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Rasen
Spiral
Japan 1998
produced by Takashige Ichise, Shinya Kawai, Takenori Sento, Masato Hara (executive) for Basara Pictures, Magica/Toho
directed by Joji Iida
starring Koichi Sato, Miki Nakatani, Hinako Saeki, Shingo Tsumuri, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shigemitsu Ogi, Yutaka Matsushige, Ban Daisuke, Naoki Manabe, Nanako Matsushima
screenplay by Joji Iida, based on the novel by Koji Suzuki, music by La Finca
Ring
review by Mike Haberfelner
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To understand this synopsis, please read the one for Ringu
(Ring, 1998) first (also, you might
not even want to bother watching Rasen if you haven't seen
Ringu, as Rasen pretty much
picks up where that film left off). ... after Ryuji
(Hiroyuki Sanada) died under mysterious circumstances, his former
colleague in med-school doctor Ando (Koichi Sato) is called in to do the
autopsy - but not only that, also to talk to Ryuji's girlfriend Mai
(Miki Nakatani) the police fails to get through to. Ando, who is
suicidal & suffers from depressions because of having lost his son,
sees this task as a new meaning of life, since back in school, Ryuji was
a master in makiong up codes while Ando was a master in deciphering them
- & a code he finds, on a sheet of paper, inside Ryuji's body, that,
after being deciphered reads "DNA present". A short time later
he learns of the car crash of Ryuji's ex-wife Reiko (Nanako Matsushima)
& her son, & with them he finds the mysterious video, plus - in
the boy's body - a tumor that actually caused his heart to fail prior to
the accident, the same tumor that also caused Ryuji's heart failure. So
he comes to the conclusion that the video causes the tumor's spreading (he
doesn't bother to ask how & why though), & for some reason
Reiko's journal - which seems to be thrown in just for fun - does the
same. This is however doubtful since Ando has not caught the virus, and
furthermore Sadako (Hinako Saeki) - the girl from Ringu,
thrown into this plot for some reason too - appears to Mai, by now
Ando's new girlfriend. Mai then seems to vanish from mother earth, to
appear again a few days later to have passionate sex with Ando - &
her corpse turning up immediately afterwards. For some reason it is
found out she has just given birth, though nothing was previously
pointing at that. She then visits Ando again & proves to be
Sadako reborn. & she wants Ando to do some genetic engineering to
resurrect a few dead persons, as a reward she resurrects his son too. In
the end, Ryuji, Mai, Reiko & Ando's son have all come back to life,
& Reiko's journal is published as a novel, spreading the virus
further for whatever reason ... This movie is, I'm afraid to
say, a total mess: Being somewhat a continuation of Ringu,
it does take some characters & plot elements of that movie that are
vital to understand this one, but does leave its open questions not only unanswered but doesn't even bother to relate to them, instead
throws in plot elements of its own which are increasingly stupid and
confusing, to toy with them for a while then inexplicably &
unexpetedly throw them out again, littering the story with more &
more questionmarks. Now that in itself wouldn't be all that bad, would
there have been any attempt at coherent, comprehensive
storytelling. Like that though, the film is just ... stupid.
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