Ring 2

is a 1999 Japanese supernatural horror film, directed by Hideo Nakata and serves as a sequel to ''Ring''.

''Ring'' was originally a novel written by Koji Suzuki; its sequel, ''Rasen'' (a.k.a. ''Spiral''), was also adapted into a film as the sequel to ''Ring''. Due to the negative response to ''Rasen'', ''Ring 2'' was made as a new sequel to ''Ring''. However it was not based on Suzuki's works, thus it ultimately ignores the story of ''Rasen''.

''Ring 2'' takes place four weeks after the first film, directly continuing the story which features most of the cast from ''Ring '' reprising their roles.

Plot

After retrieving Sadako Yamamura's body from a well, the police summon her uncle Takashi to identify her. Detective Omuta informs Takashi that, according to forensics, Sadako survived in the well for 30 years. The remains are returned to Takashi, who gives them a burial at sea, hoping to be free from the guilt he has carried since her mother, Shizuko, committed suicide because of his actions.

Following the sudden deaths of Reiko Asakawa's ex-husband Ryuji Takayama and her father Koichi, the police look for her and her son Yoichi. Ryuji's assistant, Mai Takano, and Reiko's colleague, Okazaki, search for answers together. After they find a burned videotape in Reiko's apartment, Mai senses that Reiko's father died the same way as Ryuji.

Investigating the urban legend of the cursed videotape, Okazaki meets a high school student, Kanae Sawaguchi. She gives him a tape copy but admits she watched it herself. She begs Okazaki to watch the tape before the week is up, but he hides his copy in his desk drawer at work.

Trying to contact Masami Kurahashi, a friend of Reiko's niece Tomoko, Mai, and Okazaki learn she is now mute and has a phobia of televisions after witnessing Tomoko's death. Dr. Oisho Kawajiri, Masami's doctor and a paranormal researcher, tries to expel the psychic energy within Masami through experimentation. Mai steps out for some air, encountering Masami, whose presence causes Sadako to materialize on television and terrify the patients. Masami tries to channel her fear into psychic vessel Mai, who realizes Yoichi has been trying to do the same thing.

Mai finds Yoichi and Reiko in a shopping mall. Yoichi has been mute since his father and grandfather's deaths, and his psychic abilities intensified. Reiko asks if Kawajiri can help. Returning to the hospital, Mai discovers that Okazaki has accidentally led the police to Kawajiri, who has informed them of Mai's contact with Reiko. Mai, Okazaki, and Detective Omuta observe Kawajiri's experiment to exorcise the psychic energy from Masami by projecting her mental imagery onto a blank tape. However, it causes the cursed videotape's imagery to appear. Mai destroys the recording. Omuta tortures Mai into revealing Reiko and Yoichi's location, forcing Mai to view Kanae's fear-contorted corpse. Overcome with guilt, Mai telepathically tells Yoichi to flee the police station. Yoichi physically attacks the cops and escapes with Reiko, who is consequently hit and crushed underneath a truck. Yoichi begins to kill Omuta psychically, but Mai stops him, and the two run off together. Okazaki attempts to delete his interview with Kanae, only for her ghost to materialize and haunt him.

Mai and Yoichi travel to Oshima Island and stay in the Yamamura Inn. Yoichi has a nightmare, causing Shizuko's and a young Sadako's ghosts to appear before Mai wards them away. Dr. Kawajiri arrives in the night, offering to exorcise Yoichi as he tried with Masami, with Mai volunteering to act as a conduit to expel Sadako's hatred into a swimming pool, water being able to neutralize the energy. The attempt goes awry, and Sadako's coffin appears in the pool. Takashi jumps in, demanding to be taken by Sadako, while Kawajiri dives into the pool carrying electrical equipment, killing themselves alongside their assistant.

Mai and Yoichi fall into the water, appearing inside the well. Ryuji's ghost appears, absorbing Yoichi's fear, and summons a rope that will guide Mai to safety as long as she doesn't look down. Sadako's ghost appears, scaling the well only to cryptically ask, "Why is it only you were saved?". Mai and Yoichi emerge from the pool, tentatively free of their fear. While Okazaki is institutionalized, a nurse takes a picture of him. As she leaves the room, she notices something in the photo, seemingly shocked; behind Okazaki is Kanae's laughing spirit, looking for revenge.

Cast

* Miki Nakatani as Mai Takano
* Rikiya Otaka as Yoichi Asakawa
* Nanako Matsushima as Reiko Asakawa
* Yoichi Numata as Takashi Yamamura
* Rie Inō as Sadako Yamamura
** Mebuki Tsuchida as young Sadako Yamamura
* Kyoko Fukada as Kanae Sawaguchi
* Yūrei Yanagi as Okazaki
* Hitomi Satō as Masami Kurahashi
* Hiroyuki Sanada as Ryuji Takayama
* Fumiyo Kohinata as Ishi Kawajiri
* Kenjirō Ishimaru as Detective Keiji Omuta
* Masako as Shizuko Yamamura

Release

''Ring 2'' was released in Japan on January 23, 1999 where it was distributed by Toho. It was released on a double bill with the film ''Shikoku''. In the Philippines, the film was released as ''Ring 2: Call of Evil'' on March 5, 2003. The film was released directly to video in the United States on August 23, 2005 by DreamWorks.

Box office

It was the second highest-grossing Japanese film of 1999 (after '' Pokémon: The Movie 2000''), earning a distribution income (rentals) of upon its theatrical release. ''Ring 2'' grossed a total Japanese box office revenue of ().

In South Korea, the film sold 128,521 tickets. In France, the film sold 22,263 tickets, bringing the film's total overseas box office to 150,784 ticket sales.

Home media

In the United Kingdom, it was watched by 360,000 viewers on television during the first half of 2005, making it the seventh most-watched foreign-language film on UK television during that period. The original ''Ring'' also drew 390,000 viewers on UK television during the same period, adding up to a combined 750,000 UK television viewership for both ''Ring'' films during the first half of 2005.

Reception

''Variety'' referred to the film as a "very different beast" than the ''Ring'', with "less atmosphere and more genre shocks". The review stated that the film "notably fails to build on the first movie's wonderfully nasty final scene" and is "progressively more conventional with no special visual style or under-the-skins frissons".

As a result of the film's popularity, one of the film's cast members, Kyoko Fukada (role of Kanae Sawaguchi), was offered a recording contract with Pony Canyon (the label that handled the releases of the film's soundtrack and its accompanying single), and her debut single was released by Pony Canyon on May 19, 1999.

''Ring 2'' holds a 7% percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on fourteen reviews.

Legacy

A prequel film was released the following year, '' Ring 0: Birthday'' (2000), based on the ''Lemon Heart'' segment of the Suzuki anthology novel ''Birthday'' in the ''Ring'' novel series. 13 years after this film’s release, the soft reboot ''Sadako 3D'' (2012) was released, loosely based on the Suzuki novel '' S'', from the aforementioned ''Ring'' novel series. It ignores the continuity of this film and instead acknowledges the film ''Rasen'', the original forgotten sequel that this film was meant to replace.

In 2019, a follow-up to this film was released called ''Sadako'' (2019), a direct sequel to ''Ring 2'' that follows its own continuity separate from the ''Rasen'' continuity.

See also

* List of ghost films

References

Bibliography

*
*

External links

*
*

{{Hideo Nakata

1999 films
1990s Japanese-language films
1999 horror films
Fiction about photography
Films about curses
Films about psychic powers
Films directed by Hideo Nakata
Films scored by Kenji Kawai
Japanese ghost films
Japanese horror films
Japanese sequel films
Alternative sequel films
Japanese supernatural horror films
The Ring (franchise)
Toho films
1990s Japanese films
Fiction about well-related accidents