Rasen -- 1998 -- NR

This is the original sequel to Ringu, but when it tanked in Japan, the company made Ringu 2. Some like this movie, and some hate it for a variety of reasons. Most of the haters don't like it because it is barely the same genre of movie that Ringu is; rather than supernatural horror, this film is more of a scienific thriller, and believe me, that's a big jump.

Instead of creepy scary Sadako, Rasen has creepy sexy Sadako, whose spirit visits the main character, Dr. Ando, after he watches the cursed videotape and apparently wants to have sex with him. He and his science buddies are interested in finding a scientific explanation for how the tape kill people, and through finding a copy of the tape and a journal left by Reiko from Ringu, they are able to reconstruct the first film and move on to their studies. Dr. Ando believes his mission is to destroy the tape so no one else dies, and also to give him an opportunity to kill himself, since he is depressed over the loss of his son. It was a nice start with some creepy moments.

From here, it gets really convoluted, and this is just me judging it as a movie, not as a sequel. Through their studies, they believe that (and stay with me) by watching the video, your body picks up the DNA sequencing of a virus and the body constructs this virus which kills you. Reiko was an accomplice to Sadako (which is why she didn't die) and her notebook also contains said virus but a mutation of it. Sadako wants to return to the world, so when she comes to Dr. Ando after he watches the video, she gives him her DNA so when he sleeps with Mai (Ryuji's girlfriend from the Ringu), Sadako's DNA is passed onto her to grow in the womb and be reborn, not as 100% Sadako, but as a Sadako/Mai, both women's memories existing in Mai's new body reborn from old Mai who was killed or died or something. Sadako/Mai strikes up a deal with Dr. Ando to take his son's DNA and let his son be reborn through her if Ando will also do the work to let Ryuji be reborn through her too. (Insert long tedious scientific and psychic explanations to get it all to make sense)

The final idea of the story is Sadako wants everyone to feel her fear so they're going to publish Reiko's journal so everyone can read it, get the mutated virus, feel her fear, and take a new step in human evolution (or something like that). The subject was so heady that I'm sure this film is a direct adapatation of the book, since no one in their right mind would write something like this directly for the screen. I think the biggest weakness was fooling the target audience of Ringu that this film was for them, and completely missing a better audience that would have appreciated it. 

In my opinion, I think if I had the time to watch it a few more times, I might finally understand it, but in a single viewing (which is how I watch most films), it contains far too much information and has to explain too much for me to say that the film just left me anything more than lost and confused. I think the explanations are way too far-fetched and one would have to suspend disbelief too far to get into the scientific reasoning behind the legendary cursed tape. And then there are those mysterious psychic powers through which so much exposition is gleaned...