Ringu 2 -- 1999 -- NR

After the dismal failure of Rasen, the filmmakers regrouped to have a second go at creating a sequel to Ringu. What they came up with was a movie that has some scary points to it, but is fouled by a ton of rehashing of the first movie and some bizarre and ot always positive character moments.

We begin with Tai Makano, Ryuji's assistant/girlfriend wanting to figure out what happened to Ryuji and searching for Reiko as a result. Well, Reiko has disappeared, and no one, not even the guy who is working on the cursed tape story at her news station, knows where she is. So now these two set out to figure out what happened causing a huge recap section of the movie that could and should have been avoided. Like the American version, new stuff happens related to Sadako and the video where for some reason, people who never saw the tape have Sadako in their head and weird stuff happens around those people as a result. Of course, Reiko's son, Yoichi, is subject to these things even though he was "cured" of the cursed tape by it being shown to Reiko's father. The plot continues to thicken as we move along including throwing in some bizarre moves one might call twists.

One of the strangest has to do with Mai taking care of Reiko's son after something happens to Reiko. This is only strange in that Mai would have no attachment to her late boyfriend's son because she never met him. This is where The Ring Two has a leg up because Yoichi's American equivalent is protected by his mother as opposed to a complete stranger. The movie eventually follows the path of the original, and while the scares are more plentiful in this one, the victory for Mai and Yoichi is just weird and we're left open in the end for another sequel.

Overall, it is a decent horror flick, but still not on par with its big brother Ringu or its American cousin The Ring. It does have a glimmer, though, of the direction The Ring Two took, and the director of Ringu 2 did direct The Ring Two as well. A bit of trivia there for you.