Ring 2

I approached the film dubiously as the first was so well crafted and restrained that I felt to explore further into the story would dispel its mystique . . . I was right.

The whole appeal of the first film was the restrained yet adroit handling of the narrative that was welcome in the age of gore and instant gratification; it was slow moving yet generated a kind of suspense that you could swim in and treated the viewer with intelligence and respect. However Ringu 2, although not handled heavily, was muddled and unsure of what avenue to lead the viewer down. It was still an absorbing film yet many elements seemed chucked in and only served to confuse rather than explain. Whereas the first film was focused towards the climax at the well, Ringu 2 has a more fragmented flow and the climax at the swimming pool experiment seemed an ad hoc ending to tie up the loose ends.

The main problem I had was with the temporal development. The most crucial device of the first film was the use of time to generate the suspense: we know that you have one week to live after watching the film, and we are constantly aware that the clock is ticking away to a horrifying death that we are aware of but have not seen. Yet Ringu 2 does not capitalise on the timebomb factor and so lacks suspense, and you get the impression that the increase of storylines and characters are to compensate for this. The result is perhaps what the first film would have turned out if it were in the hands of Hollywood with style over substance.

Yet perhaps I am being over critical- it was just that I found the first film so eerie and unsettling that anything would have appeared dissapointing in comparison. Ring 2 is a good film, its just that (like Sadako) some things are best left undisturbed.

I watched Ringu only a few days ago and pretty much got it. With this the result was different. Mai has such a small role in the original that I almost had no idea who she was. Also, I found that this film expected you to understand stuff without even mentioning it at all, such as the fact that Sadako had manifested herself in Yoichi - it was assumed that we got it. I did get it, of course, but a hint of explanation would have been nice.

As with my previous review of the original, I can honestly say that I didn't find this instalment particularly scary. More like an over-complicated episode of The X Files. That's another trait of Japanese cinema that gets me sometimes - a film would seem OK to start, fairly straightforward, easy to get, but towards the end of the movie it gets unnecessarily complicated. Luckily there wasn't too much of that here, but there was still a bit of it. If I were to continue that rant a little,I would voice my annoyance at the barrage of unfinished important sentences that characters tend to speak. OK, so maybe we should be able to finish them ourselves, but sometimes it's just too obscure. For example, sentences along the lines of "That mean's he's...", or "Could he be...". No conclusion to the sentence. Nothing. Grrr! Anyway, rant over, overall I thought this was watchable, though not as good or coherent as the original. Despite the ranting, I still love Japanese cinema (what little experience I have of it).

I'm away to watch Ringu 0. Let's see how well it does.

With Ryuji dead and Reiko missing, the search for the secrets of the tape becomes the mission of Rjuji's student Mai. She joins with a journalist friend of Reiko to undercover the secrets that lead to Reiko and her son. 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. However I felt a little let down. It was still creepy and occasionally scary but the images are now too familiar from the first film to be really unnerving and it loses a little of it's impact. Mind you – there's still plenty of scary bits or bits that just are creepy.

The plot is a lot bigger and suffers a bit as a result, however it is interesting to find out more about the legend of Sadako. The cast are all very good again – despite many of the characters being minor in the last film they still do well.

Overall this isn't as good as the original – due to both familiarity and the lack of special touches such as sound effects etc. However it still puts the Hollywood teen slashers to shame.

Even though Sadako had been around for a long time (there were Suzuki Koji's source books and two previous TV movies), it was the theatrical version of Ring that made her huge. So, of course, there has to be a sequel (which, oddly enough, wasn't based on the next book in Koji's series; different filmmakers had already adapted that as Spiral). It's a daunting task to make an effective sequel to one of the all-time creepiest movies, but the filmmakers pull it off. Unfortunately, a lot of stupidity gets in the way of the scares.

A lot of plot in this one. The movie opens a week after the first one ends. Reiko's dad has just died, and she and her son have gone into hiding. Mai, who found Ryuji's body at the end of Ring, is investigating her boss'/boyfriend's death. She thinks Reiko and her son hold the key to this mystery. So she teams with one of Reiko's co-workers (who's still working on the story of the cursed videotape) to try and track Reiko down. At this point, there's already enough plot for a movie, and I haven't even mentioned the return trip to Sadako's old home, the doctor who thinks he can get rid of Sadako, the burial of Sadako's physical body, the girl the co-worker betrays (and literally comes back to haunt him), and the weird, scary "exorcism of Sadako" finale. Plot, plot, plot.

Before I tear this movie a new one, let me say one thing: minute for minute, this one has more scares than the first one. In fact, the filmmakers have realized that Sadako has become so commonplace (a Sadako doppleganger appears in almost every Japanese horror movie made after the first Ring) that they need only show her trademark hair to invoke fear. And it works. But the massive, ridiculous plot nearly kills this movie. While it tries to explain the occurances of the first movie, it raises more questions than it answers (why does everyone suddenly have psychic ability?; why are people who haven't even seen the tape haunted by Sadako?; how does that girl see the tape if all the copies have been destroyed?) Still, with all of these potholes, the movie still works. It's also nice to see almost the entire cast of the first film reprise their roles (even the dead ones). An effective thriller, even though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Fans of the first one won't be disappointed.

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). We now look at those who were in contact with characters from the first movie and how they're getting on. This calls for the reprisal of most of the cast, including the lead Reiko. This time Reiko fears that her son, whom she saved in the previous flick, may be under the influence of the evil of Sadako. Guess what? She's out to stop her!

There's less tension evident in `Ring 2' than the previous, less a sense of worry and desperation. Part of this is due to the shifting of character's prominence. Another element is because this movie takes a somewhat more analytical approach to the events of the first – the police are involved, scientists are trying to understand the phenomena. While this makes sense from a realism angle, it does somewhat detract from the underlying menace of Sadoka.

Structurally the movie takes the same idea as the previous – a slow build up to a climatic event, interspersed with some moments of terror. Some of this terror now comes from a child – playing on innocence – and the child in question, Yoichi, is quite capable of being frightening in a blank-faced way. 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. The lighting is often muted, the camera work focused (without being intense), his actors giving grand performances… but somehow the second time it doesn't work out quite as well. This, coupled with a disappointing ending, left me somewhat disappointed. There's some good moments in it – particularly with the television images – but overall it fails to quite grab you. Still a far more intelligent fare than the gore-drenched horror that most adhere to in this genre, and you could do a lot lot worse. 6/10.