In Japan, the "lord of the rings" is female, dressed in white with long black hair. The girl's name is Sadako, an evil ghost child who first appeared in Koji Suzuki's 1991 horror novel "The Ring" and went on to lead one of the biggest horror franchises of all time.
To this day, Sadako remains an immediately recognizable figure, popular Halloween costume and one of the most dreaded nicknames for school-age Japanese women. I personally know three women who cut off their long hair in fear of being called Sadako during elementary school. Almost two decades later, they still shudder at the name.
The premise of "The Ring" is deceptively simple. First, there is Sadako, who had been thrown into a well. A videotape turns up and it soon transpires that anyone who watches the tape suffers a gruesome death seven days after seeing it.
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