What are the differences between the Novel and Film adaptation of the Japanese horror sensation Ringu also known as The Ring to western audiences? Amber McCrudden investigates
| Book | Film |
| Kauyuki Asakawa is a Reporter at a newspaper, is married and has a daughter. | Reiko Asakawa is a TV Reporter who is divorced from Ryuji and has a son. |
| Ryuji is snarky with a dark sense of humour, who claimed to have raped several girls. | Ryuji is stoic and grouchy and does not claim to be a rapist. |
| After 7 days the viewer will die from a heart attack [the Ring Virus] | After 7 days the viewer will die after Sadako climes out of the TV to claim her victim |
| Okazaki does not exist | |
| Sadako has nensha, psychic photography | Sadako has unlimited power |
| Sadako is not the villain of the story, it is in fact the Ring Virus that kills the viewer | Sadako is the villain, being the one who murders the watches of the videotape |
| The Ring Virus evolves into other types of media | The cursed videotape is in all films |
| Sadako is assaulted and raped by a doctor at the sanatorium her father is being treated at. She starves to death after being thrown in to the well | Sadako’s farther is the one to kill her, throwing her into the well, she would live for 33 years, dying a year before the events of the film. |
| Sadako is Intersex, CAIS specifically | Sadako is not Intersex |
| Sadako has a younger brother who died in infancy | |
| Tomoko dies alone | Tomoko dies with her friend Masami |
| The well is made of stone [pile of rocks] | The well looks different |