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Date of release: 1999
Story / Synopsis:
The film opens in a hospital mortuary, a week after the body of Sadako has been recovered. Shizuko's cousin, Yamamura Takashi (played by Numata Yoichi), is called in by the police to throw some light on the mysterious events surrounding Sadako's death.
At the same time, the police are questioning Takano Mai (Nakatani Miki) about the even stranger circumstances of her professor/boyfriend Takayama Ryuji (Sanada Hiroyuki)'s death. They suspect that somehow his ex-wife Asakawa Reiko (Matsushima Nanako) is involved, particularly after the equally strange death of Reiko's father in similar circumstances. Reiko and her son Yoichi have disappeared and Yoichi has become mute after having watched the video (in Ring).
So as a result of her own grief and concern for Reiko and Yoichi, Mai decides to investigate. She knows the story of the cursed video, but not the reasons behind it. Her first lead takes her to the newspaper office where Reiko used to work, and there she teams up with another reporter, Okazaki (Yanagi Yuurei) who also wants to track Reiko down and learn more about what's been going on.
Together, they decide to see if they can visit Tomoko's friend Kurahashi Masami (Sato Hitomi) who is still locked up in a secure mental health facility, having gone crazy after the death of Tomoko which happened in front of her. Masami also cannot speak, and seems to have developed some pretty intense psychic powers of her own. At the hospital, Okazaki and Mai meet a doctor who was a friend of Ryuji's, and who is treating Masami. This doctor has a theory: that psychic power (nensha in Japanese) can be released and dissipated by water.
However, after an experiment with Masami goes disastrously wrong, the doctor, his nurse, Okazaki and Mai all come into contact with the curse video via a mental projection of it sent out by Masami to their TV screen.
Intrigued by the idea, Okazaki interviews some teenagers about the video, and finds one, Kanae, who has seen it, and gives him a copy of it on the provision that he should watch it within a week. He locks it away with no intention of watching it, consigning Kanae to a horrible death.
In the meanwhile, Mai carries on the investigation with the doctor, hoping that what she learns might be able to help Yoichi, if she ever finds him… but she only has seven days in which to try and find them and break the ring forever…
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