FAQ

Ringu 2 continues the story of the cursed videotape that causes all who watch it to die in one week unless they copy the tape and give it to someone else to watch. Following Ryuji's (Hiroyuki Sanada) death at the end of Ringu, his research assistant, Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), begins searching for answers. She starts looking for Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) and her six-year-old son Yôichi (Rikiya Ôtaka), which leads her to reporter Okazaki (Yûrei Yanagi), who is attempting to do a news story about the tape. Meanwhile, Sadako's (Rie Ino'o) spirit, released from the well in Ringu, is on a search, too...looking for new bodies to possess.

Indirectly. Ringu is a series of four horror novels by Japanese writer Kôji Suzuki. The four novels include: Ringu (The Ring) (1991), Rasen (Spiral) (1995), Rupu (Loop) (1998), and The Birthday (1999). The first movie in the series, Ringu (1998) (1998) was followed by Spiral (1998) (1998). However, Rasen was not well-received, so this new sequel, Ringu 2, was developed. It was written by Japanese screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi and ignores the story in Rasen. Ringu 2 was followed by yet another sequel, Ring 0: Birthday (2000) (Ring: The Birthday) in 2000. Ringu 2 was remade in English as (2005).

In part. The inspiration for Suzuki's character Shizuko Yamamura (Sadako's mother) come from the real world case of Mifune Chizuko, a woman who claimed to have developed both clairvoyance and nensha through breathing and mental exercises. She was studied extensively in 1913 by Tomokichi Fukurai, an assistant professor of psychology at Tokyo University, who eventually wrote about her in a book called Tshi to Nensha, published in English as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography in 1931 (reprinted 2003).

One week has passed, evidenced by the final scene in Ringu showing Reiko driving back to her father's house with the cursed video and by the announcement in the beginning scenes of Ringu 2 saying that Reiko's father was just found dead. Obviously, she got her father to watch the video in an attempt to save the life of her son Yôichi, who accidentally watched the tape in Ringu.

Reiko and Yôichi are in hiding at the start of the story but turn up later in the film. Her ex-husband Ryuji also returns, but mostly in flashbacks. The bulk of Ringu 2 centers around Ryuji's assistant, Mai Takano, the one who discovered his body. Sadako and Takashi (Yôichi Numata) Yamamura are back, but Shizuko (Masako) is seen only in visions. Masami Kurahashi (Hitomi Satô), the girl who witnessed her friend's death and was driven insane at the beginning of Ringu, has a larger role in Ringu 2.

It's strongly advised by viewers of the Ringu series to see Ringu before seeing Ringu 2, even if you've already seen the American Ring series. Ringu provides the details that a viewer might ask if seeing only Ringu 2, e.g., who made the cursed videotape, how did Reiko get a copy of it, why Yôichi watch it, who is Sadako, how did Sadako get in the well, etc.

It's the remains of a burnt videotape.

Since Yôichi only mouths something the first time they meet, it's hard to tell. However, the scene where Masami asks Mai, "Help me!", is followed with another scene of Mai's meeting with Yôichi. Reading his lips, it's apparent that he is also saying, "Help me!" (in Japanese, of course).

The blood was from Reiko. The crash is not seen happening, but it leaves Yôichi alone, placing him into Mai's hands and making her even more determined to save Yôichi from Sadako's influence.

Sadako was born with strong psychic abilities, as was her mother Shizuko. People were afraid of them because of what they could do. Sadako, for example, could kill a person just by thinking about it. She could also affect photographic media and project images onto a TV screen or a videotape. This power, as described by Dr. Kawajiri Ishi (Fumiyo Kohinata), is known as nensha or "spirit photography". Concentrated thought, Ishi explains, can focus the energy so that the thought becomes alive, taking physical form. e.g., the thought of killing someone can make it happen or the thought of an image can transfer it onto a tape. Thus, people were mean to Sadako and called her things like a "freak." Sadako's spirit, in the well directly beneath the VCR (tape-player), used her power to record all her malice and vengeance onto the VCR in the form of a curse (in the books, it's actually a virus on the tape that infects and kills those who see it.) When people come under her power, such as Yôichi and Masami, they become imbued with Sadako's anger and also show signs of her abilities. Walking by the TV in the hospital, Masami was able to project an image of Sadako climbing out of the well. Yôichi was able to stop the doctors from chasing him and Reiko by causing them pain.

All the images are from Sadako's memory. First, there's the well in which Sadako has been imprisoned. This is followed by the memory of her mother combing her hair with the mirror and an image of a man with his face covered. His identity is not explained. Some viewers think it might refer to Ryuji Takayama; others think it may be Sadako's view of her real father, whose identity is a mystery. Then there's a screen full of letters and symbols during which the film's subtitles state the word "eruption" (for the very enlarged 山が噴火). This is from a newspaper clipping recounting the event of a volcano erupting in the area where Sadako's family lived. Sadako's mother committed suicide by throwing herself into this volcano. The image of people crawling around may also have been an event caused by the volcano erupting. Finally, there's an eye with the Japanese word "sada" (貞), providing a clue to Sadako's identity.

Dr Ishi realized that something of Masami's energy was transferred into a glass of water, so he figured that a large enough body of water might be able to absorb all of Sadako's energy from Yôichi.

Dr. Ishi tries again to make Sadako disappear by releasing Yôichi's anger into a large swimming pool using Mai as a channeler. He provokes Yôichi's's anger by telling him that Mai is responsible for his mother's death. As he watches, Takahashi Yamamura has a vision of Sadako's coffin floating in the pool. He jumps into the water, yelling for Sadako to take him. Dr Ishi is electrocuted when he jumps into the water while carrying electrical equipment, and the nurse is killed trying to stop him. In the chaos, Mai pulls off the electrodes on her head and releases herself and Yôichi. Then they also fall in the water. Suddenly, they are hanging on to the sides of Sadako's well, trying to climb out. Yôichi drops off into the water, and Mai follows. A rope drops from the surface, and Ryuji appears carrying Yôichi. Ryuji hands him to Mai, and tells Yôichi to give him (Ryuji) his fear. He then instructs Mai to use the rope to carry Yôichi out of the well but warns her not to look back. About halfway up, however, Mai looks back to see Sadako climbing up after her. When Sadako reaches Mai, she asks, "Why are you the only one saved?", and drops back into the water. Mai and Yôichi emerge from the well and find themselves back in the swimming pool. Everyone else is dead. Yôichi says that he is no longer afraid, indicating that the attempt was successful. In the final scene, Okazaki's coworkers are looking through his desk and find the videotape locked in a drawer. Okazaki has been confined in the hospital. A nurse takes his picture and is surprised when she looks at the outcome. Back in his cell, Okazaki turns to see the ghost of Kanae Sawaguchi (Kyôko Fukada) laughing at him.

After much discussion about that subject, viewers of Ringu 2 mostly conclude that Sadako was not talking to Mai but to Yôichi or to both of them. Mai didn't need saving because she never watched the videotape all the way through. On the other hand, Yôichi had just been saved by Ryuji when he offered to take all of Yôichi's fear into himself. Sadako may have been wondering why both Mai and Yôichi were saved when no one would save her.