... and the sugar turned bitter.

Ring 2 exists as a hypothetical what if that was deemed the best way to address the failure of Rasen in order to satisfy the audience of the first film.

That worked well.



I was surprised by how familiar and new this film felt when watching it, perhaps because it is the one film of the original sequence I have not re-watched as many times as the others. Initially, when I first saw it, the film did not really make that much of an impact on me, possibly because so much of its narrative redresses plot points from Rasen whilst also struggling to appeal more to those who preferred the tone of the first film, but it's interesting seeing how Nakata attempts to recapture some of that lost glory, whilst clearly not really wanting to make a horror movie but also not especially wanting to fall into the same hole the original sequel did. It doesn't really work, and it's not a good movie—in fact, it's a slow, ponderous slog of a movie—but in the opening half an hour, it certainly tries.

As with Rasen, the film picks up the story of Takano Mai (Nakatani Miki) as she tries to uncover the events of the last moments of Takayama Ryuji (Sanada Hiroyuki), and begins to experience strange visions of Asakawa's son, Yuichi (Otaka Rikiya). These visions soon turn out to be evidence of Takano's extra-sensory perception, a theme the original material was marginally obsessed with, and also the changing nature of the virus/curse, as Takano soon discovers that whatever it was that her former lover and his ex-wife thought they put to rest was little more than wishful thinking.

I absolutely forgot that one of the detectives who finds the body of Asakawa's father was the same actor who played Coal Orugu in Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger. I'm sure that if he knew that the only reason I recognise him is from a distant memory of a sentai show from 2001, he would be mortified, but there you go, Coal Orugu, on the scene, investigating crimes. The film also notably features '90s pop idol and actress, Fukada Kyoko (Dolls, Kamikaze Girls) as Sawaguchi Kanae, a young girl who helps Takano and Asakawa's assistant, Okazaki (Yanagi Yurei) in their investigation regarding Asakawa's disappearance and the death of Takayama, and acquires a copy of the cursed tape for Okazaki.

Slowly, the film reveals that Yuichi himself is a sort of host for the curse, its shape transforming him and perverting his nature. And yet, just at the very moment in which the story begins to venture forth an interesting opinion about Asakawa (Matsushima Nanako) and her comparative role to Shizuka (Masako), she is killed off with only marginally more dignity than her passing in Rasen. And yet there are some good moments, and the appearance of Asakawa and what her character brings to the story is a highlight of the film. The narrative is also somewhat chilling in its suggestion that Sadako was alive and, no pun tended, well in the darkness at the bottom of the well until two years prior to the events of the first film, a testament to the hatred that kept her alive.

I find it fascinating that this was the film people thought they wanted. It's not a bad film, but it is a slow, ponderous repackaging of themes from Rasen dressed up in the connivance of a more traditional ghost story. It's amazing that this was the solution, the way in which the studio hoped to win back the audience, and yet it's an absolute narrative dead end in terms of developing the ongoing mythos of the universe. I like the fact that it deals more specifically with the way in which the virus evolves, I like the way in which it addresses the antiquity of video tapes even in 1999, but it's hard work watching it, mostly as you spend a lot of the time waiting for the characters to work out what you already know from the first film.

In many ways, Ring 2 is the worst possible combination of the first two movies.