STARS : Sato Hitomi, Fukada Kyoko, Matshushime Nanako, Sanada Hiroyuki & Miki Nakatini.

The premise of Ring was as follows : Anyone who watches a mysterious video that aired on late night Japanese TV receives a phone call shortly after saying that they will die in one week At the conclusion of Ring, Asakawa and Ryuji solved the mystery of the video and discovered Sadawa’s grave thereby allowing her to rest.

The key to not dying is to SHOW the video to someone else within the 7 day time frame. Unfortunately, Asakawa discovered this fact too late for her ex-husband Ryuji and as a result Asakawa and her son, whilst alive, have now gone into hiding.

Ring 2 picks up directly where Ring left finished, we open in the morgue with Sadawa’s only living family member there to identify the body after spending the best part of 3 decades at the bottom of the well. We also find out that incredibly she died only 3 years earlier which explains why she was so incredibly pissed off at everybody.

Ryuji’s girlfriend Mai who was seen briefly in Ring teams up with journalist Okazaki who was Asakawa’s partner in ORDER to figure out of Rjuji died.

It’s really quite difficult to go into much more detail about the plot without giving too much away. Needless to say though, there’s really not a lot of difference between the first film and this so if you enjoyed the first film then you’ll probably like this just as much if not more.

Verdict : Incredible, scary and riveting.

THE EXTRAS

B>* Filmographies : Covering the director Hideo Nakata, Star Miki Nakatami and Writers Koji Suzuki & Hiroshi Takahashi

* Tony Rayns Film Notes : An experts thoughts on the Ring films

* Original Japanese Merchandise : Different key rings and other items that you can buy to further your enjoyment of the Ring movies

* Original Ring Trailers : There are 5 trailers in in. 2 for Ring, 2 for Ring 2 and 1 for the prequel Ring 0.

* Eastern Cinema Trailers : These cover Hard Boiled, Audition, In The Mood For Love and Nowhere To Hide.

CONCLUSION

A brilliant follow-up to one of the best low budget horror films ever made.

With thanks to Madman, Ring 2 is available now as a rental title but will be available to buy in October/November witht e same extras as what I’ve reviewed here.