Rushed out the same year as Ringu, Ringu 2 ignores the first sequel Rasen (see that review for details why) and continues where the first film left off, designed as a spiritual journey into the backstory of Sadako, whose body was exhumed from a well in Ringu, not quite lifting the old watch-the-video-and-you-die curse. This time Mai (Miki Nakatani) finds her nephew -- and maybe herself too -- developing creepy psychic death-vision powers, and she spends much of the film in various mental institutions and locales with padded walls trying to figure out why.

Note that, at least on the bootleg DVD that I saw, the white-on-white subtitles make much of the film hard to understand. I doubt many people will care, anyway. The kooky sequel bears little resemblance to its predecessor, especially regarding the sense of dreadful urgency it carried. A stillborn thriller.

Aka Ring 2. You can get the entire Ringu set of four films in a single box set, "Anthology of Terror."