''Ring of Curse'', released in Japan as , is a 2011 Japanese horror film directed by

Mari Asato is a Japanese film director. Primarily known for the film '' Ju-On: Black Ghost'' (2009), part of ''The Grudge'' film installments, her other films include the politically undertoned ''Samurai Chicks'' (''Dokuritsu Shôjo Gurentai'') (2004), ...

. It is based on the 2011

cell phone novel A cell phone novel, or , were literary works originally written on a cellular phone via text messaging. This type of literature originated in Japan, where it became a popular literary genre. However, its popularity also spread to other countrie ...

''Gomen Nasai'' by Yuka Hidaka. The film stars the

Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements ...

girl group

Buono! was a subgroup of the Japanese girl groups Berryz Kobo and Cute, formed in 2007 by Up-Front Promotion and associated with Hello! Project. The members consisted of Momoko Tsugunaga and Miyabi Natsuyaki from Berryz Kobo, and Airi Suzuki fro ...

The film was released in theaters nationwide in Japan on October 29, 2011.

Plot

A girl, Yuka Hidaka, attends school with a black-haired girl named Hinako Kurohane. Kurohane gets great grades in school, but is constantly labeled as a black sheep, as she is regarded as strange and unworldly to others at school and in public, and neglected by her parents who favor her kid sister, Kana over her at home. One day, Kurohane finds out that she has

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

, but still, her mother does not care. Kurohane curses Kana, who starts having trouble breathing and dies within a month as a result of the curse. Kurohane attempts the same with her mother but proves to no effect, so she enters a competition to improve her skills. Her school life did not go so well because her classmates led by class president Sonada Shiori were mean to her, and often became a victim of their cruel bullying. She saw her opportunity for revenge when she was selected to write a script for a play in the school festival. She started cursing her class mates one by one. The only one that realized the curse was Yuka. She tried to stop Kurohane by talking to her, but to no avail. Kurohane's curse was also discovered by Sonada, whom she wanted to kill, so she tried a different way to kill her. One day, Sonada transferred to another school, but appeared several days later to kill Kurohane, and then killed herself, not because she wanted to, but because she was cursed by Kurohane. At that point, Kurohane's curses were so strong that a person would lose command and kill herself. The new source Kurohane used to place curses appeared in the form of

text messages Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

. She also sent a text to Yuka, but she never read it. Time passed and Yuka was with her new classmates, telling them the story of Kurohane. They stole Yuka's cell phone and saw the text message Kurohane had sent to her, including Yuka. Then, one by one, Yuka's classmates started dying, leaving Yuka alone. And that is when she ultimately realizes that the only way to save herself is to get more and more people to read the words of Kurohane. She killed people randomly, so Yuka wrote a short story with Kurohane's words in it and posted it online, increasing her time to live.

Cast

Airi Suzuki is a Japanese singer, actress, model, and radio personality associated with Up-Front Works. In 2002, she joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Project Kids and later debuted as one of the lead vocalists of the Japanese girl group Cute i ...

as Yuka Hidaka *

Miyabi Natsuyaki is a Japanese singer. Her career began in 2002 when she passed the audition for Hello! Project Kids, an all-female child pop group under Hello! Project. She continued to sing in that group and became a part of four smaller groups composed o ...

as Hinako Kurohane *

Momoko Tsugunaga is a former Japanese singer, actress, and radio personality. Tsugunaga joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Project Kids at the age of 10 and later became part of the girl groups Berryz Kobo and Buono! Following Berryz Kobo's hiatus, ...

as Shiori Sonoda *

Chisato Okai (born June 21, 1994, in Saitama, Japan) is a former Japanese pop singer, actress, model, and television personality. She first gained recognition when she joined Hello! Project Kids and later became one of the main vocalists of the Japanese id ...

as Chika's sister * Itsuki Sagara as Chiharu *

Arisa Komiya is a Japanese actress and voice actress from Shimotsuke, Tochigi. Komiya is known for starring as Yoko Usami/Yellow Buster in the 2012 Super Sentai series ''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters'' and Dia Kurosawa in the multimedia project ''Love Live! Sunsh ...

as Yoko Fujita * Tomomi Miyashita as female teacher * Riko Matsumura (松村理子) * Karen Ishida (石田佳蓮) * Chihiro Nagase (永瀬千裕) * Airi Suzuki (鈴木愛吏) * Yoko Kita (喜多陽子) * Nami Isogai (磯貝奈美) * Ayame Iwasaki (岩崎あやめ) *

Taiki Yamazaki Please don't delete this article because this actor or actress will play a lead or supporting role in the tokusatsu series "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" and will continue their career and make more roles, either lead or supporting, after the end of the ...

* Takeru Ogawa (小川尊) * Shoko Nakahara (中原翔子) * Hiroaki Kawatsure (川連廣明)

Production

Author Yuka Hidaka originally published the story online on the website ''Maho no iLand'' in 2011 as a

. Over 800,000 people subscribed to the story. ASCII Media Works announced in a press release on July 11, 2011 that the novel would receive a live-action adaptation starring the members of the

girl group

, consisting of

, and

, in their debut starring film. The film was directed by

. The theme song of the film is " Deep Mind" by

Reception

Mark Schilling Mark Schilling (born 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, translator, and author based in Tokyo, Japan. He has written for ''The Japan Times'', ''Variety'', and ''Screen International''. Biography Schilling began working for ''The Japan ...

from ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...

'' described the beginning of the film with a "standard issue 'bully the strange girl in class' story line", but mentioned that it takes a "scarily fresh turn" when the bullied character takes revenge on her classmates.

References

External links

* * {{Mari Asato 2011 films 2011 horror films Buono! Fiction about curses Films directed by Mari Asato Japanese supernatural horror films Novels first published online 2010s Japanese films