The Japanese novelist Koji Suzuki, whose best-known creator is the Ring books and horror icon sadakoHe passed away during the weekend of May 9. He was 68 years old.
First reported by a Japanese newspaper. Asahi ShimbunSuzuki was born on May 13, 1957. His literary novel was the 1990 standalone novel. Rakuen (either Paradise in the west), followed by ringu (also known as Ring) the following year. The novel caused a Rise of Terror J and was made into a television movie in 1995, followed by a theatrical film three years later. It was this latter version that became a hit in the West, praised at the time for its more subtle and restrained brand of horror as slashers dominated the screen. And it is because of that interest in 1998 Ring that we have western remakes of The resentment and dark water, the latter based on a story by Suzuki.
Throughout his career, Suzuki wrote several independent books and short stories, his final work being the novel 2025. Ubiquitous. But he never strayed too far from Ring, which continued with several follow-up books, then concluded with 2013’s. taido. At the same time, he also thrived on the screen: Americans may remember the three movies which ran from 2005 to 2017, while Japan has been more consistent in adapting it, including a film franchise with three continuities and several television and manga adaptations. Even Korea attempted to adapt the original book in 1999.
Dubbed the “King Stephen of Japan” by critics and fans, Suzuki was remembered by his fellow author. Haruki Murakami as the reason why “horror literature was forever changed outside of Japan. (…) Japanese literature lost an important voice today, and many readers around the world lost an author who shaped the way they imagine fear.”
“Long before ‘Internet horror’ became a genre of its own, Suzuki understood how fear could travel through modern media and ordinary routines,” Murakami continued. “Ring…It carried loneliness, fear, technology, memory and the strange feeling that something invisible had already entered everyday life. The horror of his books was rarely loud. It infiltrated silently until the family member no longer felt safe.”
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