Strong and Moving!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Following up from the events that surrounded the death of Ryûji and the disappearance of his ex-wife, Reiko, Ryûji's girlfriend, Mai, is trying to conduct her own investigation into what happened. Teaming up with local reporter, Okazaki, who has been looking into it all also, she discovers that the spirit of a woman named Sadako has supposedly been behind the spate of killings using a video tape as an outlet for her murders in that anyone who watches the tape, will die one week later. As time passes, however, Mai realises that Reiko's young son, Yôichi, has been developing very similar powers to that of Sadako. Mai must now find away to stop Sadako so that she and Yôichi don't become Sadako's next victims.Having enjoyed Ringu I was looking forward to watching this sequel, but unfortunately I was bitterly dismayed with the outcome. To get straight to the point, Ringu 2 is exceedingly slow and very dull. 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. For me, usually the original Asian versions of these films are better (or equally as enjoyable as the American versions) but that is definitely not the case here. 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.

Again, Ringu 2 much spookier to the American Makeover "The Ring 2" and again, the effects were much spookier . And the deaths were more disturbing. And the end was freakiest when that Kanae girl was seen standing behind Kawajiri when he was recovering in hospital. And when Yoichi's mother Reicha died when walking across the road and she got hit by a truck. And the blood of Reicha headed towards her beloved son calling his name. And when Kurashi went into the Institution to see Masami (a close friend of Tomoko's who was shocked by Tomoko's death), she walked past a t.v. and it showed Sadako coming out of the well and everyone in the Institution went berserk! Too disturbing to think about, eh?This is definitely a must see!

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.

I absolutely loved this sequel to "Ringu". In some ways this movie is even better than "Ringu", something that came as a real surprise to me.Compared to "Ringu" this movie is better constructed. The story itself goes more in depth, even though of course lots of things are still left unexplained, like in this type of movies almost always is the case. The story is also better told from a movie technical point of view. Most of the scenes and scares are build up very well which helps to make this an unforgettable horror movie. Unfortunately the movie is also filled with some 'silly' moments and at times poor acting skills which really brings down the level of this movie. It all makes "Ringu 2" a great but not excellent movie.Almost every surviving and death characters from the first movie returns in this movie. This time the main part is played by Miki Nakatani, who in "Ringu" had a smaller role. Many characters who had a small role in "Ringu" play a big one in "Ringu 2" and vice versa. Miki Nakatani who plays Mai Takano isn't really a as good character like Reiko Asakawa from the original was however. That is one of the few things in which "Ringu 2" isn't better with than the original.The atmosphere is simply delicious. It's typically horror like, meaning that's dark and creepy. It helps to provide some good scare moments.Another thing I loved about the movie was the musical score by Kenji Kawai. 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/