Firstly, I loved the original 1998 Japanese version… except for ONE thing:

The white-coloured font of the English subtitled text.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

It proved to be a challenge for me.

It’s almost impossible to read when so much of the background is also white: from brightly-lit daytime scenes to the many TV screens we see.

I admit, I am not fluent in Japanese and the only other language I (vaguely) know is GCSE German. (I got a B.) I hold my hand up and my head down in shame.

But this is one, minor flaw.

In case you’re not familiar with The Ring, the story centres on a cursed videotape that dooms anyone who watches it… to die… in 7 days.

Arrrggghhhh!

In this What X Taught Me About Y article, I’ll mostly be referring to the 2002 English-language remake, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, and Brian Cox.

This is a strong remake (IMHO), a great horror overall, and inspirational metaphor for viral video content.

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Let’s start with the opening sequence and the urban legend intro…

Two teenagers are just hanging out when their casual chat segues into gruesome gossip:

“You watch a tape and then, you die in seven days.”

It soon moves from rumour to reality as one of the two girls has really watched the video, doesn’t believe anything untoward will happen, then gets the infamous telephone alert, and dies.

Immediately, there are marketing parallels because this is exactly how viral content starts.

Not as polished promos, but something that resembles a genuine conversation (like a rumour about an urban legend), and something that feels passed on by word-of-mouth, not pushed on you like a hard-selling ad.

The best content doesn’t feel like sales and marketing. It feels like something you’ve discovered.

You.

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