Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Apparently, director Hideo Nakata was drafted in to shoot this sequel to 1998's RING when that film's original sequel, RASEN – shot back to back with the first – flopped with Japanese audiences. RING 2 is more of a straightforward successor to RING, logically following on from events portrayed in the first film and feeling exactly the same in terms of tone, lighting, and look. Heck, even most of the actors and actresses are back from the first film, so watching these two back-to-back would be akin to sitting through a three-hour film.For starters, RING 2 isn't as good as the first film. It lacks the surprise and the originality of that movie, and all of the shocks here are familiar to anyone who's seen the original film – and anyone who hasn't will be scratching their heads and wondering what the heck is going on here. The film is very talky and very slow, as with the original film in the series, and once again the overlaid English subtitles are extremely hard to make out, so some of the dialogue is missed. 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! The plot twists and turns in many directions and opens up new areas of the mythology, incorporating psychic powers and the mysterious channelling of psychic energy into water. I admit that I was engaged with the story and never found it lacking for a second.Thankfully, the horror in this film is just as creepy as ever. Nakata keeps a slow-burning tension that builds up until the first real shocks that occur about an hour into the production. My favourite scene of all is the bit where the reporter examines the videotape and discovers that something weird is happening to the head of the girl on film – things get more surreal as she becomes a creation of ghostly evil, and there's a fantastic use of a 'jumpy' special effect like the ones used in JACOB'S LADDER and THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL remake. Many creepy scenes from the first flick are repeated, like the grainy television set images and the excellent bit involving the woman combing her hair in a mirror. Things culminate in a nightmarish ending which returns things to the well – and what happens is as disturbing as ever. 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.

This is an average film for me and was much worse than the original one. This film has many scares but none of them shows Sadako coming out of the TV set which was what I was expecting. This film was much less scary than the first one. The storyline of this film is a decent one which shows how the main characters try to stop the curse. The first half of the film was very interesting and quite scary especially one scene in the hospital. The opening scene of this movie was good. This movie around the halfway mark showed the boy having physic powers which was still interesting. However the second half of this movie is just confusing and quite ridiculous. There was not much emotion among the characters. I could hardly understand what was happening. The thing that was really annoying was that Sadako was so scary in the first film. In the second film they just made Sadako into a plasticine toy. The way they solved the problem was far too easy. How could the main characters just transmit their fear like that? Why did they suddenly end up in the well? I found it hard to understand. At least there was still a decent plot up to here. The ending of the film was probably the worst part in the entire film. The film focuses so much on the main characters but end up showing a girl which seldomly pops up smiling in the end. People said it was like the shutter ending, but I thought the ending for shutter was far better than this. This ending is way more silly than the Shutter's. Another thing I hated about the ending is the emotion of that girl who laughed. She has such a strong grudge against that man so why did she laugh so loudly. I could not understand that part at all. The first 2/3 of the film was quite good but the last 1/3 of the film was really bad. This film is an average film for me and is is still recommended if you like the original version of this film.

I'll try to handle this with only minor spoilers. "Ringu 2" is an alternate version of "Rasen" in some ways. Both begin shortly after "Ringu" (one day for "Rasen," one week for "Ringu 2"). Both have most of the main cast of "Ringu" and much of the supporting cast, and use or recreate many locations and sets, believably portraying the immediate aftermath of the prior film's conclusion (although one character seems to have gained weight and grown her hair out in the intervening week). Lastly, both place a large emphasis on Takano Mai, Takayama Ryuuji's student who is implied to have an intimate relationship with him in "Ringu" (in "Rasen" it's established that they were lovers, in "Ringu 2" she had a crush on him which he didn't reciprocate), who has E.S.P. (which wasn't even hinted at in "Ringu"). But "Ringu 2" makes it clear very early that it isn't meant to be consistent with "Rasen." Basically things diverge into two different fictional universes at the end of "Ringu" (both are consistent with "Ringu 0," or at least the parts of "Ringu 0" that I understood). I haven't read any of the books or short stories, so I don't know which of the sequels, if either, is based on one. The Wikipedia is of no help, since one page says "Rasen" is based on the written sequel to "Ringu" and "Ringu 2" has no literary basis, while another page says the opposite. Incidentally, bits from this movie are grafted into the American remake of "Ringu." While "Rasen" sidelines the videotape and introduces radical new pieces of the "Ringu" mythos, "Ringu 2" deals with the natural aftermath of "Ringu" and basically plays around with what was already established. We learn more about how the videotape is propagated, the ghosts of the people who saw it, and what happens to people who didn't see it but were touched by it in some way. This is done using mainly minor characters from "Ringu" (some extremely minor), although important main cast members come into the story about halfway through, and even Ryuuji shows up (despite being dead). Other elements include some very interesting stuff about the real-life paranormal phenomenon of psychic photography, or "thoughtography." The climax of the movie is a sort of scientific exorcism conducted by a parapsychologist who doesn't believe in ghosts. Naturally, this goes terribly wrong, and the final resolution is more rooted in traditional Japanese mysticism than any kind of science. It includes a Deus ex machina, but it's still rather satisfying. It would be a stretch to call what we get a happy ending, but it's more positive than any of the other three "Ringu" movies. The last major difference from "Rasen" is that there are almost no flashbacks.I do, of course, have some complaints. We learn that Sadako was alive in the well for years before expiring not long before "Ringu." This is hard to buy, even if you account for black magic. That also has basically nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Also, the death of a major character is handled rather poorly. So much so that I didn't even realize they had died until it was stated in dialog some twenty five minutes later! "Ringu 2" isn't as scary, engaging, or tightly-constructed as "Ringu" (or even "Ringu 0"), but it's still quite good when weighed against your average supernatural horror film. It's also very true to the spirit of "Ringu," and has very much the same visual style and "feel" (it's the only "Ringu" sequel or prequel to have the same director as the original). Less effective is the music. It's by Kenji Kawai, who also scored "Ringu" and countless animé, usually with much better results than here. Half of it is a sort of techno-pop that sounds like it comes from a montages in an '80s film, while the other half is a pastiche of Mark Snow's music for "The X-Files." I noticed three places where it quoted a memorable "X-Files" cue almost note-for-note. Rather annoying. But besides that, and the inevitable comparisons with the far superior "Ringu," this is an entertaining horror film with twists and turns. I honestly didn't know what was going to happen next (and not because the things happening were random and ridiculous, like in "Rasen"). And get this: At one point I had gotten so absorbed in the movie that, when they showed the cursed videotape, I literally looked away from the screen for a moment, so it wouldn't kill me, before I came to my senses. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoyed "Ringu."

The "Ringu" series is a saga, and a morality play, that was amazingly directed by Hideo Natata, and Hiroshi Takahashi. "Rasen" (Spiral) was more poorly done, and is a little disappointing, but is still pretty good. The main problem with the inconsistency of the story line has to do with too many cooks not following the recipe.You will notice how the books upon which the movies are based do not correspond. They makes for good movies in themselves, but are out of sync. The telling of the story gets more off kilter with each new novel Koji Suzuki writes.You won't really get where he's going with the story until you read "Loop" (2005), whose movie hasn't been made yet. I hope when they do, Takahashi writes and Nakata directs. As far as I'm concerned, "Rasen" and "Ringu 2" were not up to par with "Ringu" and "Basudai" (Birthday, aka Ringu 0). For those who want more meaning, "sada" means "pure one" and "ko" means "girl". So who is Sadako? She is the embodiment of duality. Good/evil, man/woman, hate/love reality/ unreality and in fact the merger of demon and woman. You have to read the manga (comic book) series to get the background. That duality is what is frightening, especially to people of regimented views of how the world "should" be. Things that were once thought to be the realm of only men or women have in modern times become blurred. Japan is about 30 years behind us in the change of sex-rolls, etc. This is the underlying theme of the movieSo how do we pick up these ideas? We are of course "infected" by the media, and our thinking evolves, and we are no longer who we were. There is naturally no going back. That is progress, though many fight it. What were once evil ideas, become accepted as every day fact. So is Sadako a kind of messiah? The evil one? We also have our own dualities. We can find ourselves beside ourselves with anger, or filled with manic euphoria. We can feel so angry we could... Or, our happiness can seem to radiate to all. I was also really disappointed that in Rasen and Ringu 2 we don't see the wonderful Yukie Nakamura, who just knocks my socks off. Very charming actress. Why we see a substitute in Rasen only makes sense in the context of alternate universes, which may be the point.Where Suzuki is headed with this remains to be seen. The movies might start wading into "the matrix", which could tie the story lines together. Can he weave these webs into a consistent story? Hopefully he can keep up the good work. Without the right writer, director and cast, you'll get mush. If they do it right, look out!!!.........As for the American versions...what a disappointment. They just don't get it. The actors were poorly cast. They don't seem to understand how beautiful and quirky people who are very intelligent, can also be really creepy, because they can see and comprehend things faster than the rest of us, but like Cassandra, are sometimes helpless to change things because everyone else is so slow. They live a blessed, but cursed life. Like Sadako, their blessing is also a curse. The tension should lie in pulling us and repelling us. Don't use gore as filler for a poorly written and cast movie. I guess too many studio executives had a hand in the broth.