General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Ring 2 (リング2)

Ring 2 (リング2) is a 1999 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata and a direct sequel to the 1998 hit Ring (リング), depicting the horror unleashed by the cursed videotape that carries the grudge of Sadako, a girl who met an unnatural death.¹ It runs 95 minutes, was distributed by Toho, and opened in Japan on 23 January 1999.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	23 January 1999 (Japan), 95 minutes, distributed by Toho¹
Direction and script	Directed by Hideo Nakata; screenplay by Hiroshi Takahashi, an original theatrical script based on Koji Suzuki's novel Ring; cinematography by Hideo Yamamoto¹
Position in series	A film-original continuation of Ring that departs from the other sequel Rasen (らせん), entering a film-original "Ring" world²
Lead cast	Miki Nakatani (Mai Takano), with Nanako Matsushima (Reiko Asakawa) and Hiroyuki Sanada (Ryuji Takayama) returning in their roles²
Central premise	Sadako's corpse, found in the old well, proves at autopsy to have died only one to two years earlier, not 30 years before³
Music	Score by Kenji Kawai; theme song "Kōri no yō ni Hohoende" ("Smiling Like Ice") by Miki Imai⁴
Home video	Blu-ray released 27 April 2012 (DAXA-1163); DVD released 24 April 2019 (DABA-91535), both by KADOKAWA⁵

Spoilers

Plot premise

The story begins one week after the events of Ring. Sadako's corpse is recovered from the old well, and the forensic autopsy yields a startling result: the woman supposedly killed 30 years earlier died only one to two years before, meaning she had been alive in the well for nearly 30 years.³

Meanwhile Mai Takano, questioning the strange death of her lover Ryuji Takayama, begins searching for his former wife Reiko Asakawa to find the truth; at the same time the high school girl Kanae Sawaguchi comes into possession of the cursed videotape.³ Mai meets Okazaki, a television reporter who has taken over investigation of the tape's mysteries, and the two pursue the truth together, at one point visiting the psychiatric hospital where Masami Kurahashi, who was with Reiko's niece Tomoko on the night she died, is confined.¹ Mai eventually reunites with the missing Reiko and her son Yōichi, senses that Sadako's shadow is closing in on the boy, and travels to Izu Ōshima, where Sadako died, to confront her vengeful spirit.⁹

A key development is that the rumor, established in the first film, that the curse can be escaped by copying the tape and showing it to someone else, is discovered by Mai to have become ineffective.² The curse also multiplies through copied videotapes, with a new drama unfolding around the tape.¹⁰

Place in the Ring series

The 1998 film Ring, released in January of that year, was a major Japanese horror success, and its story was continued in Rasen, treated as the series' other part two.⁶^•² Whereas Rasen took a scientific, mystery-style development with thinner horror elements, Ring 2 keeps the taste of the first film intact as a straightforward horror movie, with Ring 2 featuring more returning characters and settings from the first film than Rasen did.⁷ From this film onward the series leaps away from Rasen and the original novels while inheriting the first film, entering a film-original "Ring" world that continues through Ring 0: Birthday (リング0 バースデイ).²

The same actors play the same roles across the parallel continuations. In Ring, Rasen, and Ring 2, the protagonist Mai Takano (Miki Nakatani), Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), and Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada) all appear in the same roles.⁸ New cast members, including Kyoko Fukada, joined for this film.² The credited cast also includes Hitomi Sato as Masami Kurahashi, Yūrei Yanagi as Okazaki, Fumiyo Kohinata as Dr. Kawajiri, Kenjiro Ishimaru as Omata, Rikiya Otaka as Yōichi Asakawa, and Yōichi Numata as Kei Yamamura, with Matsushima and Sanada listed as special appearances.⁵

Production

Hideo Nakata, director of Ring, returned as director, and Hiroshi Takahashi, who had written Shinsei Toilet no Hanako-san, wrote an original theatrical screenplay based on Koji Suzuki's novel; cinematography was by Hideo Yamamoto.¹ The film was produced by the "Ring 2" Production Committee, whose partners included Kadokawa Shoten, Asmik Ace, Toho, Sumitomo Corporation, IMAGICA, Japan Publication Trading, and Omega Project, with production by Oz.⁴ Kenji Kawai composed the music, and the theme song was Miki Imai's "Kōri no yō ni Hohoende".⁴

Reception and legacy

WOWOW's synopsis notes that Ring 2 outperformed the previous film at the box office and that the legend of Sadako's curse continued on to Ring 0: Birthday.² At release it was double-billed with Shikoku (死国), a pairing one reviewer remembered for leaving both halves of a roughly three-hour program wanting.¹¹ User ratings have since been middling: Kinenote records an average of 58.4 points from 272 users⁴, and Eiga.com shows 2.4 across 27 user reviews.¹¹

As a J-horror work, the film shares the concrete, closed-in staging that distinguishes the Japanese Ring cycle, a setting researchers have contrasted with the stereotyped locales of slasher films and used in comparisons between the Japanese and Hollywood versions of Ring.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Horror and slasher series film entries › 1990s releases

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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