Franchises: The Ring. Ring 0: Birthday (2000)

On February 5th, 1999, less than two weeks after the release of Ring 2 in Japan, author Koji Suzuki published Birthday, a trilogy of short stories set within different spots in the Ring story's timeline. The second of these stories, Lemon Heart, acts as a prequel to the first book, and since they'd just had another success with Ring 2, the producers decided to use that story as the basis for another film, although the resulting adaptation would be one in the loosest sense of the word. Indeed, from the details I've read about it, the original story is much darker and disturbing, and has a much less sympathetic portrayal of Sadako. In any case, the film, titled Ring 0: Birthday, was released in Japan in January of 2000, and while I'm not sure how well it did financially, it may be telling that there wasn't another film in the Japanese franchise until 2012 (then again, that film was based on a book Suzuki published just that year). Indeed, by the time you get to this one, you can tell they'd wrung the concept dry and it had become tired. Speaking for myself, I would say this is definitely the weakest of the original four movies. It has none of the suspense of the first one, the unusual slant to the material that Spiral brought, or even the memorable sequences, and characters of Ring 2. The story, which tries to fill in the blanks as to what happened leading up to Sadako getting dumped down into the well, is not that interesting and, though you may think the big problem is that they try to make Sadako a sympathetic, tragic protagonist, it's actually the way they go about it, which is so contrived and, yet again, unnecessarily complex. But I think the movie's worst failing is that this is the one where I feel the least emotionally involved with the characters, and given the story they're trying to tell, that is not good. That's not to say it's all bad, as it certainly has some effective moments, images, and sequences, but it's still clear that it was time to for the series to take a long, maybe indefinite, hiatus.

In modern times, a young woman talks to her friend about the cursed videotape, which she just watched. Though the girl denies having watched it herself, she admits to having had a strange dream the night before, revolving around the well featured in the tape and an old, ruined house nearby. The dream ended with her witnessing Dr. Ikuma throwing Sadako down into the well. As it turns out, this dream was experienced by others long before the cursed videotape came into being. Thirty years earlier, Akiko Miyaji, a reporter, meets with Mrs. Sudo, Sadako's former elementary school teacher on Oshima Island. Sudo tells her how, during her brief stay at the school before Ikuma took her away following her mother's suicide, Sadako displayed a serious fear of the sea and correctly predicted that all those who went into the water would die. Presently, Sadako, now nineteen, is working as an understudy in a Tokyo acting troupe, but her quiet, seclusive nature makes her unpopular among many of the other actors and the crew. Aiko, the lead in the play they're putting on, especially dislikes her due to director Yusaku Shigemori's interest in her. Aiko confesses to another actor, Kaoru, that she keeps, "Seeing something behind her," and is also having dreams about a well and an eerie house. It turns out Kaoru has had the same dream. During a rehearsal, as she sits offstage, Aiko is approached by a mysterious girl in white whom none of the other actors see. During a break, she's found dead, and amid the chaos that follows, Shigemori decides to make Sadako the new lead. This doesn't go over well with most of the troupe, but sound director Hiroshi Toyama encourages Sadako not to let them bring her down. Though her acting proves top notch, more strange and possibly supernatural events occur over the following days of rehearsal, making the others all the more suspicious and fearful of her. Sadako tells Toyama that someone else is always with her, and as Miyaji, who has a motive other than her profession, draws closer and closer to finding her, this frightening secret could spell disaster for her and everyone around her.

Though the producers were able to get screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi back to write the adaptation, Hideo Nakata passed on the offer to direct. In his place, and at Takahashi's urging, they chose Norio Tsurata, who'd worked with the writer on a segment of a television special called Haunted School F. After directing a short film called Torineko in 1985, Tsurata's first real jobs were writing and directing a series of direct to video horror films called Scary True Stories, as well as a video documentary series called Shin rei bideo. Ring 0 was his first theatrical film, and he followed it up with 2001's Kakashi, or Scarecrow, and 2004's Premonition, both based on horror manga. Notably, Tsurata directed the final episode of Masters of Horror, Dream Cruise (another Koji Suzuki adaptation), in 2007, and went on to do 2008's Orochi - Blood (based on the Orochi manga), 2011's Osama Game, or King Game, based on a "cellphone novel," 2012's POV: A Cursed Film, and 2013's Talk to the Dead, among other theatrical films and television works.

Now, four movies into the official series, Sadako (Yukie Nakama) is our protagonist and her depiction here is definitely not what you'd expect. Before we meet her, her elementary school teacher, Mrs. Sudo, describes her as, "A very intelligent girl. Very pretty," but also terrified of the sea. She's said to have warned the other kids in a group that went to the beach that they would die if they went into the sea, which they did. Following that, we meet Sadako formally, as a 19-year old understudy of an acting troupe in Tokyo. She's depicted as polite and demure, but very quiet for the most part and keeps to herself, which alienates her from just about everyone else in the troupe. She's also caught the attention of the play's director, Yusaku Shigemori, much to the irritation of the play's star, Aiko, who especially dislikes her. She's also seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Kuno, as she has strange visions of apparitions that appear randomly, which he believes is simply a psychogenic disorder. When she sees him, she lies, claiming to not have those visions anymore, and also claims to be more relaxed since joining the troupe, not disclosing how unpopular she is with them. In fact, her mere presence is adversely affecting them, as Aiko claims to always see something behind Sadako, and both she and another actor find they're both having nightmares involving a well and a house. Then, in the midst of rehearsal, Aiko is suddenly found dead. Not only does Shigemori insist that the play go on, but he makes Sadako the new lead, much to the derision of everyone else. The only real friend she has is sound director Hiroshi Toyama, who encourages her not to let the others get to her. In rehearsal, Sadako proves to be a dynamite performer, but it doesn't make her any more popular among her peers, nor does it stop her visions, as she has one of Aiko. She also confesses that she has a habit of doing things but not remembering them, like when she turns up holding her costume after the designer, Etsuko, has a frightening experience while altering it and it disappears. Sadako tells Toyama there's someone constantly with her, adding, "It's not someone I don't know. It's like a long, long time ago... but I only remember fragments, from when I was a child. And there's something there that terrifies me." One of these fragments is shown as a grainy view of the sea, with Sadako's voice asking her mother who her father is.

As the film goes on, Sadako grows closer to Toyama, but also finds herself dealing not only with Shigemori's unwanted advances but also the interest of journalist Miyaji, who tracks her down to the theater. When she and her assistant snap several pictures of her, Sadako uses her power to destroy the camera. Upon witnessing this, Shigemori realizes she's Shizuko Yamamura's daughter, as he remembers the notorious ESP demonstration that turned deadly. Believing she

intentionally killed Aiko, he proceeds to blackmail her, threatening to take her down with him if she attempts to kill him as well. Parts of the stage then start shaking around them, and though Sadako insists it's not her doing, Shigemori attacks her, leading to a fight between him and Toyama that results in the former's death. Sadako then takes the injured Toyama to Kuno, only to find that a bad cut he received on the forehead during the fight has healed up. Sadako realizes she performed the healing, and proves to herself and Toyama that she

has such powers when she manages to restore a crippled man's ability to walk simply by touching him. Once Toyama is discharged from the hospital, he and Sadako, having admitted their love for each other, head to the theater, hide Shigemori's body, and plan to go off and live together once the play is completed. But things go horribly awry when the other actors find the corpse during the performance and Etsuko hijacks the sound booth, playing a recording of Shizuko's demonstration given to her by Miyaji. As a result, Sadako sees visions of her mother, the reporter who accused her of being a fraud, and Shigemori's bloody corpse, causing her to lash out and unknowingly kill Kuno, who attempts to calm her down. Despite Toyama's attempt to save her, the troupe members corner her in the dressing room and beat her to death. But Miyaji shows up to tell them it's not over yet.

Throughout the movie, there are glimpses of an eerie figure in white at the theater, haunting the troupe. We only get small glimpses of this person, enough to see that it's a young, barefoot girl in a white dress, with long, dark hair covering her face; in other words, the image of Sadako we've come to expect. This figure appears to Aiko before she dies, is glimpsed by Etsuko in a possible waking dream she has while altering Sadako's costume, is seen in the background of one of the photographs of

Sadako Miyaji and her assistant snapped onstage, and appears on the stage after everyone else has fled the performance. Also, in a second meeting Miyaji has with Mrs. Sudo, she tells of an eerie encounter she had while visiting Sadako's family at Dr. Ikuma's home on Oshima. She heard strange sounds up in the attic, glimpsed a figure with long hair up there, and then found herself face to face with the creepy, long-haired girl. She then became afraid of Sadako and would wonder which "one" would be at school on a given day. At the end of

the movie, after the troupe has beaten Sadako to death, Miyaji tells them there's a second one and that they must kill her as well. She leads them to Ikuma's house in Izu, where Ikuma himself is waiting for them and confirms it's the truth. At some point after she killed the reporter at the demonstration, Sadako split into two different beings: a benevolent one who took after her mother, and an evil one akin to her true, likely demonic, father (here, it's all but confirmed that this is the truth about her parentage). Ikuma tried to keep the evil one under control by containing her in the attic and using drugs to keep her from growing. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to quell her psychic abilities, as she used the same power that killed the reporter to kill both Aiko and Kuno, and cursed the entire troupe and Miyaji to die. She was also likely the one who made parts of the stage shake, destroyed the camera Miyaji's assistant used, and used her nensha abilities to make others have nightmares about Ikuma's estate and to plant the images on the photographs. The good Sadako, on the other hand, has powers such as being able to see spirits, seeing into the future (she sees a vision of the blood on Toyama's hands that he eventually gets from fighting Shigemori), and an ability to heal.

The acting troupe quickly realizes they made a big mistake in bringing the good Sadako to Izu. While they go inside the house to kill the bad one, the good one awakens and she and Toyama try to escape. When the others chase after them, Sadako tries to make Toyama go off without her and attempts to throw herself over the edge of a cliff. But then, her evil half manages to join together with her. Now, looking and acting like you've come to expect, she uses her powers to kill off everyone, including Toyama. Ikuma finds her after her killing spree is over, her good side having regained control, and she's devastated over what she's done. This leads into her ultimate fate, with Ikuma deciding to put an end to it all.

After being little more than backstory for the past three movies, Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma (Daisuke Ban) has an actual role here. You don't see him until the climax, but even then, his screentime is more than what he got in the previous movies combined. When Miyaji and the acting troupe arrive at his home, the first thing he says is, "Are you here to kill Sadako?" He then lets them in and makes no move to stop them, merely telling them how this second, evil Sadako came about. And when Miyaji goes into the attic and finds it empty, he's horrified, realizing they brought the other Sadako with them. He's later seen sitting alone in his home, horrified at what it's all come down to, and by the time he decides to go out and search for Sadako, he finds she's already killed everyone. He takes her back home and gives her an injection, saying it will relax her. But seconds later, she finds herself unable to breathe, as Ikuma poisoned her. He says he'll kill himself soon after she's gone, but Sadako manages to stumble and claw her way out of the house and onto the property. Ikuma chases her and fights with her, repeatedly apologizing for what he's doing, and when she reaches the well, we get the familiar scene where, despite her pleading, he bludgeons her across the head and dumps her down into it. He then breaks down crying, begging for her forgiveness, and at the end of the movie, he seals the well while she's still alive down there.

Besides learning specifically what it was that drove her mad and led to her committing suicide, Shizuko (Masako) does make a couple of fleeting appearances here. The most memorable, and frightening, one is when Mrs. Sudo recalls when she visited Sadako at Ikuma's home and watched Shizuko brush her hair in the mirror, when she walked up to it and made a very creepy face while looking at her reflection. This creeped Sudo out, which led to her wandering down the empty hall and having that creepy experience near the attic. Shizuko's spirit appears onstage with Sadako when the play's performance goes awry, a creation of her nensha abilities, which, in this instance, are strong enough to where everyone in the audience and those backstage see her. She mouths something to Sadako before disappearing back into the darkness.

The one member of the play's production who isn't at all hostile towards Sadako is the sound director, Hiroshi Toyama (Seiichi Tanabe). He has a clear interest in her from his first scene, looking at her as she shrinks away upon being told off by Aiko and overhearing talk about how her arrival soured Aiko's relationship with Shigemori. He later unknowingly records evidence of the evil Sadako's presence in the form of a high-pitched, screeching sound, just as Aiko is killed. When Sadako is given the lead role in her place, Toyama encourages her, telling her to ignore the other, jeering members of the troupe. Come the time of her first rehearsal, he gives her an assuring nod, and when she proves to be an excellent actor, he tells her afterward that she's going to be great. But then, she sees a vision of Aiko, pointing at her in an accusing manner, and though Toyama himself doesn't see it, he sees how upset she becomes and asks her what happened. He also shows concern for Shigemori's creepy interest in her, and is weirded out by the strange sound he realizes he recorded at the time of Aiko's death, especially when he listens to it more closely and hears a voice saying, "You will die." He and Sadako grow ever closer as time goes on, as he defends her when Etsuko, the costume designer and his supposed girlfriend, accuses her of trying to scare her at one point. Later, when she tells him that Sadako isn't normal and she's the cause of the strange things going on, he refuses to listen, chalking it up to jealousy. Sadako herself, in turn, confides in him about how there's always someone with her. Though unnerved by this, when she faints while talking, he takes her to his apartment and lets her sleep it off. He also offers her some coffee when she wakes up and assures there's no one else there. He later overhears Shigemori's attempt to blackmail her, and when he attacks her, Toyama runs in to help, leading to a fight that kills Shigemori and leaves Toyama badly cut across the forehead. Taking him to a doctor, Sadako realizes she unknowingly healed his cut, and later proves to herself and him that she does have such an ability when she heals a crippled man.

At first, Toyama intends to confess to killing Shigemori for Sadako's sake, but after he sees what she can do, he has a change of heart. The two of them rush back to the theater and hide the body, agreeing to go off and live together once the play is over. But then, things go horribly wrong for them when Miyaji and Etsuko work together to expose Sadako's past, leading to the death of Dr. Kuno on the stage. Though Toyama tries to save her, he's unable to prevent the acting troupe from beating

her to death. Despite his devastation and heartbreak, he accompanies them on the trek to Izu to find and kill the other Sadako. He stays in the van with her body while the others enter Dr. Ikuma's home, only to be shocked when she returns to life. The two of them attempt to escape together, but with the others chasing after them, Sadako tries to make Toyama go without her. He watches as she attempts to throw herself over a cliff, only for her evil half to become one with her. He does appear to see the evil Sadako's hands clamping onto her sides, but when she approaches him, he declares his love for her. His screams then echo through the woods, stopping everyone else dead in their hunt and making them realize they're in deep trouble.

Though she admits she's a little strange, Etsuko (Kumiko Aso), at first, doesn't have a problem with Sadako, describing her as a hard worker and pretty. That attitude changes when she notices Toyama's interest in her, and when strange and frightening things begin to happen, such as the sound Toyama records, which he lets her listen to. Etsuko has her own unsettling encounter when she's alone in the dressing room, altering Sadako's costume. After sensing the evil Sadako's presence and seeing her in the mirror, she wakes up after having the dream about the old well and the house to find the dress gone. She and Toyama then find Sadako wandering about with the dress, and she angrily chastises her for doing so, accusing her of being the cause of all the bizarre occurrences. Determined to learn about Sadako's past, Etsuko takes her resume and goes to see Dr. Kuno, but the doctor refuses to say anything. Etsuko leaves in frustration, but unknowingly gives Akiko Miyaji a clue that leads her to Sadako, as she leaves behind a flier for the play, which Miyaji's assistant finds. She also tries to warn Toyama to stay away from Sadako, saying she's not normal, but he refuses to hear it. During the third act, Miyaji contacts Etsuko and has her help expose Sadako. During the play, Etsuko lures Toyama out of the sound booth and plays a recording of Shizuko's demonstration and its tragic aftermath. Toyama tries to stop it but Etsuko tells him he needs to know the truth about Sadako, leading to everything going awry and her being beaten to death. Etsuko feels guilty about this outcome, especially when she sees how devastated Toyama is, and when he and the revived Sadako attempt to escape together, Etsuko tries to stop their pursuers. Unfortunately for her, she then gets caught up in the evil Sadako's rampage.

From the beginning, a reporter named Akiko Miyaji (Yoshiko Tanaka) is on Sadako's trail, first talking with Mrs. Sudo on Oshima Island and next heading to Tokyo to speak with Dr. Kuno, who happened to have studied under Dr. Ikuma. She reveals to him that she has a tape of Shizuko's fateful demonstration, which also has the same, piercing sound Toyama records, and tells him that every single reporter who was there has since died. Though Kuno denies knowing Ikuma or Sadako's current whereabouts, Miyaji is led to her when her assistant finds the flier for the play that Etsuko drops. The day before the play's opening, the two of them visit the theater and meet Sadako. Miyaji's assistant takes a number of pictures of her, when his camera suddenly bursts. When she returns to her news office, she finds Mrs. Sudo waiting for her, and she recounts the frightening experience she had when she visited the Yamamuras at their home. Between that and the images that appear on the photos, which reveal that the entire troupe is cursed, as well as the presence of a second Sadako, Miyaji is sure she's found the right person. And when her assistant tells her this is one article she won't be able to write, she says it was never for an article. Turns out, Miyaji was engaged to the reporter who died at the demonstration and has tracked Sadako down to exact revenge. She enlists Etsuko in helping to expose her during the play's performance, but she doesn't get the chance to kill Sadako, as the acting troupe beat her to death. Coming across this scene, Miyaji tells everyone of the second Sadako, whom she saw on the empty stage after everyone had fled, and that they need to kill her before they died of her curse. Thinking they may find her at Ikuma's estate, Miyaji searches Sadako's apartment and finds a clue that leads them all there. Of course, when they drive out there with Sadako's corpse, they give the evil one the chance to join together with her. She proceeds to go on a killing spree, with Miyaji and Etsuko being her last two victims. Instead of facing her wrath, Miyaji shoots Etsuko and then turns the gun on herself.

Yusaku Shigemori (Takeshi Wakamatsu), the director of the play, is the typical sleazy figure of power who has an eye on Sadako as soon as she joins the acting troupe. Obviously wanting her to be the lead rather than Aiko, whose relationship with him has deteriorated as a result, he does exactly that when Aiko unexpectedly dies (he also shamelessly says they're going ahead with the play because that's what Aiko would've wanted). He doesn't waste any time making his move on her, as he puts his arm around the small of her back while giving her some direction after rehearsal, and actually shows up at Sadako's apartment that night. He spots a picture of Shizuko, guesses that she's Sadako's mother, and flat out asks if she's dead. Sadako asks him to leave but Shigemori instead lights a cigarette by the open window and tells her, "I'll make you a star. I can do that, you know." The scene ends right there, and what happened next is never revealed, as Sadako tells Toyama that she herself doesn't remember, an uncomfortable suggestion. When Shigemori sees what happens when Miyaji and her assistant take photographs of Sadako, he later confronts her on the stage after rehearsal, revealing he's figured out who she is. He says, "Aiko's death was no accident. You'll do anything to be a star, won't you?" Initially thinking Shizuko killed the reporter years ago, he then figures it might've actually been Sadako and tells her, "Just the woman I've been looking for. You're perfect for an actress," adding, "If I die, I'll take you with me. I'll tell everyone. They won't let you live. You're mine." He gets up and goes to leave, when parts of the stage start to shake. Thinking Sadako is attempting to kill him, he attacks her, but is grabbed and thrown aside by Toyama. Showing how deranged he is, Shigemori grabs a brass candlestick from the stage and attacks Toyama with it. He insanely shouts, "You won't kill me!", as the two of them fight, but Toyama gains the upper-hand and does kill him. Though they try to hide the body, it's discovered during the play's performance the next day, leading the troupe to attack Sadako.

Dr. Kuno (Ryushi Mizukami), Sadako's psychiatrist, is gradually revealed to have more of a connection to her story than it initially seems. In a conversation with Miyaji, he admits to having studied under Dr. Ikuma but says his research into psychic ability was too much for him to deal with, adding that he believes he did the right thing by recanting his theories. It's unclear whether or not he does know of Ikuma's current whereabouts when Miyaji asks him or if he knows that Sadako split into two different beings, but he does know some of the backstory, given his reaction to the tape recording of Shizuko's demonstration. Also, when Etsuko shows up and asks about Sadako, he refuses to say anything. After Sadako brings Toyama to him after he gets injured in the fight with Shigemori, Kuno is floored to learn the next day that she was able to heal the crippled man. He rushes to the theater and gets a seat just as her plays begins, only to witness Miyaji and Etsuko's attempt to expose her. When Sadako begins losing it, Kuno goes onstage and tries to calm her, commenting on the gift she has for healing. But in her frightened and confused state, she sees him as Shigemori's bloody corpse and her evil side lashes out, killing him in front of everyone.

Aiko (Kaoru Okunuki), the initial star of the play, doesn't last long before she's killed off, but she is significant as she acts as the first sign of the troupe's hostility towards Sadako. Following the first rehearsal seen, Aiko, who's irked with Shigemori's interest in Sadako, chews her out for looking at her and then storms off the stage. Later, in the dressing room, she confesses to one of the other actors, Kaoru (Atsuko Takahata), that she keeps seeing something behind Sadako, and that

ever since she came, she's been having nightmares about an old well and a rundown house. Much to her surprise, Kaoru reveals she's had the same dream. Later, while sitting offstage during rehearsal, Aiko is the first to glimpse the apparition of Sadako's evil half, as she walks right across the stage and past the actors, who don't see her at all. She approaches Aiko and then, after rehearsal, Kaoru finds her dead, leading to Shigemori replacing her with Sadako. Though Sadako proves to be a really good replacement, following her first rehearsal, she sees an apparition of Aiko, looking and pointing at her, silently accusing her of killing her. Kaoru and the other members of the troupe, meanwhile, grow more and more distrusting and leery of Sadako, believing she killed Aiko to take her role. When Shigemori's body is discovered during the opening performance, Kaoru tells the others it was Sadako's doing and not to let her escape, leading to the film's violent and tragic climax.

While the filmmaking itself, as I'll get into shortly, is competent, where Ring 0 fails is that the story and characters are not that interesting. Although her having been in an acting troupe in Tokyo was alluded to in Spiral (at least, in the film), I really don't care to see that backstory filled in, and definitely not in such a fairly cliched way, with the typical backstage drama of the jealous girlfriend and just about everyone else not liking the new girl, save for the one guy who's willing to look past her eccentricities and see her for who she is, and

the director being a total sleazebag whose interest in Sadako goes beyond her star potential. Some reviews have drawn connections to Carrie, going as far as to call the film a ripoff, and while I wouldn't go that far, I can't deny that it did often remind me of it. Not only do you have a story about an unpopular girl who's seen as weird by her peers but you have the psychic angle, where she does things without realizing it, you have a major moment in the third act that takes place onstage in front of a big crowd of people and has the girl set

up in a manner that leads to disaster, and the ending with her parent killing her. But more uninteresting to me than the story are the characters. Except for Sadako, whom I'm not that into here anyway, I couldn't care less about any of them. Though he's a decent guy who doesn't treat Sadako like crap and attempts to encourage her, I don't care about Toyama one way or the other, and I find the love that develops between the two of them to be kind of shallow and rushed. Since

Miyaji is a character we've never met until now, I can't get into her plight about wanting revenge on Sadako for killing her fiancé, who's always come off as a nasty, unlikable guy with how accusatory he was towards Shizuko. And except for a blink and you'll miss it shot of a photograph of her and that reporter, they do nothing to clue you in to her reason for wanting Sadako dead, and it took me a bit to realize the significance of that picture, anyway. As for the rest of the acting troupe, most

of them, I don't even know their names (for the longest time during this review, I couldn't remember Kaoru's name), and for those I do know, Aiko comes off as bitchy and jealous for the short amount of time she's onscreen, Etsuko is spiteful and intolerant, and Shigemori is just a creep.

But my least favorite part of the story is Sadako, although not for the reason you might think. While I don't like them spoiling the ambiguity of this entity who was so terrifying in the first film, if they were going to show us the backstory leading up to when she was tossed down the well, they could've at least milked her tragic potential for all it's worth. They could've had her grow up to be remorseful about killing that reporter and ruining her parents' lives, and vowing not to use her powers to harm anyone ever again. But, over the course of the

movie, as she's mistreated more and more, they could've had her really struggle with the wish to make them pay for what they've done and come close to going over the edge at times. In the end, she finally snaps, kills quite a few people in a rage, is remorseful for it, and goes to her father's home for help, only for him to betray and throw her down the well, leading to the rage and hatred her spirit feels. I won't lie and say that's not a mixture of Carrie and Elfen Lied, but I think it would've been more effective and tragic, showing how a

potentially good person can become a vengeful misanthrope, alive or dead, especially with Yukie Nakama's sincere and appealing performance. But instead, they went with this idea of Sadako splitting into two different beings, with the evil one somehow able to affect things miles away from where she's being held, I guess through some manner of astral projection. And is the evil Sadako flesh and blood or purely spiritual? I would guess the former, since Ikuma talks about using drugs to

stunt her growth, but then she must also be demonic in some way, given how she's able to join back together with her good half. I'm guessing the kind of split personality she exhibits once the two halves are whole again is how she was to begin with, and I kind of like the idea that, when Ikuma threw her down the well, she became wholly evil and bitter in death, but on the whole, this yin and yang approach is yet another example of these filmmakers and writers making it more difficult and complex than necessary.

From a visual standpoint, Ring 0 is the entry that's the least appealing, as it has a desaturated look, with extreme contrasts, making for some pretty strong blacks and shadows. While that works well for the many scenes and sequences that take place within the dark theater, and the flashbacks are, as per usual, done in a grainy sepia tone that helps their effectiveness, everything else, including the climax in the countryside of Izu, is rather blah (in fact, it seems to deliberately become more desaturated once the two Sadakos come together).

Even Spiral, which itself had a fairly colorless visual style, was more interesting to look at. As for Norio Tsurata's direction, it's similar to Hideo Nakata's in that, for the most part, it's fairly straightforward and not that intrusive, but has moments of cinematographic and editorial flourishes, often in its sudden transition to flashbacks. In fact, in stark contrast to the many quiet, still moments that come later, the opening is a flurry of quick cuts and sounds, as well as some shaking, handheld camerawork, as we see bustling,

modern-day Tokyo and focus on the girl who talks with her friend about the videotape and the nightmare she had concerning the well, the old, rundown house, and the vision of what happened to Sadako. As she thinks about the dream and tells her friend about it, we see flashes of it, and except for her voice, all the sound suddenly goes out. Her memory of the dream is composed of a close-up of her hand touching its broken rim, a shot at the bottom of the well looking up at her, and another looking over her shoulder, down into the darkness.

The rest of the dream is shot in an often tilted, disorienting manner, and ends with the girl looking out one of the windows and witnessing what happened to Sadako. The film then suddenly cuts to the actual setting of thirty years before, with a caption letting us know about the transition. Following that, a POV shot of Miyaji looking out over a bay on Oshima Island transitions to a close-up of Sadako's eye, as we're introduced to her while she memorizes the play in her apartment.

During these first scenes that takes place in the past, not only does it become apparent that the movie is going to be much slower-paced and restrained than that opening would have you believe, but we also see Tsurata's major visual motif: big, wide shots of a setting and the people within it, often with the camera slowly panning across them. This approach is often offset with some fairly major close-ups, some of which are shot from below, such as when Shigemori attempts

to blackmail Sadako, making him look more imposing. This distant, detached filming style also helps with the impact of certain scenes, such as when Sadako sees apparitions in Dr. Kuno's waiting room and especially when Ikuma tosses Sadako down the well at the end.

While nowhere near as unsettling or creepy as the original Ring, Tsurata does prove himself capable of coming up with some eerie moments and scenes all his own. He often films apparitions in a matter of fact way to where you, initially, wouldn't know you're looking at ghosts until they briefly flicker (sometimes accompanied by the sounds of children creaming), or you realize you're looking at someone you know has been dead for decades, like Shizuko and the accusatory reporter. The way Tsurata films the appearances of the evil Sadako at

the theater looks and feels the same way Nakata would've done it. The first time, all you get are close-ups of her feet as she walks across the stage, right past the actors who are totally unaware of her presence, and up to Aiko as she sits offstage. It then cuts to Toyama, as he records the high-pitched sound that comes to be associated with her deadly powers, when Shigemori calls for a break before preparing for the next scene. Only then does Kaoru notice that Aiko is still sitting over in that one chair, not moving, and when she goes over to

check on her, she shakes her and her head falls back, revealing she's dead, with that familiar, horrified expression on her face (her eyes are glazed over, too, which is really unsettling). Etsuko's encounter with the evil Sadako is effectively done as well and is, in my opinion, the film's spookiest scene. She's by herself in the dressing room, altering Sadako's dress, when a petal falls from a vase full of roses to her right. She gets creeped out and looks around her, but when

she doesn't see anything, she puts the dress aside and has some tea. That's when she clearly feels she's not alone, and as the camera stays on her, we see the figure of the girl in white walk past. She suddenly turns around and sees the girl reflected in the mirror, when we're suddenly bombarded with images from the dream, and Etsuko wakes up with a start. Thoroughly spooked, and with the dress gone, she creeps out of the dressing room and looks around. Toyama shows up and she tells him that something strange happened. The two of them slowly walk out to the stage, seeing that the door to it is ajar, and look straight across it, when the good Sadako appears with the dress.

Tsurata also effectively shoots Mrs. Sudo's recounting of what happened at Ikuma's house the one time she visited. Done in that grainy, sepia tone manner, you see her look into the next room after walking to the top of some stairs, where Shizuko is brushing her hair. Everything seems fine, at first, but then, Shizuko stops brushing her hair, moves towards the mirror on the wall, and looks at her reflection with that freakish expression. Backing away, and realizing she's alone, Sudo goes down the hall, rounds a corner, and hears what sounds

like crawling coming from behind the door leading up to the attic. She opens it, looks up the stairs, and sees a mass of hair slide up and out of sight, as well as a close-up of an eye watching her. She closes the door, but it's revealed the creepy girl is standing behind her in the hallway. Fortunately, she just walks away, but said encounter was enough to make Sudo terrified of Sadako. And finally, again, we get some examples of spiritual photography after Miyaji's assistant takes some shots of the

theater and the acting troupe. All of them have the warped faces signaling their being cursed, while another photograph reveals the imagery of the reporters who died after Shizuko's demonstration in the background. And one of the pictures of Sadako herself reveals the presence of her other self, standing in the background.

Though the exact year isn't mentioned, we can guess through simple math that this story takes place in either 1969 or 1970, depending on whether you want to count the opening as taking place in 1999, when the film was shot, or 2000, when it was released (the short story takes place 21 years in the past). And yet, it's not at all in your face about it. There's no modern technology, that's for sure, with the tape recorders, sound equipment, cameras, and television sets appearing extremely primitive, but at the same time, there are no fashions or trends

that scream this is taking place at the beginning of the 70's. There's no use of hallucinogenic drugs, no hippies, the film never goes into any clubs or plays any songs that would clue us in, and the clothes that everyone wears are generic, with no big collars or bell-bottoms or anything of that nature. I have to really commend them for being so low-key about the period, as other movies really feel the need to beat you over the head with it, even when it's not all that important, like here. Just knowing that this is the lead-up to Sadako's death several decades before the events of Ring is enough.

I do think a drama theater is a great setting for a horror film and this film does get across how creepy such a place can be, especially late at night, when there's little to nobody else there. As I've already described, there are some eerie moments that occur in the dark backstage area, specifically the empty dressing room, where Etsuko has her unnerving encounter, and the place also has a claustrophobic nature, as the stage and audience section are quite small, while the backstage corridors are very narrow and tight. And when the

troupe chases and traps Sadako in the dressing room, you know there's nowhere she can escape to. What's really interesting is that the play they're putting on, called Mask, is actually a stage version of Eyes Without A Face, only set in either the late 1800's or early 20th century, given the costumes and the ancient-looking telephone that features in one scene. They even recreate the scene in that film where Christiane attempts to call Jacques (the characters are renamed Anna and Andre), and during the actual performance, Sadako is wearing a

white face-mask, though it looks more akin to the Phantom of the Opera than what Christiane wore. Though the props and costumes they use in the play are nothing to write home about, there is an elaborate setpiece they execute during the actual performance, where the stage is filled with candles, including a square-shaped display in the center that's completely covered with them. While much of the rest of the settings are fairly standard, such as Dr. Kuno's office and clinic, Toyama's

apartment, and Miyaji's news offices, Sadako's apartment, which we only see a handful of times, is worth noting because of how tiny it is, with little furniture, save for a desk by the window with a picture of Shizuko on it, showing how little money she has on her. And I think the darkroom where Miyaji's assistant develops the pictures he took is also noteworthy, as such places usually are due to their being bathed in red light. It always makes the development of creepy photos depicting something supernatural all the more effective.

As is often the case with these movies, I think the most memorable settings are the ones out in the countryside, like the old school Sadako attended on Oshima Island, the house the Yamamura family had there, and a distinctive, crescent-shaped bay where Sadako made an ominous prediction about the kids swimming that came true. That, of course, leads us to the very origin of the terror in the other movies: Dr. Ikuma's property in Izu, an isolated area deep in the woods, with the infamous well near the main house, which contains an attic where

Ikuma kept the evil Sadako contained. When Miyaji walks up there during the climax, she opens a door to find a spot with a very small door on the other side, one with a padlock. Shooting the padlock off and going through it, Miyaji finds a room that's almost completely pitch black, save for some daylight coming through a single window up near the ceiling, and a television up against the wall, with nothing but static and white noise coming through (maybe that's why the evil Sadako is so pissed; she's stuck up there with nothing to watch). The forests surrounding the place are thick and disorienting, with one path leading to the edge of a cliff, and another that leads to an old, empty house, where Miyaji and Etsuko meet their end.

Like its predecessors, the movie doesn't have many special effects to speak of, at least until the climax. Before that, the most we get are some physical effects when parts of the stage shake around Sadako and Shigemori and when Sadako breaks some mirrors in the dressing room, photographic trickery to create the flickering, see-through apparitions Sadako sees and the eerie images seen in the photos, and some minor blood and makeup effects from Toyama's fight with Shigemori, particularly a nasty gash he gets on his forehead

when Shigemori hits him with a brass candlestick. Also, when things go downhill during the play, Sadako sees a vision of Shigemori with blood running down his face. But during the climax, when Sadako's evil half joins with her, we get more effects work. At the moment the two of them come together, a big close-up of Sadako's eye becomes filled with a shot of the rolling sea and Shizuko's image floating about in front of it. When she blinks, the image of her evil side is seen floating

around, followed by her own, before we transition back to see that the evil side is now in control. Though Sadako's actual killing of the troupe isn't graphically violent, as she just makes them drop dead as always, it does lead to a violent, bloody end for Miyaji and Etsuko, as Ikuma finds their bodies and sees that Miyaji delivered a mercy kill to Etsuko before shooting herself in the head, with blood splattered all over the wall behind both of them. Also, when Sadako approaches the two of them, they use some sort of distortion effect to make her limbs bend and twist unnaturally, and Ikuma slices Sadako across the forehead before tossing her down the well.

After a few spooky incidents scattered throughout the movie, and the violent confrontation with Shigemori, things really go apeshit at the beginning of the third act. As the play prepares to open, all the key players come together: Sadako prepares to perform, Toyama gets ready in the sound booth, Etsuko is given the tape of Shizuko's demonstration by Miyaji, who sits in the audience, and Dr. Kuno, learning of Sadako's healing abilities, rushes to the theater and takes a seat in the audience as well. As the play begins, a

stagehand notices a trail of blood backstage and follows it, finding Shigemori's hidden body. He tells some of the others of this, with Kaoru overhearing and following them, and the one stagehand having to tell her what they found. At that moment, Etsuko, who's been sitting outside, realizes it's time for her to fulfill her part of the scheme and heads to the sound booth. She tells Toyama that he's wanted, that there's a problem, and that she'll fill in for him. Once he's left, she takes out the tape, as Sadako prepares to walk out

onto the stage with her mask. When she does and the spotlight illuminates her, Etsuko begins playing the tape (which is the exact audio of the scene from the first movie). While the audience becomes confused about what they're hearing, Sadako realizes what it is and drops to her knees, holding her head. She flashes back to the demonstration and removes her mask, as more of the stage-lights above her turn on by themselves and start to shake. Those backstage try to figure out what's going on

with the lights, while Toyama rushes back to the sound booth. He bursts through the door and tries to stop the recording, but Etsuko holds him back, asking, "Don't you want to know about Sadako?!" He looks out the booth's window, as someone in the audience asks, "Who's that in the kimono?" Shizuko's apparition has appeared onstage, in a manner that everyone can see. When Sadako sees her, she remembers more of how the demonstration went downhill, and then sees Shizuko mouth

something to her before disappearing into the dark. Sadako looks offstage and sees another apparition, this one being the reporter she killed at the demonstration. Up in her seat, Miyaji removes a handgun from her purse, while Toyama, Etsuko, and then the audience hear the same shrill, shrieking sound that was recorded when Aiko died.

Kuno walks onstage and, standing across from her, on the opposite side of the set decoration filled with lit candles, tries to calm Sadako, talking about the gift she has for healing. But when he approaches her, she sees him as the apparition of Shigemori and screams. He's hit with pain in his chest and, clutching at it and yelling, he swings around and collapses right onto the candles. The audience screams in horror at the sight of this, and when Sadako realizes what she's done, she screams again, causing the lights above her to short out and

crash to the stage. This causes the audience to scramble off in a panic, and as Sadako looks at Kuno's body on the floor, she notices how the other actors and crew are glaring at her. She gets up and runs, while Miyaji, standing amid the spooked audience, sees a second Sadako on the stage. The actors chase Sadako through the backstage area's narrow corridors and up the stairs to the dressing room. Toyama tries to intervene, but Etsuko prevents him, and they're intercepted by the mob. They corner Sadako in the dressing room, backing

her up against the wall next to a clothes rack, as she pleads for them to stop. A table in the room shakes violently, though Sadako insists it wasn't her doing, when the mirrors suddenly explode, leaving large holes and shattered sections of glass in their center. Having seen enough, Kaoru strikes the first blow, hitting her in the forehead with her prop cane. Toyama runs to the door, trying to barge his way in and stop the assault, but Etsuko and a stagehand hold him back. Sadako is brutally

beaten, though the blows themselves are only shown from a distance and are blocked by the assailants' bodies. It's also intercut with close-ups of the actors as they attack and similar shots of Sadako's body, legs, and other extremities as she's beaten. Finally, Toyama manages to barge his way in, but it's too late, as he sees Sadako's lifeless body lying on the floor. He collapses next to her, sobbing, as a now guilt-ridden Etsuko watches from outside the circle. Miyaji rushes in and, seeing what's happened, tells them of the second Sadako and that they'll die from her curse unless they kill her. She shows them the photos of their distorted faces as proof.

Searching Sadako's apartment, Miyaji finds a letter with Dr. Ikuma's name on it hidden in the framed picture of Shizuko. Thus, she and the others make the journey to Izu, including Toyama and Etsuko, who ride in the back of a truck with Sadako's body. On the way, Etsuko sees how much Toyama cares for Sadako when she sees him holding her bloody hand. The group arrives at Ikuma's estate, and Miyaji has Kaoru stay outside with Toyama and Etsuko, while she and the others head inside. After meeting Ikuma at the door, he lets them in. Miyaji

takes out her handgun again and, following Ikuma's explanation of how Sadako split in two, she heads upstairs, while everyone else stays behind. She creeps up to the door at the top of the stairs, finds the small door with the padlock on it, and shoots it off, the sound of which Kaoru hears outside. As Miyaji crawls through the door and finds the empty room, out in the truck, Toyama is surprised when Sadako suddenly grips his hand as he holds hers. He whispers her name, and Etsuko sees that she's returned to life. Inside, Ikuma walks into the room

to find it empty and exclaims, "Don't tell me you brought Sadako here!" The next cut shows Toyama helping Sadako escape through the woods. Kaoru spots them and Etsuko, now on their side, tries to stop her, but she yells that Sadako is getting away. Hearing this, the others rush out and Kaoru points them in the direction they went, before joining them in the pursuit. At one point, Sadako falls to the ground and, as Toyama tries to get her to her feet, she asks in a childish voice, "Are the people

chasing us?" Toyama is taken aback by this, but when Sadako tells him to get away, he refuses to leave her behind. She implores him to, much to his shock, when they hear the party nearby. Sadako gets to her feet and stumbles away, telling him she wants him to escape. He tells her not to go that way, as she walks by her other self, heading for the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. It looks as though she's going to jump, but falls to her knees. She tells Toyama to stay back when he tries to

approach and cries, "I can't... go on anymore." She then gets back to her feet, turns around, and, as Toyama watches, seeing a pair of small hands holding her sides from behind, she and her other half become one again. Toyama declares that he loves Sadako, when the sound of his screams echo through the woods, stopping the lynch party dead in their tracks, as well as Etsuko, who's chasing after them.

They stand around in the woods in frightened silence, hearing the sound of birds flying away in terror. A gust of air blows through the woods and through their hair, effectively marking them for death. It also blows through Ikuma's house, knocking something off a table. He slowly realizes what it means, while back in the forest, Miyaji looks off to the side and sees a glimpse of Sadako lurking in the brush. Suddenly, one of the men screams and collapses to the ground. Sadako reveals herself again, as two more of the actors

succumb to her power. Knowing what's happening, Miyaji tells Kaoru to run, but she's too frightened to move. Miyaji runs off into the woods, with Sadako stalking her, when she comes across Etsuko standing in the woods by herself. She tells her to run, when they hear Kaoru scream back in the distance. Etsuko then screams upon seeing Sadako, while Ikuma comes running through the forest, begging her to stop. Miyaji drags a very frightened and hysterical Etsuko through the woods, when she collapses to the ground in a crying heap. Miyaji

pulls her to her feet and forces her to go on, as Sadako watches from nearby. Seeing an old, abandoned house on the trail ahead of them, Miyaji forces Etsuko towards it. She throws open one of the doors and drags her inside, as she continues screaming and crying in hysteria. In the back of the house, she collapses to the floor. Miyaji yells for her to calm down, then looks in the room to her right and sees Sadako standing outside the window. She slides it closed and runs to close the front door,

only to run right into Sadako standing inside the house. Miyaji falls to the floor and crawls backwards towards Etsuko, the two of them sitting up against a sliding door. As they watch the corner ahead of them, Sadako rounds it and approaches them, twisting and cracking her body in an unnatural and freakish manner. Miyaji grabs her gun from the floor and holds it, as Sadako walks right up to them (does this scenario remind anybody else of the ending scene in The Blair Witch Project?).

Ikuma runs through the forest desperately and comes across the abandoned house, when he hears two gunshots. Walking inside, he sees that Miyaji shot Etsuko and then herself. Hearing sobbing in the next room, he looks to see Sadako, her good side now back in control, lying in a corner and crying over her actions. He sits her up and embraces her as she continues crying, telling her, "Come on. Let's go home." Back at the main house, after cleaning her head wound, he gives her an injection he says will relax her. Sadako asks who

her real father is and Ikuma insists he is and that it's a silly question to ask. As he stands near her, Sadako begins to writhe and clutch at her chest, while the camera tilts to a Dutch angle. Realizing he poisoned her, Sadako panics, while Ikuma says they need to end it now and that he'll join her immediately. Panicking, Sadako stumbles to the door. Ikuma tries to stop her but she flings him off her and rips her way through the paper and wood paneling, collapsing on the ground outside. She crawls through the leaves, with Ikuma chasing after

her, again attempting to stop her. Like before, she throws him off and manages to get to her feet and stumble forward. He tackles her to the ground and the two of them struggle, with Sadako managing to wrench herself free. She crawls up to the infamous well and pulls herself up next to its side. Ikuma then grabs a nearby blade and confronts her with it. She begs him not to, but he slices her across the forehead. Blood drips down her face and he hits her again, then tosses her over the rim and down

into the well. The distant, removed nature of this shot makes it more disturbing, as you can hear her muffled, fading screams as she falls down the well, followed by the splash of the water. Ikuma breaks down on the side of the well, tearfully begging Sadako to forgive him.

The last scene has a pan through the deserted and long abandoned main house, out onto the grounds, past the well, and then up above it, before going down into it. Once the screen is completely dark, Toyama's voice says Sadako's name. She awakens with a start in his apartment, in his bed, like before, and she sees him standing over her. He tells her, "You were dreaming," and smiles warmly at her. She returns the smile and reaches out for him, saying his name... only to touch the well's wall. She slowly remembers where she is and panics, calling out his name, while she moves back and forth through the water. She looks up and screams in horror as her father seals the well, trapping her in the darkness, where the movie ends.

The music score was the work of Shinichiro Ogata, a composer who doesn't have many credits to his name and almost all of them he does have are Norio Tsurata's work. When the movie starts up, the music you hear will have you thinking, "Dear lord, what is this?", as it's a fast, chaotic, shrill-sounding piece, but it's obviously meant to represent the chaotic nature of the modern world it opens in. When the movie's true, slow-burn nature becomes evident, the music follows suit. It then becomes more of a traditional Ring score, with a mixture of scary and emotional music. The girl's recollection of her dream is done with eerie background noises and plucking strings, before building up to when she sees a vision of Sadako being pushed into the well. Shortly after that, as Miyaji looks out over the bay where Sadako predicted the drownings of a bunch of kids, a creepy, hollow sound accompanies the sounds of kids screaming, but then, as it transitions to the title and Sadako's introduction, the music becomes sad and lonely, with instances of eerie strings in the background that you can just perceive. It becomes a melancholic piano piece when it's revealed just how small and poor her apartment actually is, and continues into the next scene, where Aiko recites a speech from the play onstage. Similar music is heard when Sadako tells Dr. Kuno about the acting troupe and says she enjoys being a part of it, hinting at the sad fact that no one else there likes her. It goes on when we see another tense moment between her and Aiko back at the theater. A very creepy, ethereal piece plays when Aiko and Kaoru discuss the dream they've both had, with a similar, more upfront piece occurring when Aiko has her fatal encounter with Sadako's evil half, complete with a piercing sound similar to what Toyama records. There are fairly long stretches where you don't hear any score, including some sections you'd expect to have music (the fight with Shigemori, Sadako's beating, etc.), and there are moments where you don't hear it at first but then, it sort of creeps in, such as Etsuko's encounter in the dressing room. For a long time, there's no music but then, when she senses she's not alone, the familiar unearthly sounds come in, hitting hard when we get flashes of the dream. The moment where Sadako tells Toyama about somebody always being with her has sounds to it that come off almost like voices wailing in the distance, with a low plucking string. But, that transitions into more melancholic piano music for when we get a bit of Sadako's dreams afterward.

An almost operatic, orchestral theme is heard when Etsuko decides to look up Sadako's past, and it's followed by more melancholic piano when we see Toyama looking down at Sadako from the sound booth. Eerie sounds are heard again when Sadako recoils from having her picture taken, stopping suddenly when the camera explodes, and when Mrs. Sudo recalls what happened when she visited Ikuma's house on Oshima Island, we're bombarded with a lot of freakish music, including some that wouldn't sound out of place in The Shining. A low piece, halfway between eerie and wondrous, is heard when Sadako first discovers she can heal, and during a small moment between her and Toyama at the clinic, there's a nice little theme that starts off soft and grows gradually louder as the scene goes on. Similar music is heard when she makes the crippled man walk, and there's a soft warm piano bit that swells and becomes more romantic in the moment where Sadako and Toyama admit their love for each other. Strangely, a surprisingly light and airy theme plays for the lead-up to when everything goes south for them, and after some more ethereal sounds for when Sadako recognizes the tape recording, it gets orchestral and dramatic when the troupe chases her, stopping when they corner her. Rather forlorn music is heard for the journey to Izu, emphasizing how broken Toyama is over what's happened, but when they reach it, it gets momentarily creepy when they realize they're at the place they've seen in their dreams. Similarly, Sadako's resurrection is scored as spooky rather than joyous, and their attempted escape through the woods is very dramatic and orchestral. Freakish wailing sounds are heard when she and her evil half come together, along with shrill strings and the sounds of children screaming. Creepy sounds continue to echo on the soundtrack when Sadako hunts down Miyaji and Etsuko, and the moment she corners and approaches them in the abandoned house is done through unnerving strings that pluck wildly when she gets right up on them. More plucking strings and wailing sounds are heard when the poisoned Sadako attempts to escape, only to build up and then stop when Ikuma grabs the blade (that tends to happen a lot here). Otherworldly atmospheric music is heard for the pan through the abandoned property, and there's a sweet little piece that plays when Sadako believes she was just dreaming, only for it to stop when she realizes she's in the well.

In addition to the actual score, the classical piece, Adagio in G Minor, is played by Toyama for when Sadako proves her worth as an actor in rehearsal. And like always, there's a song over the ending credits: Finale, performed by L'Arc-en-Ciel. But, the Ring series seems to have this habit of every other movie having an ending song I don't care for because, like with Spiral, I'm not a fan of this. I think the actual score is pretty decent, if not able to really differentiate itself from the previous ones, but this song is just generic and kind of whiny in how it sounds, almost like something you'd hear from a Japanese version of Nickelback. 

For nothing other than completion's sake, as well as for its own merits, I do suggest you check out Ring 0: Birthday. It benefits from good direction and a mostly effective approach to the subject matter, a sincere performance by Yukie Nakama as Sadako, memorable locations and settings, some very well done scenes and sequences, and a fairly good music score. But, where it goes wrong is that the story it tells isn't that interesting, with characters you don't really care about, a concept

surrounding Sadako that is really out there and only makes things complicated, and the simple fact that you can feel the fatigue that's setting in by this point. Plus, the movie is not appealing on a visual level and, if you don't like the idea of Sadako's backstory being totally filled in to begin with, the way they do it is unlikely to meet your approval. If you've seen all the other movies, you might as well see this, and like I said, it does have things going for it, but it is still, in my opinion, the weakest of the original four from Japan.