| Ring
(1998) was a great success, often considered as
one of the best Japanese horror movies. It didn’t
take time for the creators to attempt cashing
in with it. And so The Spiral was actually
started before Ring
(1998) was finished; with a different cast and
crew of course. Joji Ida took the directing chair,
and was also given the assignment to write a screenplay
that could bear continuity with Koji Suzuki’s
novel. The result was disastrous. Audiences reacted
in an impolite way to the all new original sequel;
and producers decided to bury the film, and pretend
it never happened. A year later, Ring
2 (1999) was released as an official
sequel, but by the time it came, the whole series
had lost its impact. See why mistakes shouldn’t
be taken for granted?
It appears that Professor Mitsuo
Ando has been having problems with his life lately.
Suicide attempts caused by the guilt of his son’s
death lead the scientist into some bad state.
But all of a sudden, he receives a phone-call
which communicates him about Ryuji’s death.
Besides being the male lead from the first film,
Ryuji was also a colleague from Ando years ago;
but some differences interfered between their
friendships, and never saw each again. Ando performs
an autopsy on his ex-partner, and finds no cause
of death. Instead he has a horrendous vision of
Ryuji awakening from his death to tease Ando for
his incompetence. Soon he enters Ryjui’s
department and finds Sadako’s videotape.
He watches it and…
Confused? I bet you will when you
watch the whole thing. Now this has to be one
of the weirdest movies yet. Its fair amount of
plot holes and odd scenarios makes this officially
a dead end. No clues to what happens are given
(or a least noticed), and all of the characters
seem to react in a non-realistic way. The plot
is given a science twist, departing from the supernatural
premise of Ring
(1998). This of course also changes the film’s
overall tone, and makes it more officially a sci-fi
movie rather than horror. But none of the scientific
theories depicted make much sense however, and
this causes some monotony that soon becomes annoying,
and kills the reason to keep watching it.
The acting was substantially flawed,
having poor performances on almost every corner
of the feature. Koichi Sato manages to create
an almost pointless character, that doesn’t
appear to be the lead. The same goes for Miki
Nakatani, reprising her role as Mai Takano, who
like in the first film doesn’t sport much
importance on behalf of the viewer. The only real
difference is that she appears in most of the
film. Mr.
Sanada is back, as the doomed male lead from
the previous installment. This time however, he
appears to be reluctant to act in a proper way,
as his character lacks everything he had in the
first film.
Frights are absent. There isn’t
even a remote attempt at making the audience feel
uneasy. This is even more evident than in the
American remake of Ring
(1998). But this time we don’t even get
jumps, amusing moments, anything. Sadako herself
appears as a sexy-type ghost rather than a cursed
one. In one scene she even tries to seduce the
main character.
We even get to see some gore this
time; in fact it’s the only factor that
reminds us this is a horror movie. But what we
see looks too fake, even for a low budget film.
And for the record, the little amount it has really
calls for having none at all, but well, this movie
was made like this, and so it must be endured.
Granted is that if the movie had been a gore-fest,
it at least would have had something worth to
watch.
Even the music fails to work swell
here. Many are given inadequate themes that don’t
even attempt to be frightening, while we do get
a fistful of romantic cues, which even make their
way into the main title. There is no reminiscence
from the music of Ring
(1998), not a single piece that may remind the
audience that this is a sequel, but we have to
remember that Kenji Kawai was busy while this
movie was made, but there is no doubt that if
he had composed the score for it; it would have
added something to the film. However, as a standalone
experience, the music can be entertaining perhaps,
but it’s certainly not the best way to score
a horror film.
Despite all of this, it is still
a piece in the puzzle, if not the worst one. Ring
(1998) was never equaled by its sequels, and what
this one manages to do is to redeem Ring
2 (1999), and probably the American version.
Besides that, it’s a bore-fest, and the
only reason why it could be considered watchable,
is because of some details that were left untied
in the first film; which do get some (nonsense)
explanation here.
|
(2/5)