese film, who was very different.

Speaking of which, there was a TV series as well -- Ring: Saishusho. Now THAT was completely different!

Completely [laughs]!

Did you watch that version as well?

[laughing] I didn’t watch that thing, not at all.

You purposely didn’t watch it?

I don’t really watch TV.

Because of your schedule?

Yeah, but I never watch those TV dramas at all. So even if one of my stories gets done, I don’t watch it.

[both laugh]

That’s interesting. But you’ll watch movies?

I’ll watch movies. Interesting ones.

Ones like The Ring?

Yeah. I saw The Ring at the [general] premiere in L.A. I wanted to go to the world premiere, but my schedule just wouldn’t allow it.

To change subjects again, I read somewhere that you’re more interested in sci-fi than in horror.

Sci-fi is...well, I’m not a fan of sci-fi at all [laughs].

Oh, is that so? I guess the translator must have gotten something wrong...

Mm-hmm. Sci-fi is my least favorite [genre]. I never read sci-fi.

Even though Loop had elements of sci-fi in it.

That it did, quite a bit. I’m very interested in the science [rather than science fiction].

To speak about the series as a whole, Ring was a horror / thriller, Rasen was more grounded in science, and Loop was more sci-fi. Why did it turn out that each of the three books occupies different genres?

First of all, the way that Ring came about was...I think this has probably appeared in a different interview somewhere, but with Ring, it was like, At first I didn’t have the story. I didn’t even have the idea. *1 I didn’t have a story to begin with -- I just let the ideas come as they would and then wrote at full-blast. With Ring, I’d get an impression [of the story], but had absolutely no idea of how things would turn out.

You yourself didn’t know.

That’s right. I didn’t get the idea for the crux of the story until I was actually writing the conclusion. That copying the video would be the key...

The cure *2, in effect.

That’s right, the cure. That idea didn’t occur to me until the very end [laughs].

So it was like you and Asakawa discovered it together.

That’s right. It occurred to me only after everything that Asakawa had seen.

Was Rasen written differently, perhaps? Did you go into it thinking, "This is the kind of story I want to write"?

I had absolutely no idea about the story. But in Ring, there was one part that was really a stretch, or rather, that wasn’t very logical. And that was, that if you watch a videotape you will die seven days later. Even I thought that wasn’t very logical. There’s no basis for something like that to exist. Rasen was written to try and explain this phenomenon, both scientifically and medically. So the parts that were very vague, the "science" of Ring, I wanted to try and explain scientifically in Rasen.

Aah, I see.

But the end of Rasen had Takayama Ryuji coming back to life. And that was anything but logical [laughs]. So to try and explain that in even more scientific terms, Loop was the result. It was a purely scientific novel.

(To be continued)

*1 - Suzuki spoke the italicized line above in English. This line also appeared verbatim in an interview he did with Fangoria.

*2 - The term used here in Japanese was omajinai, translated in the Vertical edition of the novel as "charm."