Ring 2

Infobox Film
name = Ring 2


caption =
director = Hideo Nakata
producer = Masato Hara
writer = Hiroshi Takahashi
starring = Masahiro Motoki
Ryō
Yasutaka Tsutsui
Shiho Fujimura
Akaji Maro
Kenjiro Ishimaru
music = Kenji Kawai
cinematography = Hideo Yamamoto
editing = Nobuyuki Takahashi
distributor =
released =
runtime = 92 min.
country = Japan
language = Japanese
budget =
amg_id = 1:180671
imdb_id = 0218553
preceded_by = Ring
followed_by = Rasen

"For the 2005 American horror film, see The Ring Two."

"Ring 2" (リング2 "Ringu 2") (1999), directed by Hideo Nakata, is the sequel to the Japanese horror film, "Ring".

"Ring" was originally a novel written by Koji Suzuki; its sequel, "Rasen" (aka "Spiral"), was also adapted into a movie as the "Ring" movie's sequel. However, due to the poor response to "Rasen", "Ring 2" was made as a new sequel to "Ring", not based on Suzuki's works, and thus ultimately ignores the story of "Rasen".

Plot

Some time after the first film, Mai Takano searches for answers in regards to Ryuji Takayama's sudden death. This leads her into a collision course with Ryuji's ex-wife Reiko and her son Yoichi, both of whom have been in hiding out of fear from the authorities. Yoichi, having endured the curse of the tape, begins exhibiting Sadako Yamamura's psychic abilities at the cost of him becoming a mute. Meanwhile, the curse of the tape claims another victim, Kanae Sawagouchi, who was betrayed by Okazaki when he didn't watch the tape as promised. This results in Kanae's ghost returning and driving Okazaki into madness.

While inspecting Sadako's corpse, the forensic experts noted evidence that Sadako had died only a year ago, meaning that she was still alive in the sealed well for almost 30 years. They later reconstruct her body and send it to Takaishi, who takes it on his boat and later sets it loose into the bottom of the ocean.

Despite trying to keep their whereabouts hidden, Mai is coerced by the authorities, who close in on Reiko and Yoichi. At the station, Mai runs into Yoichi and utilizes her limited psychic abilities to tell him to flee. Yoichi regains his voice, which alerts Reiko. Both of them escape, but Reiko experiences a vision where her late father, who watched the tape some time ago to save Yoichi, appears. He tells her that "the child you carry with you isn't Yoichi anymore". Reiko is killed by a truck, having never recovered from the vision. The police arrive but Yoichi focuses his killing intent on one of the detectives for a moment, before Mai interrupts and whisks Yoichi away.

The next morning, Mai and Yoichi head for Izu, hoping to look for answers from Takaishi Yamamura, owner of an inn and Sadako's last living relative. One of the doctors, who experiments with spirit photography or nensha, arrives with equipment and is looking for Mai. That same night, Mai returns to the Inn, having been taken to the River of Offering by Takaishi. Mai and the doctor see a vision of Shizuko combing her hair in front of a mirror and Sadako walking in, a scene from the video tape. This was actually caused by Yoichi, who was thinking of his mother at the time.

The next day, the doctor sets his equipment up next to a pool of fresh water which serves to negate Sadako's energies from Yoichi. Mai is hooked up as a channeler. The process starts and suddenly becomes chaotic when Yoichi's powers awaken. Takaishi, seeing Sadako's coffin in the pool, swims out towards it and is killed while yelling "Take me! End this with me!" Later, the doctor, possessed by Sadako's influence commits suicide by electrocution, which also kills the nurse trying to stop him. Mai takes the device off her head and runs to Yoichi before blacking out.

Waking up, Mai and Yoichi find themselves in the well before both of them fall in. Ryuji appears, telling Yoichi and Mai to give him their fear in order to escape. Ryuji's grip leaves nensha marks on Yoichi's hand. The well opens and the end of a rope is dropped down into the well. Mai and Yoichi scale up the well when Sadako appears, asking them, "Why is it you were saved?" Possibly asking Mai as to why she was able to escape the well when Sadako herself couldn't. Sadako falls back into the well as Mai and Yoichi escape.

Mai and Yoichi emerge from well, only to find themselves in the same pool they were in earlier. The bodies of Takaishi, the doctor, and the nurse lay around the two as they reach the catwalk, fortunate to have survived.

In the hospital, a nurse comes into a holding room to take Okazaki's picture before leaving. As the photo develops, her eyes widen in shock before looking back at the room. Behind Okazaki is the laughing ghost of Kanae Sawagouchi.

Trivia

* A new curse with a new videotape by a new girl is created by the end of the film, which instead of killing the viewer, drives them insane. Had Nakata helmed "Ring 3", this would have been expanded on.

* The wailing sound effects heard during the start of the swimming pool scene were originally used for the creature Biollante in "Godzilla vs. Biollante".

External links

* [http://www.obrasilero.com/ring/ the Ring AREA] - Contains of the cursed videos of the Ring cycle and their scene-by-scene analyses, as well as lots of other useful information.
*imdb title|id=0218553|title=Ringu 2