staryub

I thought that this film was much better than the first and at least was character-driven than plot driven. While I do not prefer this to Ringu 2 as a sequel totally, I think it makes sense and was a good way of continuing the American "Ring" series (though it brings parts of different incarnations of other Japanese horror films in there as well). I personally liked some of the references to Dark Water (Rachel being copy editor--except for a newspaper--, the constant use of water and references to the sea) and the Japanese Ringu 2 (some of the premise of the film and the general image for most of the climactic scene). I thought Sissy Spacek was quite convincing as Evelyn and I think that Max (new love interest) was much hotter than Noah. The acting was slightly more refined, and I guess it might have just been the fact that creepy people walked into the nearly empty theater nearer the end of the film, but it had points that really left me creeped out.

OK, I bought the Region 2 English Subtitled DVD of this movie and, first of all, I need to say that the subtitling was excellent despite several minor flaws along the way. Second of all, this film had some of the best special effects I've seen in a Japanese movie in a long time, far superior to those of the live-action Zeiram and Boogiepop films.

Third, the acting is superb. Chiaki Kuriyama plays Mizuki and Eve well, and Hyde (despite his bad English accent) plays Adam well. However, the film lies more with the characters of Hotaru, Miura, and Tomoki in their quest to help Eve from her entrapment in the house.

I only had a few small problems with the experience, but they did not take too much away from the film; the most major of these is a break in the flow caused by a short interlude explaining the meaning of Kagen no Tsuki, the "Last Quarter Moon," that feels almost completely out of place. Outside of this and a few small instances, the film was excellent and convincing.

Although some segments of the trailer make the movie seem slightly on the ridiculous side at times, the extreme emotions (mostly Tomoki, Mizuki's boyfriend, screaming) are accounted for well in the film, being extremely appropriate when they actually appear.

Overall, it was the best movie I've seen in years, with the most constant universe held within it. The characters and their circumstances feel real throughout the entire film. The first A+ film I've watched in years, and the most real. I can hardly wait to watch it again!

There was bad pacing and way too much focus on the different aspects of it that it would have benefitted to have simply cut. The first ten minutes and the last hour or so were pretty good, when it was focusing on the supernatural. It would have made a good miniseries or three-part special but with the pacing it wasn't beneficial. However, the ending implies that it may be more than just a hoax, it may have not just been staged, although we were told it was. Oh well. It wasn't that horrible but it wasn't the greatest.

Another point, though, is that it had the same predictability of a movie completely unrelated to the subject: <i>The Others</i>. The opening gave away far too much and a good portion of it didn't give anything. It needed less hype and less focus on unrelated matters; even if they were trying to do the "documentary" on the new film, they didn't focus on it when it needed to be focused on. Oh well, it was worth the time for me.