Koji Suzuki, the writer who authored the novel that inspired the globally popular Japanese horror film Ring, died at age 69.
According to Japan's Asahi Shimbun on the 11th, Suzuki died on the 8th at a hospital in Tokyo. The cause was a chronic illness, but the specific disease was not disclosed.
Born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1957, he graduated from Keio University with a degree in French literature and debuted in 1990 with the novel Paradise. Paradise won the Excellence Award at the Japan Fantasy Novel Award.
Ring, released the following year, was adapted into a film in 1998 and drew enormous attention, and it was also remade in Korea (1999) and the United States (2002). In particular, the scene of "Sadako" with her hair hanging down crawling out of a TV screen is cited as one of the most shocking moments in the history of horror films worldwide.
The sequels known as the Ring trilogy—Spiral (1995) and Ring 3: Loop (1998)—also gained major popularity.