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Ring 2

1998, Movie, NR, 95 mins

Ring 2: Review

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Picking up almost exactly where RING leaves off, this sober sequel is as restrained as its predecessor and contains a couple of skillful shocks. But it's entirely dependent on the first film for back story — it will make little sense to anyone who hasn't seen the original RING — and gets sidetracked by pseudo-scientific gobbledy-gook. This time the protagonist is Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), girlfriend of the late Professor Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada), who died at the end of the first film. Investigating the circumstances of his death, Mai gets wind of the existence of a videotape depicting a white-clad woman, her hair hanging down over her face; this apparition somehow kills anyone who watches the tape. Mai tracks down a girl named Masami (Hitomi Sato), whose best friend Tomoko was one of the first victims of the videotape's curse. Masami is confined to a mental hospital, under the care of Dr. Ikuma (Daisuke Ban). Though nearly catatonic, Masami can trigger the appearance of the deadly video on any nearby TV. Mai quickly discovers that she has her own psychic abilities, which torment her with brief glimpses of the story behind the tape, notably the public disgrace of country psychic Shizuko Yamamura (Masako) and the terrible death of her daughter Sadako (Orie Izuno), cast into a well by her own father. Mai sets her sights on finding newswoman Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), Professor Takayama's ex-wife. Reiko saw the tape and somehow escaped Sadako's revenge, but has gone into hiding with her small son Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka). And Reiko's father has been found dead, apparently yet another victim of the tape's curse. Meanwhile, Dr. Ikuma is developing a theory about the videotape that involves psychic energy and water. This film wrings its most affecting shivers from the suggestion that things we take for granted, like videotapes, TV sets and photographs can be haunted by malevolent energy. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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