Trivia for
Ringu (1998) More at IMDbPro »

• The effect of Sadako coming out of the well was accomplished with only one simple special effect. Rie Ino'o, who is a student of the Kabuki theatre, which uses exaggerated motion and jerking movements to emphasize emotion, was heavily involved in the development of the Sadako character. Inou was filmed walking backwards and the film was run in reverse - the end result is Sadako walking forwards with unnatural motions.
  
  
• Yamamura Shizuko is based on a real person, Mifune Chizuko, who was born in 1886 in Kumamoto Prefecture and who was rumored to have the gift of foresight. After a demonstration in 1910, she was proclaimed a charlatan and committed suicide a year later by ingesting poison.
  
  
• The highest grossing horror film in Japanese history.
  
  
• Kôji Suzuki got his inspiration for the Ringu novel from his favorite horror movie Poltergeist (1982).
  
  
• The characters of Sadako and Shizuko are named after and loosely based on two real women. Both were taken under the wing of Professor Fukurai Tomokichi and, whilst not actually mother and daughter, Takahashi Sadako did work with the professor soon after Chizuko's suicide. Neither woman possessed the gift of nensha, but another student of the professor, Nagao Ikuko, was believed to have this power.
  
  
• The 2001 UK DVD release back cover carries a disclaimer, stating that the distributor accepts no responsibility for "for any injuries or fatalities that may occur during or after the viewing of this videocassette."
  
  
• The close-up of Sadako's eye near the end of the film was performed by a male crew member.
  
  

• SPOILER: Came 6th in the UK's "Greatest Scary Moments" for its shock ending.
  
  

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