Ringu 2

Plot synopsis:
In the opening scene, set immediately after the events of the first Ringu (Ring) film, while inspecting the corpse of Sadako Yamamura, the forensic experts note evidence that Sadako has died only a year or two ago, meaning that she was still alive in the sealed well for almost 30 years. They later reconstruct her body and send it to Takaishi Yamamura (Yoichi Numata), Sadako's uncle, who takes it on his boat and later casts it into the bottom of the ocean.Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), Ryuji Takayama's assistant, continues to search for answers in regards to his sudden death. While searching for Ryuji's ex-wife Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), she meets a reporter named Okazaki (Yrei Yanagi) who is investigating the cursed tape in Reiko's stead. Okazaki, still searching for a person who has actually seen the tape with their own eyes, tracks down and interviews a girl named Kanae Sawaguchi (Kyoko Fukada). Although she has not yet seen the tape, she agrees to sell him a copy for ¥20,000. Upon giving the tape to Okazaki, Kanae admits that she watched the tape and begs him to watch it to spare her life. However, Okazaki is too afraid to watch it.Okazaki and Mai visit a mental hospital to see Masami Kurahashi (Hitomi Sato), a friend of Tomoko Oishi's who saw her killed. Masami is now mute and refuses to leave her room, afraid of the TV in the lounge area. While there, they meet a university classmate of Takayama's, Dr. Kawajiri (Fumiyo Kohinato), who is a prominent paranormal researcher and recognises that Sadako Yamamura's lingering hatred resides within the tape and can be transferred to people such as Masami. Determined to remove Sadako's spirit from Masami, who has become imbued with psychic powers and can project the tape's images onto nearby TV sets, Dr. Kawajiri arranges a risky experiment based on his theories involving energy transfer. The experiment requires Masami to attempt to drain Sadako's energy out of her by projecting the images onto a blank tape. Mai warns Masami not to participate, but the experiment goes ahead. Images begin to appear on the TV when there is a massive energy surge and Masami collapses in her chair. Mai takes the opportunity to grab the tape and destroy it.Mai finally meets up with Reiko Asakawa and her son Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka), both of whom have been in hiding out of fear from the authorities. Yoichi, having watched the tape, begins exhibiting psychic abilities and has become mute. Meanwhile, Kanae Sawaguchi's body is discovered. While trying to erase the footage of Kanae's interview, Okazaki finds that the tape won't erase, and the tape sticks. Kanae's face appears on the screen and slowly turning into a ghostly hair-covered face like Sadako's. The grinning Kanae comes closer to the screen and Okazaki screams.Previously complicit in hiding the Asakawas, after seeing Kanae's body Mai informs the authorities, who close in on Reiko and Yoichi. At the police station, Mai utilizes her limited psychic abilities to tell Yoichi to flee. Yoichi regains his voice and alerts Reiko. They escape, but Reiko experiences a vision in which her late father appears. He tells her that "the child you carry with you isn't Yoichi anymore". Reiko is killed by a truck while experiencing the vision. The police arrive and Yoichi focuses his killing intent on one of the detectives for a moment, before Mai interrupts and whisks Yoichi away.The next morning, Mai and Yoichi head for Izu, hoping for answers from Takaishi Yamamura. Dr. Kawajiri, who also experiments with spirit photography ("nensha"), arrives with equipment and is looking for Mai. Takaishi takes Mai to the River of Offering, and upon returning to the inn she and the doctor see a vision of Shizuko in a scene from the video tape, caused by Yoichi.The next day, Dr. Kawajiri sets his equipment up next to a pool of fresh water which serves to sap Sadako's energies from Yoichi with Mai as a channeler. The process suddenly becomes chaotic when Yoichi's powers awaken. Takaishi, seeing Sadako's coffin in the pool, swims out towards it and is killed while yelling "Take me! End this with me!" The doctor commits suicide by electrocution under Sadako's influence, which also kills the nurse trying to stop him. Mai runs to Yoichi before blacking out.Waking up, Mai and Yoichi find themselves in the well before both of them fall in. Ryuji appears, telling Yoichi and Mai to give him their fear in order to escape. Ryuji's grip leaves nensha marks on Yoichi's hand. The well's lid opens and the end of a rope is dropped into its depths. Mai climbs the well with Yoichi on her back when Sadako appears, wearing her reconstructed face like a mask, and climbs the wall, easily catching up to them. She asks them, "Why is it only you were saved?". Sadako then falls back into the well as Mai and Yoichi escape. Mai and Yoichi emerge from the well, only to find themselves in the pool used in the experiment. The bodies of Takaishi, the doctor, and the nurse float around the two as they reach the catwalk.In the hospital, a nurse comes into a holding room to take Okazaki's picture before leaving. As the photo develops, her eyes widen in shock before looking back at the room. Behind Okazaki is the laughing ghost of Kanae Sawaguchi.

Tags: paranormal, horror, revenge, good versus evil, flashback

Review:
This movie takes place a week after the events of `Ring', making the first movie pretty which a pre-requisite for viewing (director Nakata fortunately doesn't feel the need to waste too much time on annoying exposition).
However he's just not as  capable as having the greater, unknown, terror the previous movie produced  like any sequel in the genre there's the feeling of the killer slashing their way through each flick.Nakata is fairly competent with what he has.
As I haven't viewed a single scene from the original second instalment (written and directed by Jôji Iida), it's impossible for me to say if it was deserving enough of its incredibly poor critical and public reception to be completely erased from the continuity of the series (although some who saw it commented that they would rather have watched Sadako's cursed videotape instead).
This approach creates mostly pros in 'Ring 2', but also some cons as well.An adaptation of a Kôji Suzuki novel, 'Ring' had a breakneck pace because of its "race-against-time" plotting, and 'Ring 2' picks up from this by beginning just days after the events of the first film, allowing the audience to observe the aftermath of the terror that Sadako and her tape wreaked on so many people.
'Ring 2' is a nice mix of the best elements of its predecessor and some intriguing new material, but it's also a slightly uneasy one too.With director Hideo Nakata ('Chaos') back on board, it's to be supposed that 'Ring 2' would end up as unsettling as the first film, and the director almost meets this dizzyingly high expectation, but he doesn't want to indulge himself here as much as he did the first time around.
But, lest I forget, the film is surprisingly as much about the supporting characters as it is about Mai. Especially the denouement, which promises a whole new cycle of horror by leaving the door wide open for another sequel.
'Ring 2' is not only much deeper than it's predecessor, it's also a scarier and ultimately better film.Rather than trying to emulate the original, Nakata & Co. opted to expand on the mythos and take it into new directions.
Mai must now find some way to keep Yuuichi and herself from becoming Sadako's next victims Ringu was the first horror movie I brought on video,, I sat really close to TV and Ringu the scared the hell out me, so bad then i had to look for sequel.It was not that good as Ringu at all, it didn't have the same feel to It.There were some good creepy moments here and there however that was is about it, those scenes were not scary.This movie did have some really dull moment, which did bore me.The acting was not great but still good from most of the cast.Okay sequel but could of been much better., I going this movie a 5 out of 10..
There is no indication of a budget increase, or special effects to impress existing fans, and definately holds the Ringu style strong.With clever use of the original cast and elimination of them when needed and the introduction of newer characters makes this film seem as though you have already seen it but are reminded, that you have not.Yes it is scary, yes it delves more into the mind of Sadako and Yoichi in brilliant technique and yes it will continue your nightmares.
In the end, though, I think I would have preferred never to have seen either sequel as both really just ruin what was established in the first film.The story is somewhat similar to Rasen as we are once again following Mai. People are still trying to do stories about the video tape and the mother and son from the original are on the run.
Yoichi appears to be channelling the power of Sadako and more facts become known.Following up the famous Ring was never going to be an easy task, but this sequel is generally regarded by critics as being even better.
To my mind it plays out entirely different from what I was expecting , where the original movie ended led me to believe this sequel would involve the most dangerous pyramid scheme in human history - and unless you`ve seen RINGU that last sentence will make no sense - but here we have something that threatens to come close to the Brian DePalma films CARRIE and THE FURY and I bet that Gore Verbinski and Ehren Kruger will milk that aspect for all it`s worth in the Hollywood remake.It`s good in places with a scene involving aura photography being very chilling especially with creepy music being played over the soundtrack and the ending does answer the question I had about the ending of the Hollywood version of THE RING , but this is still an inferior reworking of the original that left me confused with scenes like the bit in the swimming pool , just what was all that about ?
I saw The ring and i was hoping to see a new perspective in Ringu 2 and, of course, i was hoping to see a horror movie, but i was very disappointed by the way in which the story was presented and the very few (weird inserted) scary parts.
Nice to see Nanako Matsushima return as Reiko even if the main star of this story is Miki Nakatani's character Mai Takano, who had a brief appearance in the first film.Ring 2 does retain many of the atmospheric and subdued sounds of the first film, but, unlike Ring, you can watch this sequel without the lights on.
However, the conclusion to the film is extremely ominous.Ring 2 is not a horror movie in the true sense of the word, and is certainly not as shocking as its theatrical trailer suggests, but it continues the story admirably, and all the actors involved put in cherished performances.
As a result of this, the produces decided to reunite the crew from the first "Ringu" and shot a sequel that followed a new story based on the first film's plot instead of Suzuki's novel.
"Ringu 2" was the name of the sequel and director Hideo Nakata did the miracle one more time."Ringu 2" picks up where "Ringu" ends, with Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani) discovering the dead body of her boyfriend Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada), death under mysterious causes related to the video that Ryuji and his ex-wife Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) were investigating.
While it lacks an "iconic scene" like the first one's famous ending, "Ringu 2" is a better balanced and overall improved example of Nakata's particular (and very influential) style of the New Wave of Asian horror.Written by Nakata himself and Hiroshi Takahashi, "Ringu 2" acts like an extended epilogue for "Ringu", with the character of Mai Takano trying to find the missing pieces of the puzzle that Ryuji and Reiko tried to complete, and finally facing the evil supernatural force that Sadako was revealed to be in the first film.
Like in the first movie, the film bases a lot of its power in the relationships between characters, and while the bond between Yoichi and Mai may not be as strong as the one with his mother in "Ringu", it is very well-developed thanks to a cleverly written screenplay.
Avoiding the mistakes of "Rasen" (that tried to give a proper scientific explanation to the Ring curse), "Ringu 2" keeps its mystery as the driving force of the film, and delivers a conclusion that, while probably less shocking than the first one, it's no less satisfactory.To be fair, Miki Nakatani does a remarkable job filling the shoes of Nanako Matsushima as main character, and probably a better job than her, as Nakatani shows a freshness and charm that Nanako never showed (in this aspect, Naomi Watts was also better than her in the American remake).
Newcomers to the series like Yûrei Yanagi and Fumiyo Kohinata deliver a good job that fully completes a well-rounded cast."Ringu 2" is far from a perfect film, but in many ways it is a complete improvement over the influential first part.
Still, as "Ringu 2" is basically an extension of the first film's ending, it's definitely pointless to watch it without having seen the first movie, as it's plot is completely dependent of the first one, and it can't stand on its own without the knowledge of the events of "Ringu".
It would have been all too easy to simply take the Sadako character after the immense impact she had to the climax of the first film, and make a horror movie where she goes on a rampage of death and destruction.
With "Ringu", once you accepted that someone would die a week after viewing the tape, the rest of the film (apart from one of the main character's ability to read minds to move to plot forward) was intensely frightening and real.
The second film unfortunately takes further liberties, with another couple of characters suddenly gaining special powers and Sadako starting to appear in random scenes for shock value alone.
There's no need to explain how Sadako does what she does and yet they spend far too much time analysing it instead of letting her mystery and shocking appearance do its work.These flaws included, I still found the film to be somewhat creepy and mildly entertaining.
A great sequel to Ringu (one of the best horror films EVER), it continues from where it left off and goes on the explain a lot of things from Ringu, but if you haven't seen the original you'll probably be as confused as hell!The film follows Mai, Ryujii's student from the first film, and her studies on the tape, trying to find out what happened to him.
She realises Yoichi, his and Reiko's son is psychic like Sadoko and tries to stop him becoming like her and goes back to where Sadako was born to find out more about her and her mother.It has quite a few scary bits, at points I felt more scared than during Ringu, and the last 20 minutes or so a very tense.
More than RINGU 1, this film makes you think more and scares more consistently...particularly when the tv producer who promises the terrified girl he will watch the tape...and the repercussions that occur when he doesn't...rating: ****.
I have seen many Japanese movies, and a lot of the time I have noticed that they try to confuse the audience into what the hell is actually going on, then at the end they give away one piece of information that sort of explains the previous events.
Ring 2 is a good film, its just that (like Sadako) some things are best left undisturbed..
It's not so much that it makes no sense unless you've seen "Ring" first - it makes no sense anyway - rather, the scary things are only scary the second time round because they were scary the first; remove the experience of watching the original "Ring" and there's nothing left.Part of the problem which Hideo Nakata faced was that this kind of stuff works best, and often only works at all, when the audience is placed in exactly the same position as the protagonists.
How, then, is Nakata going to scare us?Partly by direct borrowing: We remember how terrifying the videotape footage is, so we jump when it makes a reappearance; we know how terrifying Sadako is, with her hair completely covering her face and her ungainly, bestial, unstoppable gait - in fact, she's terrifying IN HERSELF, in whatever context she appears, although not one of her scenes here can begin to compare with the one in the original "Ring" in which she crawls out of the television set - so we jump whenever we see HER.
After Ring, I was expecting a lot for this sequel.The story this time focuses on the emerging "powers" of Yuuichi (the son of Asakawa), and tries to give an explanation for the cursed video.
May Takano (Miki Nakatani) decides to investigate what happened to her boyfriend and she becomes aware of the details about the origins of the videotape cursed by the spirit of a girl named Sadako, killing the viewer one week later.'Ringu' is a stunning and original horror movie.
"Ringu 2" isn't as effectively creepy as its predecessor "Ringu",but still has enough scares to satisfy horror fans.Mai Takano(Nakatani Miki),the girlfriend of Ryui Takayama tries to solve the mystery of the cursed video.In a psychiatric hospital Mai finds Masami Kurahishi,witness to one of the original attacks,and watches as Masami spontaneously manifests images from the cursed video on tvs around her.She also discovers Reiko(Matsushima Nanako)-only to find that Yoichi has been taken over by the spirit of Sadako and has strong psychic powers.A psychiatrist decides to conduct a dangerous experiment using Yoichi in which he will try to drain Sadako's malevolent energy into a pool of water."Ringu 2" has some truly eerie moments:one with Mai Takano's attempt to climb up out of the well as Sadako emerges from the water and starts coming after her,is especially effective.The film has also very creepy score by Kenji Kawai which adds much to the atmosphere.A must-see for fans of Japanese horror!.
(And the novels definitely are science fiction, though the first film made some alterations to accommodate a more classical ghost- story.) And it didn't sit well with people.So "Rasen" was quietly eschewed from the continuity of the movie- series and became a relatively "forgotten" film, while this follow-up was made and basically marketed as the "true sequel."And to be honest...
In fact, I didn't find the film frightening in any sense and I was quite disappointed in the fact that there was so much to work with and they didn't utilise it.In fact, I think the American Ring 2 actually had a better storyline, even if it was a bit ridiculous and wasn't scary, though it worked more as a psychological thriller than this did.
It's still an intriguing story; one that further explains some of the more enigmatic elements from the original film without removing the air of mystery, and one that still contains at least three scenes of genuine terror.As I've mentioned in countless reviews before, the thing I like best about Japanese horror is the sense of atmosphere.
The original "Ringu" is a truly scary film, with great, ominous atmosphere and at least one classic horror sequence (that TV crawl-through).
It sounded like one of those old Nintentdo games but I loved it and it suited the movie and its atmosphere perfectly.The movie does have it silly moments, especially towards the ending and the characters aren't as good as in the original but still "Ringu 2" is a great scary horror movie that is well constructed and from a technical point of view is even better than the original.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
To anyone who has not seen its predecessor, 'Ringu', the way the plot develops in 'Ring 2' is virtually incomprehensible; and the film is scarcely a horror film at all in the conventional sense, although neither is it a realistic portrayal of frightened and paranoid humans (supernatural things really do happen, but they're too random and incoherent to be scary).
Ring 2 is a good sequel but a few flaws can't make it like the original classic J-horror!.
However, there's always plenty going on so there's never time to get bored, despite the slow pacing, and the return of many cast members from the first film is a real treat – especially Hiroyuki Sanada, who doesn't let his character's death in RING stop him from coming back here!
RING 2 doesn't top the experience of watching the first, and best, film in the series, but it proves to be a worthy sequel with plenty of scary bits to enjoy..
Instead, Sadako is relegated to almost nothing until the finale, the story (if you can call it that) hops all over the place and character motivations come out of nowhere (Sadako's father embraces death like a martyr after standing around doing nothing for the whole film), and while the main actor in Miki Nakatani has a great face for horror films (her scared face is thoroughly enjoyable!!) the connection to the mother established in the first film dissipates, and we don't even get to see what could have been the most harrowing scene in any horror movie ever (the implication Reiko copied the cursed video, got her son to make her father watch it, essentially making her kill her father), it's all glossed over and thoroughly unsatisfying.
All the elements were already there for a really good, scary follow-up, but it's like they weren't taken advantage of.Apart from the end scene with Sadako, there is no real creepy moments....in fact, the moments that are supposed to be creepy are, well, not, and they definitely don't deliver the same kind of uneasiness that Ringu delivered.The film starts off decent enough, building on what Ringu had ended on, but it gets to a certain point where it just stalls completely only for it to eventually drag on to the end.
The American version of this movie was FAR better and FAR scarier, and for anyone to think the opposite must have been watching a completely different film to what I saw.Ringu 2 is a very disappointing sequel that had so much promise but failed to deliver....big time..
The American version of Ringu "The Ring" frightened me to death and I loved it but it took me some time to finally see the Japanese equivalents.The first film as I said previously in the review was much less of a horror film as it was an amazing thriller/mystery.
Ringu 2 is a very different film to the original, which considering the way it turned out is a very bad thing.
I know I haven't seen the other one since it opened, and there were confusing parts abound (like the importance of the lady's kid in the first movie).It seems that the ghost of Samara is back to haunt the main character, Rachel, even after she finds the copy of "the film" made in the first Ring (the same one that marks people's impending doom after they watch it).