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Too much of everything

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

RASEN is a weird and forgotten follow-up to RING, filmed at the same time but going in a very different direction to the official sequel, RING 2. RASEN expands on the philosophical plot-points raised by the first film and the novel on which it was based and as such is much more of a metaphysical journey with science fiction aspects. All of that doesn't really amount to much, though, in a film which is too low budget and fumbled for its own good.There are none of the traditional ghost story thrills here, or if they do appear then they're not very effective. The cast members go through the motions but there's little of the sense of drive or power that RING possessed. It all feels very dated in a late 1990s way. I think people forget the sheer intensity of the RING trilogy and in comparison to those films, RASEN is merely an oddball thriller and not a very engaging one either, unfortunately.

Although Spiral contradicts many things in the original film ringu it is actually based on the sequel book written by the original author of Ringu. He also worked closely with the director when making Spiral. He actually wrote three books in total but the third hasn't been made into a film probably due to the lack of popularity of spiral. If anything this version/universe of Ringu is more to what the author intended and is not an awful film I thought it had quite a good plot twist at the end, however it isn't wholly satisfying as it does contradict the original to much and takes away most of the horror aspect of Sadako. I think it should be appreciated as it is a well made film and is based on the authors original intentions as a sequel to the Ringu he created in his original novel and not despised as an attempt at a sequel just made up by this director as that isn't the case.

I just want to start by saying I don't find this film anywhere near as bad as most seem to. The mistake is viewing this as a direct sequel to "Ringu", made at the same time by a different director it of course does not have the same feel, or menace as its predecessor. Since most people will watch the original first the change in tone is hard to accept. A lot of people also declare this to detach itself too far from the original and explain too much of the mystery with science. When in fact the first two Ring novels have a firm root in science. I also found "Ringu 2" to be just as guilty at favouring science over the unknown, the difference being "Rasen" does explain things thoroughly. The major disappointment here is that I never really felt anything close to fear, or even uneasiness. However in terms of drama, and expanding on the first this film succeeds. The cinematography is just stunning, and the final scene is a scene I find just as disturbing as the ending of "Ringu", not in a fear inducing way, but in a contemplative sort of way. It is also a beautiful scene, and the whole film is well shot. Unlike "Ringu" the acting is a mixed bag, Koichi Sato just about holds up, but as the lead he seems to struggle with acting with emotion, which is a minus considering his character deals with suicide. Overall I think the film should be watched, as a side-note to "Ringu" but judged on its own merits, as it certainly surpasses many scientific thrillers around.

I really won't go into the history too much about how this became the "forgotten" sequel to "Ring", because you should all knows this story by now. I WILL, however, say that it flopped and was quickly forgotten, because people who just sat through a long-haired spectre emerging from a television set with a huge eye and murdering a main character in cold blood had to then see her emerge from the television and make out with the main character this time, naked and hot.I didn't understand this movie at all at first, until I read the two Ring novels. I am completely obsessed with this franchise, and know everything there is to know about the character of Sadako- even how she is defeated in the fourth book, even though the third, fourth, and fifth books haven't come around to being translated yet.!!!*MAJOR SPOILERS*!!! Leaving out the fact that Sadako is a hermaphrodite and was raped by a man with smallpox makes little sense to the story, as this was a huge part of how it all happened. Much of the movie completely diverged from what happened in the novel. Like in this, Sadako is reborn as Mai Takano, not as herself, so the main character has sex with her thinking she is Mai's original self. In the book, Sadako was reborn as herself and said she was Mai's sister Masako. However, it never completely throws out the aspects of the novel that make the story complete- they just don't mention it. So, if you take these aspects into account, the story is great, and had the film been made with as much care as the novel, it would have greatly succeeded, and there would be no point in making "Ring 2", which in my opinion isn't as good as this movie, even though I enjoy that one, too. That one was sort of made as a prequel to this one, and even stole a few of "Spiral"'s plot points. Therefore, you know it can't be all THAT bad...8/10 Recommended only if you know the complete story about Sadako Yamamura and how her video curse/virus came to be.