Ring 0: Birthday (リング0 バースデイ, Ringu Zero: Bāsudei) is a 2000 Japanese supernatural psychological thriller film directed by Norio Tsuruta, from a screenplay by Hiroshi Takahashi, based on the short story "Lemon Heart" from the Birthday anthology by Koji Suzuki.

Sudo recounts how Sadako was withdrawn as a child and predicted her classmates drowning in the ocean during a field trip.

Her natural charisma infuriates lead actor, Aiko, whose relationship with the troupe director, Shigemori, sours due to the latter's newfound favor for Sadako.

While praised by Shigemori and Toyama, the other troupe members grow to distrust and fear Sadako, as they suspect that she is the one who caused Aiko's death and other supernatural occurrences, including an apparition of a girl in white with long hair similar to Sadako.

Sadako dreams of meeting Toyama again before waking, and screams as the stone lid of the well is slid into place, trapping her inside.

[2] 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.

However, the techno-horror genre that made Ring famous was now abandoned in favor of psychological thriller,[5] a genre that many Hollywood directors as well as some East Asian filmmakers had already explored, such as David Fincher, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan, Satoshi Kon and Kiyoshi Kurosawa,[6][7][8] but many other East Asian filmmakers and screenwriters, including Tsuruta and Takahashi themselves, were not familiar with.

[10] The band performed "finale" for the first time on the "RESET>>LIVE *000" Concerts at the Tokyo Big Sight on December 31, 1999.

[13] the full track version of "finale" was appeared on the band's eighth studio album, "Real".

[14] while the four minute long theatrical cut version of "finale" would only appear in the Closing credits of Ring 0: Birthday, as well as a live performance on music TV shows, such as Music Station and Count Down TV; it was not included in the film's official soundtrack CD released by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing.

Furthermore, the name of the theme song was kept secret on all print advertisements, posters, television commercials and press material for Ring 0: Birthday, except the theatrical pamphlet and the double feature trailers, as a part of Sony Music Entertainment Japan's decision to use several marketing tactics for "Neo Universe/Finale" to increase sales.

[19] The 2000 Kadokawa Video DVD release presented the film in its original 1.85:1 Anamorphic widescreen format with Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and included the extra features that were unavailable on the VHS released, including the cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes, Deleted scenes, theatrical trailers and TV commercial/teasers for the film.

[20] The 2002 Tartan Asia Extreme release presented the film in its original 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen format, though it carried no special features apart from filmographies, photo galleries and trailers for other Tartan Asia Extreme releases.

[22][23] The 2003 Madman/Eastern Eye release presented the film in the 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format instead of the original 1.85:1 anamorphic format found in the Kadokawa Video and the Tartan Asia Extreme release, and carried no special features apart from filmographies, photo galleries and trailers for Hellsing, Samsara, Spirited Away, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Wendigo.

[21] The 2004 The Ring Trilogy Collector's Edition release of the film also included the Dolby Digital 5.1 (recorded at a bitrate of 384 kbit/s) and DTS 5.1 soundtrack option (Both in Japanese), in addition to the Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack (recorded at a bitrate of 192 kbit/s) found in the 2002 Tartan Asia Extreme release.

[21][27] The film was released direct-to-video in the United States under the title Ringu 0 on August 23, 2005, by DreamWorks/Universal Home Video.

The review noted that the "film's effort to explain exactly who Sadako (Yukie Nakama) is and how she became a powerful evil force, the film heaps contrivance upon contrivance, mixing clichés from backstage melodramas with those from Carrie and all its imitators, and leaving the viewer with little beyond the strength of Nakama's appealing performance and a few mild scares to hang on to".