Ring 2 (1999)

Reiko takes Yôichi into hiding when her son begins to display frightening powers. Meanwhile, Mai Takano and the authorities begin a desperate search for them, as the mysterious Ring curse spreads.

Director:

Hideo Nakata

Writers:

Hiroshi Takahashi (screenplay), Kôji Suzuki (novel)

Stars:

Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Satô, Kyoko Fukada

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Miki Nakatani	...	Mai Takano
Hitomi Satô	...	Masami Kurahashi
Kyoko Fukada	...	Kanae Sawaguchi
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Kawajiri Ishi
Kenjirô Ishimaru	...	Ômuta Keiji
Yûrei Yanagi	...	Okazaki
Rikiya Ôtaka	...	Yôichi Asakawa
Yôichi Numata	...	Takashi Yamamura
Masako	...	Shizuko Yamamura
Miwako Kaji	...	Kazue Yamamura
Katsumi Muramatsu	...	Kôichi Asakawa
Daisuke Ban	...	Heihachirô Ikuma
Rie Ino'o	...	Sadako Yamamura
Reita Serizawa	...	Okazaki no Dôryô - Sakuma
Shinmei Tsuji	...	Manshon Kanrinin

Storyline

In this sequel to Ringu (1998), Mai Takano is trying to learn more about the death of her professor, Ryûji. She soon hears stories about a videotape haunted by the spirit of a girl named Sadako, who died many years earlier. Supposedly, anyone watching the tape will die of fright exactly one week later. After some investigating, she learns that Ryûji's son, Yôichi, is developing the same psychic powers that Sadako had when she was alive. Mai must now find some way to keep Yôichi and herself from becoming Sadako's next victims.

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Plot Keywords:

videotape | psychic | curse | sequel | second part | 

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only film in the Japanese Ringu series that is not based on Koji Suzuki's novel series of the same name, or any of his written works. This is because the film was hastily produced less than a year after the first film to quickly replace Rasen (1998), which was panned by audiences for being too dissimilar to the first film.

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Quotes

[only line]
Sadako Yamamura: Why were you the only one saved?

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Connections

Follows Spiral (1998)

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Soundtracks

Kôri no yô ni hohoende
Written by Tomoyasu Hotei
Performed by Miki Imai

User Reviews

What happened?

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.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

23 January 1999 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Ring 2

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$65,586

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ring 2 Production Group, Asmik Ace Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1