Ring 2 [1998]
£1.90
Dragging on a little - Ring 2 drags on a little, but it s still better than the American sequel. Actually, trying to have intercourse with a 15-foot tall Black Widow spider made giant from radiation is better than the botched US The Ring 2.The trilogy picks up in Ring 0, the third and final instalment.
ABOVE AVERGE - Taking place immediately after the events of Ringu (1998), Ringu 2 features Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani) continuing the investigation into the events of Ringu. At the beginning of the film, Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) and Yoichi Asakawa (Katsumi Muramatsu) are still in hiding/on the run after their ordeals in Ringu. Both the police and Mai are hoping to find them. Meanwhile, Masami Kurahashi (Hitomi Sato), one of the two girls from the beginning of Ringu, is now in a mental hospital, the police have the remains of Sadako Yamamura s (Rie Inou) body, they re trying to recreate her living appearance through forensic modeling, and they ve located a man who is supposedly Sadako s father, Takashi (Yoichi Numata).Series note: As should be apparent from the above description, it s imperative that you watch Ringu before seeing Ringu 2. You may also wish to watch Ringu 0: Basudei (2000) before Ringu, and for fun, the original Ring 2, Rasen/Spiral (1998) before or after this replacement sequel (this one was produced when audiences were dissatisfied with the very differently toned Rasen/Spiral).Unlike Rasen/Spiral, Ringu 2 is so close in tone to Ringu that it seems more like a second half than a sequel. Also unlike Rasen/Spiral, I think that Ringu 2 is much more uneven. There are long swaths where the film is extremely bland. But there are also moments of brilliance, plus there is added value from the momentum of Ringu. They all average out in the end so that Ringu 2 earns an 8, or a B, just as Rasen/Spiral did.Many fans were dissatisfied with Rasen/Spiral heading off into sci-fi territory, on the way providing something of a scientific explanation for what turned out to be a Ring virus. They thought it ruined some of the mystery from the first film. It s curious in that light that many of those same fans like Ringu 2 much better. There is also an attempt here at explaining the curse, and it also ends up in sci-fi land. There s even a seen that amusingly resembles sci-fi elements from John Boorman s underrated Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). For much of the film, the Ring curse is more or less abandoned while the focus becomes Yoichi as a surrogate villain, perhaps as possessed as Regan was, just by a slightly different force.Admittedly, though, the explanation for the curse in Ringu 2 is much different than it was in Rasen/Spiral, and despite the sci-fi, the strong mystery genre investigation elements that many loved so much in Ringu are woven throughout the plot. The sci-fi here is more psychological than Rasen/Spiral s medical sci-fi. There is a lot of talk of intentionality and theories of intentionality being physically manifested. The film s ontology has it so that mental energy, emotions and thoughts can be suppressed and subsequently concentrated to such an extent that when released externally, they can be dangerous to others. Sadako, the chairperson of the Ringu villains, is the principal, most focused example of this, primarily because she s had 30 years in a veritable isolation chamber to effectively bury her thoughts. Is this an attempt to provide a subtext about the suppression of one s real feelings and desires in Japanese society? Maybe, but it doesn t work very well as such because the points are so shakily, ambiguously and infrequently realized in the film.So we have to evaluate Ringu 2 more on its surface level. A lot of the film is a fairly pedestrian drama. Early ostensibly horrific events--such as the perusal of Reiko s apartment, deaths of supporting characters, possible ghost appearances, and the supernatural events surrounding Masami in the mental hospital--too often come across as a bit flat, almost banal. Ringu 2 is nothing if not a slow cooker. It improves, but very gradually.By the time we get to one particular, very significant death, the film is cooking with full gas, but that s nearly an hour into a 90-minute film. Before that point, Ringu 2 is much closer to a 7, or a C, if not slightly lower. I won t mention who dies in this pivotal scene, but it is beautifully realized. We never really see the body, but instead Nakata shows us bright red blood slowing flowing across pavement, trickling down cracks, filling up depressions.From here to the end, Ringu 2 is much more even, often a 9 or above. The bulk of the atmospheric or creepy material arrives in this last half hour to forty minutes, such as the videotape of another young girl suddenly changing, her head bizarrely, violently shaking similarly to an effect first made popular in Jacob s Ladder (1990). Another standout moment is at the Yamamura family hotel, when both Sadako and her mother eerily appear.By the time the climax rolls around, the film is quite exciting, and Nakata forgoes dramatic sci-fi for more focused, horrific surrealism. Like Ringu, there is a climactic scene in a well, this one much more enigmatic, possibly meant to be a symbolic journey to the core of the pent-up emotions associated with Sadako (opposed to a more journey to hell-styled symbolism of Ringu), with the emergence from a light-filled ring representing the physical manifestation and release of the emotions through a person s eye (eyes are important ring-like metaphors/symbols throughout the film). In the finale, Nakata also more literally combines the ring symbolism with the series ubiquitous water symbolism--water more than likely being used to represent a kind of unifying spiritual (kamic might be a better word) ether that permeates the world. Of course, he still leaves an opening for another sequel as well.Unlike many films, Ringu 2 is impossible to evaluate properly in isolation. It must be contextualized with Ringu. It may be far from an excellent film on its own, but it s certainly above average when viewed in conjunction with the series.
Ring 2 Review - Ring 2 takes over from its predecesor in dramatic style. The plot is truely amazing and there are a few scenes that will have you jumping out of your seat. A must see film, especially if you can get hold of the Japanese version
Ring around Sadako - In 1998, the sequel to the hit horror film Ringu was made. The film Rasen was based on Koji Suzuki s sequel of the same name. Well, people hated the movie, and it tanked at the box office. So the succeeding year, the production company made a totally unrelated sequel: Ringu 2. As a result, Ringu 2 is not up to the standards of the original movie, it suffers from a case of sequelitis, and it has little connection to Suzuki s original books. Despite this, it s not nearly as bad as it could have been. It suffers from several weak spots (Mai, Mai, Mai), but has quite a few chills too. It picks up where Ringu left off: Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada) has died of the curse, and ex-wife Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) and her young son have vanished. Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), Ryuji s girlfriend, is shocked by his mysterious demise. Soon she hears rumours of a cursed videotape, which kills anyone who watches it, seven days later. Searching for more answers, Mai sets out to find Reiko and her son Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka). But when she does, she finds that Yoichi is demonstrating psychic powers similar to the ghoulish Sadako. Unsurprisingly, Reiko isn t about to allow Sadako to possess her son -- and will sacrifice anything to keep him safe. Don t expect splatter-gore and undead monsters right off the bat. Ringu 2 is a slow-cooking horror movie, which takes until the final act to make your hair stand on end. Unfortunately, that s most of the movie, and the slowness of it is a distinct drawback. Up until that final act, it s rather passionless, as if the scriptwriters were killing time with exposition. Alas, the potentially-possessed child isn t enough to scare us, and neither is the exposition-of-the-Ring-virus subplotting. Just wait it out, and eventually you ll get scared sleepless. Hideo Nakata, knowing when he s got a good thing going, retains a lot of things from the first movie: Creepy lighting, direction, colourless surroundings, nightmare worlds and family problems. He also retains that quietly creepy dialogue, and the minimalistic glimpses of Sadako. The less we see her, the creepier she is. Matsushima does the same thing she did in Ringu, only more so. And she s good at the terrified, confused woman who will do whatever it takes to save her son. It s nice to see that Nakata retained that important theme from the first film. Nakatani is the flipside, while she s a pretty good actress, her character is rather naive and twerpy. Thankfully, in creating their own Ringu 2, Hideo Nakata and Co. expanded on the story rather than repeating it with a new cast. And while the result is rather boring for the first few acts, the final parts are shocking and ghastly.
Ultimately Unsatisfying,..But I was still Shaking Afterwards - What can one make of this film? It is a sequel of a classic, which typically is a recipee for disaster in Hollywood, but then of course this is not Hollywood (something that made the original so wonderful). However by continuing in the vein of the creepy, underlying terror of the now classic Ringu it loses its way all too often, yet still manages to be terrifying. With Ringu being one of my all time favourite films and one of the greatest movie experiences of my life this film became a must-watch. Many of the original characters reappear, albeit in greatly different roles. Asakawa is on the run from the curse and Yoichi seems to poscess many of the grotesque powers of the unfortunate Sadako. Through mental hospitals and bizarre experiments a young women attempts to unravel the myth behind Ringu. If the description comes across as vague it is only because the film does as well. While the original simply took the blending of the mythological and psychological with the technical and tangible for granted, Ringu 2 tries to explore that and ultimately loses its way. The experiemt with swimming pool is frightening in its intensity although lacking in direction, and the final shot is strange and hard to explain. I am not quite sure I understand the film and it certainly deserves a second look. Where the film succeeds is in scaring the living daylights out of you. As with its predecessor it does not do this with psychopaths hiding in the closet and cgi galore but by leaving you unnerved. I watched the film alone (the only way to watch the trilogy) and as with the first was left clutching my head and moaning, feeling like someone had planted something horrible in my head that I could not understand. What it lacks in purpose and meaning it makes up for in sheer terror a nightmarish uneasyness. No, it does not match up with the original but I am inclined to side with pennymcw s view of the film. It is definately worth watching if only for the fact that Hideo Nakata succeeds where the American remake (of which the less is said the better) and so many other conventional Hollywood films fail, by scaring you in a way that cannot be cured by stuffing your face with popcorn or switching on the lights.