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Ringu 2
Ring 2
Japan 1999
produced by
Takashige Ichise, Makato Ishihara, Masato Hara (exetutive) for Kadokawa Shoten/Toho
directed by Hideo Nakata
starring Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, Rikiya Otaka, Fumiyo Kohinata, Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Yurei Yanagi, Kenjiro Ishimaru, Yoichi Numata, Kyoko Fukada, Katsumi Muramatsu, Masako, Rie Inou, Ban Daisuke
screenplay by Hideo Nakata, Hiroshi Takahashi, based on concepts of the novel Ringu by Koji Suzuki, music by Kenji Kawai
Ring
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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For the events that led to this movie, see my synopsis to Ringu,
otherwise this one will pretty much stay incomprehensible. ... after Ryuji's
(Hiroyuki Sanada) death, his assistant/girlfriend Mai (Miki Nakatani) is
determined to find out what really happened to him, & her first lead leads
her to the TV-station Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), incidentlys Ryuji's
ex, has researched a story for with Ryuji's help. At the station though Mai
learns that Reiko and her son Yoichi (Rikiya Okata) have been missing for 10
days now ... but Okazaki (Yurei Yanagi) agrees to help Mai follow up on some
other leads, first of which leads them to Masami (Hitomi Sato), the girl who
has found the dead Ryuji & has thus gone over the edge, now staying at Dr.
Kawajiri's (Fumiyo Kohinata) sanitorium ... which is where Mai witnesses her
somehow transmitting images of the infamous Sadako video onto the local tv-set. &
Kawajiri is quick to deliver an explanation for it: since (as it was earlier
established) Sadako (Rie Inou) has survived down her well for 30 years, with
her dead all her concentrated anger & bitterness have escaped the well
& manifested themselves first on the videotape, & then apparently in
Masami, &/or in other people - even Mai seems to have a bit of Sadako in
her ... Soon after that, Reiko & Yoichi are found out & the police
brings them in for questioning. When that gets incomfy though, Yoichi - who
seems to have more of Sadako in him than anyone else - starts using his
ESP-powers on annoying police inspector Omuta (Kanjiro Ishimaru), & he &
his mother make an escape ... in which Reiko is run over & killed by a
truck. From now on, Mai decides to take Yoichi under her wing (don't ask
why) & the pair of them go to Sadako's home-island Oshima, where Mai
recognizes more & more locations from the Sadako video. Eventually, doc
Kawajiri also shows up & comes up with a very silly plan to exorcise Yoichi
from the Sadako curse: He plans to turn the curse, borne out of bitterness,
into pure energy, which he wants to be absorbed in a swimming pool (what ?).
Furthermore he needs Mai as a catalyst. As if you wouldn't have guessed it,
the whole undertaking goes somewhat haywire, with the doc falling victim to his own
experiment, & Mai & Yoichi are being sucked into a vortex where they are
left hanging in something resembling the well Sadako has lived in for 30 years.
Then Yoichi falls to the bottom of the well & seems to drown in its wateer,
but Mai jumpos after him to save him, whereafter (supposedly as a reward for
her pure heart) a rope is thrown down the well for the 2 of them to climb up,
& the spirit of the dead Ryuichi shows up to suck the Sadako curse out of
Yoichi ... & when Mai & Yoichi wake up again, they are lying on the
edge of the pool of Kawajiri's experiment as the only 2 survivors ... All's
well that ends well ? Not quite, because it seems since we saw him last
Okazaki has had a run in with Sadako & has now been sent to the looney bin,
showing the same symptoms as Masami ... Despite having the
occasional scene that is more scary than anything in its predecessor, this
direct sequel to Ringu does fail to
fulfill the high hopes put into it after its innovative predecessor. The
problem with this movie is that it tries to bring the creepy & irrational
goings-on of its predecessor into a rational context - & fails rather
miserably since suddenly the movie finds itself steeping deep in exactly those
horror clichés the first part successfully avoided, only made worse by a great
number of pseudo-scientific explanations that only amount to new heights of
genre absurdities. That said, Ringu 2 in itself is not too bad a film,
thanks to a creepy atmosphere & some genuinely scary scenes, it's just not
a very good movie either, & not a worthy successor to Ringu. The
events of Rasen/Spiral,
the other, earlier & totally misguided sequel of Ringu
are not taken into account in this movie.
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