Part One

Woman with ESP (Sadako) was murdered and was left for dead down a well filled with dirty smelly water. She lived for 28 years down there, so, like, as you would, she has cursed people.

Her vitriol is visited on those who play a video tape in which she zombies out of her well-grave and climbs through the television screen to getcha... How does she do this? Maybe she stinks and they die of the smell? Or maybe she looks awful and her looks simply kill her victims? In any event, there is a missed opportunity for a good fight, the victims just give up and die with a look of terror on their faces... Reiko Asakawa is a journalist with a child son who investigates this strange phenomena.

Part Two

Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) has finally gone mad, she has smashed up the television in her apartment and ripped out the video tapes and apparently tried to wash them down the plug in the bath...

She is put into a hospital - Her son, Yoichi, is caught wandering around. It is discovered that he has ESP and they try to pull the powers from him using the old paper in water trick. Does it work? Well, here's hoping for The Ring 3....

"So, to escape just press eject and then run for the hills? That isn't scary that's just common sense."

"So, if you watch the video on fast forward does she get you twice as fast?"

"So, if you watch the video on fast backwards does she disappear back down the well again?"

"I never liked the video tape technology and have been converted to DVD for the last few years. I suppose one day they may come up with a zombie that can get out of a DVD player but I feel convinced that, after having spun around at 2000 rpm's they will be as dizzy as can be and will simply fall over when they get out of the television set."

"I have never liked SCART connections, it just makes this kind of attack inevitable."

Part One: There is no end in sight at the end of part one. There does seem to be some kind of fix for this zombie attack, however: Copy the video and show someone else within the week...

But, at the end of the movie, we are left with the horrible thought: had this whole enterprise begun because a bunch of students hired out a blank tape from the lodge? Why on earth someone would choose to hire out a blank tape from the selection at the lodge is beyond us. The selection behind the counter looked reasonably large (2-3 shelves full?) All of the titles are in Japanese so the titles might have been a load of old tosh for all we know, but, for argument's sake, let's assume the collection included, say, The Matrix, Star Wars and Gladiator, and still somebody chooses to watch a blank tape and then be murdered because of it? It makes no sense to us at all... This whole almost 4 hour, two part epic, could have been ended within 4 minutes with better home entertainment selection! No wonder the Japanese economy is in the state it is in...

Part Two: We find out how Sadako was killed and buried (at sea in an amazingly floaty coffin) but she escapes and returns to wreak havoc.

(From translation) "Tomoko died in here..."

"My dad's fat, my mum's fat and so I am fat too..."

"People don't usually die like that..."

"Bubble bubble glub glub glub..."

A quiet, eerie, Japanese horror-thriller, with some (one?) memorable bits. Problem is that the plot is probably a bit too technobabbly for its own good.

March 31 , 2005