Harefooted Halloween: Ringu 2

What I Liked: There were some cool and fairly creepy scenes.  My favorite part was when they recreated in real life that part in the video where Sadako’s mother is combing her hair in a mirror.  This is so nerdy but I actually said “whoa” out loud to myself when Sadako shows up and they do that mirror switch thing from the tape (if you saw it you’d know what part I’m talking about).

The tension is kept sorta high most of the time.  You don’t know where things are going which put me on edge a little.  They got the tone pitch perfect for a Ring movie with some startling imagery and almost no music.

What I Didn’t Like: I could list some minor issues I have with the film but really the biggest problem is that there’s no payoff.  It’s kinda un-fuckin’-believable that with all the buildup and taught atmosphere the filmmakers so carefully developed that they didn’t give us a worthy ending.  Maybe that’s just from an American standpoint.  Although I dunno, I have a hard time thinking that anyone could be fully satisfied by the time the credits roll.

Overall Impression: Rasen was boring as all hell so I’m very glad that they made this more appropriate sequel to replace it.  The picture has its moments of genuine eeriness that I ate up, like when the TV in the mental hospital switches to show the well and Sadako starting to come out of it.  But it all adds up to not very much.

The feel of this one is particularly interesting because they didn’t continue the story of Sadako or go the other route and essentially remake the first film.  You would expect one of the two of those to happen.  Instead they did this weird lateral move where we follow Ryuji’s girlfriend around.  She doesn’t necessarily try to solve anything though.  She just gets caught up in shit.  It’s a strange way to go for a sequel to your extremely big hit movie.

Like Rasen there’s a medical angle to this installment too.  A doctor tries to figure out scientifically what’s going on with these Sadako survivors.  These are people that didn’t die from the tape but are severely affected by it in some way.  Unlike Rasen the filmmakers managed to make this intriguing.

Ringu 2 is a slow burn except there isn’t an explosion at the end of that burn.  The thing ends sorta mildly.  Everything in this movie is very deliberate and delicately handled which is fascinating from a filmmaking perspective.  However, they were perhaps a little too careful and definitely held back too much for the finale. 

With all of that said I enjoyed the few creepy scenes that are in here.  I’ll take this over the American Ring Two any day.  If you liked Ringu this is worth checking out, just don’t get your hopes up.