Runtime: 95 minutes
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, Kyoko Fukada, Fumiyo Kohinata, Kenjiro Ishimaru
From: Several different Japanese companies
At least I did not see the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre last night. Already, plenty of mutuals on Letterboxd have checked that out and shock of shocks, a movie that changed directors a week into filming and presented “Try anything and you're canceled, bro!” is almost universally reviled. This in comparison is a lot more interesting. Halloween season 2020 I finally saw the original Ring and found it to be very good, a creepy tale about a cursed videotape and the cruel fate of poor Sadako. I hadn't seen any of its sequels until last night; that includes Spiral, the first sequel they filmed that was released concurrently w/ Ring but was strongly disliked so that was taken out of canon and replaced w/ this. I do know this franchise has had many sequels of variable quality, which makes it a typical franchise. Sadako is still such a popular character that she is in the Dead by Daylight videogame so I'm expecting an announcement of her appearing in a new movie at any time in the near future.
As for Ring 2, I understand why that received a reception that was only a little less frosty. It was more focused on the mythology-and even at times science-than the scares of a ghost girl killing foolish SOB's that watch the cursed videotape. While those feeling disappointed won't be chastised by me, personally I was always invested in the tale even if I can admit that the pacing seemed a little languid at times. Several of the characters from the original appear again (Mai, Masami, Yoichi, and some other very familiar faces) and most importantly to me, there are some moments haunting as hell and a few creepy-ass scenes. That helps make up for me thinking, “Hey, wait a minute now” on several occasions.
Having simultaneous storylines (Mai continuing her professor's research while Reiko's journalist coworkers pick up where she left off) also was intriguing to me even if the overall plot wasn't as strong as in the original. From hearsay I know the entries in this franchise after 2000 are especially questionable—who knows if any of those will be seen but to my relief I felt satisfied after watching this first “official” sequel.
No comments:
Post a Comment