“Michael, I really owe you for helping me through this problem.” Martin Hayes sounded relaxed over the phone, clearly pleased that Ring had been stalled again.
Michael Carter laughed lightly and replied, “I didn’t expect you to be this cautious about a movie from some unknown twenty-two-year-old director.
That’s unusual for you.”
Martin sighed.
“I’ve spent two years preparing The Haunted Bridge.
I don’t want some unexpected horror movie interfering with everything right before release.” Michael accepted the explanation and jokingly reminded Martin that he owed him dinner once the situation settled down, while Martin immediately agreed because the two had known each other for years.
After ending the call, Michael leaned back and looked toward the documents related to Ring.
“What a waste.
The movie is genuinely good.” He knew perfectly well that Atlas Vance’s film deserved a normal theatrical classification, but Martin had asked for help, and Michael had used his influence to keep the complete version trapped in repeated review disputes.
“Atlas Vance, you can only blame yourself for attracting Martin’s attention.”
It was already midnight when Michael returned home.
He lay in bed scrolling through his phone without noticing that the television in the dark living room had suddenly turned on by itself.
Static covered the screen, an old stone well slowly appeared, and a pale woman in a white dress began crawling through the television.
Half a month later, strange rumors surrounding the people involved in reviewing Ring began spreading through the entertainment industry.
Several employees claimed they had seen a long-haired woman in white appearing inside office televisions, hallways, elevators, and even their own homes, while others were frightened badly enough that they refused to return to work.
Michael Carter had suffered the worst incident and was still recovering in the hospital.
Atlas had only instructed Sadako to frighten the people responsible for repeatedly blocking the film.
He had specifically told her to restrain herself and not kill anyone, but apparently Sadako’s understanding of “a small scare” was very different from his.
By the time Atlas learned what had happened, the entire review process surrounding Ring had been thrown into chaos.
Atlas also developed a theory about how Sadako had located every reviewer so accurately.
She had secretly embedded traces of her supernatural curse into the finished movie, meaning anyone who watched the screening copy might establish a connection similar to the one created by her original cursed videotape.
Aside from Vance Studios employees, the reviewers were among the few outsiders who had repeatedly watched the film.
Atlas had originally hoped the supernatural incidents would merely encourage them to reconsider the restrictions placed on Ring.
Instead, Michael was hospitalized, several staff members were terrified of touching the movie again, and the domestic theatrical process had effectively stalled.
Since an immediate American release was no longer practical, Atlas decided to change his strategy.
He would release Ring overseas first.
There were several advantages.
If Ring became successful abroad, its international performance would create free publicity before the eventual American release, and Atlas would also have an opportunity to observe whether any sequences produced stronger negative reactions than expected.
If necessary, he could make small adjustments before bringing the movie home without sacrificing its most important horror scenes.
An overseas-first rollout would also reduce the damage caused by early piracy.
Once a high-quality copy spread widely online, foreign distributors would have less incentive to pay strong licensing fees, so Atlas wanted to establish international theatrical markets before that happened.
More importantly, Vance Studios needed relationships with foreign distributors if Atlas intended to build the company beyond a single successful movie.
After confirming the plan, Atlas immediately called a senior management meeting.
Alongside the company executives were Daniel Mercer and Emily Brooks, both of whom had already signed with Vance Studios after completing Ring.
Daniel was now one of the studio’s principal actors after Atlas recognized his overlooked talent, while Emily had gone from intern and assistant to an officially contracted actress after taking the role of Reiko Asakawa.
“What?
You want to premiere overseas first?” one executive asked in surprise.
Another frowned and said that international horror markets were often more competitive, while someone else worried foreign audiences might hesitate to support a movie from an unknown American studio.
The biggest concern, however, was whether American horror fans would become angry after seeing other countries receive Ring first.
Atlas waited until the room quieted.
“I believe Ring can succeed internationally, so I’m not worried about that part.
As for American audiences being unhappy, the domestic delay wasn’t caused by Vance Studios.”
Emily understood almost immediately.
“You want the audience pressure redirected toward the people blocking the release.”
Atlas nodded.
“Exactly.
If Ring becomes popular overseas while Americans still can’t legally watch the complete version, people are going to start asking why.
We simply explain that Vance Studios has repeatedly tried to secure the necessary theatrical classification and let public opinion handle the rest.”
Daniel slowly smiled as he understood the plan.
Atlas continued, “The louder people complain, the better for us.
International success advertises the movie, and the domestic pressure makes it harder for anyone to quietly keep blocking it.”
The executives exchanged impressed looks.
The strategy could create publicity and increase pressure for an American release at the same time, although several people privately felt Atlas was still being too confident.
No filmmaker could guarantee success before audiences actually bought tickets, and Vance Studios itself had once confidently released disasters such as A Hand Reaching Out of the Toilet.
Once the meeting ended, the company began preparing foreign distribution materials.
This parallel world’s film market allowed an American production to open internationally before completing its domestic theatrical rollout, so Atlas began examining possible countries.
His first choice was Japan.
Japan had one of the strongest horror traditions in the world and an audience accustomed to supernatural stories.
More importantly, Sadako Yamamura, Reiko Asakawa, Ryuji Takayama, Yoichi Asakawa, and the entire mythology behind Ring were Japanese.
If Atlas was going to introduce the movie internationally somewhere first, Japan was the most appropriate market.
Several days later, Atlas prepared to fly there with Sadako.
Daniel insisted on joining because Atlas had given his career another chance when almost everyone else had written him off, and he wanted to help with the international launch however he could.
Emily also volunteered to accompany Atlas as his assistant, both because she wanted to gain experience and because Ring was her first major film.
Emily’s Japanese-American background made the trip particularly meaningful to her.
She had been born and raised in the United States, but her mother’s family was Japanese, so Emily had grown up hearing the language and understood enough for basic greetings, restaurant orders, directions, and simple everyday conversation.
She was not fluent enough to negotiate theatrical contracts or comfortably follow fast professional discussions, however, so Atlas had no intention of making her responsible for important translation.
Daniel’s situation was similar in a different way.
He was mixed Japanese-American through his mother, but he had grown up almost entirely in an English-speaking environment and knew only scattered Japanese phrases from childhood.
His heritage made his casting as Ryuji Takayama natural, but it definitely did not make him useful during business negotiations.
That left Sadako.
After gaining Speech through the system, Sadako could understand and communicate across languages with supernatural ease.
She could switch between English and Japanese without hesitation and understood formal terminology far better than either Emily or Daniel.
Naturally, Atlas decided she would become the group’s main translator.
Sadako immediately refused.
Atlas tried reasoning with her.
Sadako continued refusing.
Atlas eventually mentioned milk tea.
Her resistance weakened considerably.
Emily hid a smile while Daniel wisely stayed silent.
In the end, Sadako reluctantly accepted the translator role, while Emily helped with simple conversations whenever possible and left contracts, classification discussions, and distribution negotiations to the actual supernatural multilingual ghost.
The four eventually arrived in Japan and submitted Ring to Eirin, the country’s film-classification organization.
During the review screening, several officials visibly tensed when Sadako crawled from the television, and the atmosphere became even worse when Atlas’s extended 5D-style climax made it appear as though she were approaching the audience directly.
Despite their fear, the reviewers clearly recognized the movie’s quality.
“This is terrifying,” one reviewer admitted after the screening.
“People might start becoming afraid of their televisions.” Another reviewer nodded and added that Japan had not received such an effective supernatural horror film in quite some time.
Several days later, Atlas received the official result.
He stared at the classification.
Then looked again.
G — General Audiences.
Atlas was genuinely surprised.
He had expected at least PG12, and considering the additional horror sequences, stereoscopic effects, and Sadako’s television crawl, he had even prepared himself for a stricter classification.
Instead, Eirin had approved the movie without an age restriction.
Atlas looked toward Sadako, then back at the document.
“Japanese horror audiences are terrifying in their own way.”
Emily laughed softly, while Daniel looked equally surprised.
Atlas eventually stopped questioning the result.
Whether the classification came from this parallel world’s different standards or simply from reviewers being more accustomed to supernatural horror, a G rating gave Ring access to the widest possible audience.
For Vance Studios, that was excellent news.
Atlas looked at the Japanese promotional materials waiting on the table and smiled.
Sadako’s story had begun in Japan.
Now Ring would return there first.
And from Japan, Atlas intended to spread that fear across the world.