Ring 2: O Chamado

I approached the film dubiously as the first was so well crafted and restrained that I felt to explore further into the story would dispel its mystique . . . I was right.

The whole appeal of the first film was the restrained yet adroit handling of the narrative that was welcome in the age of gore and instant gratification; it was slow moving yet generated a kind of suspense that you could swim in and treated the viewer with intelligence and respect. However Ringu 2, although not handled heavily, was muddled and unsure of what avenue to lead the viewer down. It was still an absorbing film yet many elements seemed chucked in and only served to confuse rather than explain. Whereas the first film was focused towards the climax at the well, Ringu 2 has a more fragmented flow and the climax at the swimming pool experiment seemed an ad hoc ending to tie up the loose ends.

The main problem I had was with the temporal development. The most crucial device of the first film was the use of time to generate the suspense: we know that you have one week to live after watching the film, and we are constantly aware that the clock is ticking away to a horrifying death that we are aware of but have not seen. Yet Ringu 2 does not capitalise on the timebomb factor and so lacks suspense, and you get the impression that the increase of storylines and characters are to compensate for this. The result is perhaps what the first film would have turned out if it were in the hands of Hollywood with style over substance.

Yet perhaps I am being over critical- it was just that I found the first film so eerie and unsettling that anything would have appeared dissapointing in comparison. Ring 2 is a good film, its just that (like Sadako) some things are best left undisturbed.