by touching him and later is able to make a disabled man regain his ability to walk. The two confess their love and promise to leave the troupe and live together after finishing their last play. The play is a disaster as Sadako, influenced by recordings of her mother's demonstration played by Etsuko, sees visions of her mother during the demonstration and kills her psychiatrist. The troupe members beat her to death. They visit Ikuma, who tells them that Sadako split into two beings resembling each of her parents; the malevolent one who resembled her unknown father is kept from growing by Ikuma in the attic. Before they can kill it, both Sadakos merge with each other and escape with Toyama. In her merged form, Sadako kills all the troupe members, including Toyama. Akiko and Etsuko hide in Ikuma's house. Rather than face Sadako's wrath, Akiko shoots Etsuko and herself. Sadako is found by Ikuma, recovered and tearfully mourning her own actions. Ikuma drugs her and chases her outside to the well. Despite her pleas, he brains her with an axe and throws her down the well before breaking down in tears. Sadako has a dream of meeting Toyama again and screams as the well stone is slid in place, trapping her inside. Cast Production In 1999, Koji Suzuki was finishing his written sources for the Ring series by including a fourth titled Birthday which collects three short stories that filled in details of the story. Asmik Ace decided to hire Ring and Ring 2 screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi to adapt the story Lemonheart from Birthday. Birthday captured the life of the character of Sadako just before she consigned to her fate seen in the later Ring series. Producer Takasige Ichise offered Hideo Nakata the chance to direct, who passed on the offer. The director for the film was Norio Tsuruta. Tsuruta had previously worked on direct-to-video horror scripts such as Honto ni atta kowai hanashi (Scary True Stories) in 1991, and wrote and directed the sequel. After working on various television and direct-to-video works, Tsuruta got to work with screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi on the segment "The Curse" on the television special Haunted School F. Takahashi lobbied for Tsuruta to take on the film. Tsuruta referred to the film as "a tragedy" with a theme about "a young woman who is oppressed because she is different from everyone else. In Japan,