Passes the Bechdel test
Ringu
1998. Directed by Hideo Nakata, written by Hiroshi Takahashi and Kôji Suzuki.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
8 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 92. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
Reiko Asakawa is researching into a 'Cursed Video' interviewing teenagers about it. When her niece Tomoko dies of 'sudden heart failure' with an unnaturally horrified expression on her face, Reiko investigates. She finds out that some of Tomoko's friends, who had been on a holiday with Tomoko the week before, had died on exactly the same night at the exact same time in the exact same way. Reiko goes to the cabin where the teens had stayed and finds an 'unlabeled' video tape. Reiko watched the tape to discover to her horror it is in fact the 'cursed videotape'. Ex-Husband Ryuji helps Reiko solve the mystery, Reiko makes him a copy for further investigation. Things become more tense when their son Yoichi watches the tape saying Tomoko had told him to. Their discovery takes them to a volcanic island where they discover that the video has a connection to a psychic who died 30 years ago, and her child Sadako...
- Released
- 31 Jan 1998
- Genres
- Horror, Mystery
- Rated
- Not Rated
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Awards
- 7 wins & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Asakawa 149 lines, woman
- Ryuji 117 lines, man
- Masami 23 lines, woman
- Tomoko 21 lines, woman
- Yoichi 19 lines, man
- Kazue 13 lines, woman
- Yamamura 13 lines, man
- Kouichi 10 lines
- Okazaki 10 lines, man
- Hayatsu 8 lines, man
Full cast, 35 people
- Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryuji Takayama
- Rikiya Ôtaka as Yoichi Asakawa
- Miki Nakatani as Mai Takano
- Yuko Takeuchi as Tomoko Oishi
- Hitomi Sato as Masami Kurahashi
- Yutaka Matsushige as Yoshino
- Yōichi Numata as Takashi Yamamura
- Katsumi Muramatsu as Koichi Asakawa
- Masako as Shizuko Yamamura
- Rie Ino'o as Sadako Yamamura
- Daisuke Ban as Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma
- Kiyoshi Risho as Omiya
- Masahiko Ono as Okazaki
- Yoko Ohshima as Reiko's Aunt
- Kiriko Shimizu as Ryomi Oishi
- Orie Izuno as Sadako Yamamura
- Hiroyuki Watanabe as Hayatsu
- Miwako Kaji as Kazue Yamamura
- Yoko Kima as Student
- Asami Nagata as Student
- Keiko Yoshida as Student
- Yoshiko Matsumaru as Student
- Yoho Naose as Student
- Kaoru Kaze as Student
- Maki Ikeda as Yoko Tsuji
- Takashi Takayama as Takehiko Nomi
- Toshihiko Takeda as Yamamura
- Chihiro Shirai as Young Sadako
- Mantarô Koichi as President
- Shinkichi Noda as Member of the Press
- Kazufumi Nakai as Member of the Press
- Makoto Kakeda as Kanrinin
- Kanehiro Ri as Komiya kameraman
- Yûrei Yanagi as AD Okazaki
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 92
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 33 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 10 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 4 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 26 | 14 |
| 9 to 10 | 3 | 2 |
| 11 to 12 | 6 | 3 |
| 13 to 14 | 3 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 5 | 0 |
| 17 to 18 | 5 | 2 |
| 19 to 20 | 12 | 6 |
| 21 to 22 | 4 | 0 |
| 23 to 24 | 2 | 0 |
| 25 to 26 | 4 | 3 |
| 27 to 28 | 1 | 0 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 32 | 1 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 11 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 6 | 9 |
| 39 to 40 | 1 | 3 |
| 41 to 42 | 2 | 3 |
| 43 to 44 | 1 | 2 |
| 45 to 46 | 13 | 12 |
| 47 to 48 | 2 | 7 |
| 49 to 50 | 8 | 5 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 3 |
| 53 to 54 | 1 | 2 |
| 55 to 56 | 3 | 4 |
| 57 to 58 | 8 | 7 |
| 59 to 60 | 2 | 3 |
| 61 to 62 | 6 | 6 |
| 63 to 64 | 8 | 3 |
| 65 to 66 | 11 | 27 |
| 67 to 68 | 2 | 8 |
| 69 to 70 | 6 | 7 |
| 71 to 72 | 4 | 3 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 3 |
| 75 to 76 | 6 | 6 |
| 77 to 78 | 8 | 19 |
| 79 to 80 | 3 | 6 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 1 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 3 |
| 85 to 86 | 0 | 0 |
| 87 to 88 | 5 | 0 |
| 89 to 90 | 5 | 0 |
| 91 to 92 | 6 | 0 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
MAI: Nice to meet you. I’m Takano. ASAKAWA: Asakawa. MAI: Sensei, the people from the publishing company called about the deadline on your thesis again.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 58 are women's.
248 lines from women, 182 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
8 women and 12 men in the cast. 5 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 24 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 55% of the words (2,094), men 45% (1,711). Women have 58% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Run the other way, for men, the film scores 2 out of 3.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
6
Two men
5
Exhibit F: behind the camera
None of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 5% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Hideo Nakata (man)
- Written by
- Hiroshi Takahashi (man)
- From the novel by
- Kōji Suzuki (man)
- Produced by
- Takenori Sentô (man), Takashige Ichise (man), Shin'ya Kawai (man)
- Shot by
- Junichiro Hayashi (man)
- Edited by
- Nobuyuki Takahashi (man)
- Music by
- Kenji Kawai (man)
- Production design by
- Iwao Saitô (man)
- Costumes by
- Atsuko Sugiyama (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men, 9 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 23 on average. Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Yuko Takeuchi 17, Hitomi Sato 18, Miki Nakatani 22, Nanako Matsushima 24, Masako 33
Men
Rikiya Ôtaka 6, Yutaka Matsushige 35, Hiroyuki Sanada 37, Katsumi Muramatsu 58, Yōichi Numata 73
Exhibit H: the money
It made 16.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.2 million
- Box office
- $19.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 92 scenes and 456 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
