| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Miki Nakatani | ... | ||
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Hitomi Satô | ... | |
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Kyoko Fukada | ... |
Kanae Sawaguchi
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Fumiyo Kohinata | ... |
Kawajiri Ishi
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Kenjirô Ishimaru | ... |
Ômuta Keiji
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Yûrei Yanagi | ... |
Okazaki
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Rikiya Ôtaka | ... |
Yôichi Asakawa
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Yôichi Numata | ... | |
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Masako | ... | |
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Miwako Kaji | ... |
Kazue Yamamura
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Katsumi Muramatsu | ... | |
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Daisuke Ban | ... |
Heihachirô Ikuma
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Rie Ino'o | ... | |
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Reita Serizawa | ... |
Okazaki no Dôryô - Sakuma
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Shinmei Tsuji | ... |
Manshon Kanrinin
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In this sequel to Ringu (1998), Mai Takano is trying to learn more about the death of her boyfriend, Ryuji. 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 Ryuji's son, Youichi, is developing the same psychic powers that Sadako had when she was alive. Mai must now find some way to keep Yuuichi and herself from becoming Sadako's next victims. Written by Jean-Marc Rocher <[email protected]>
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.