Director: Renpei Tsukamoto
Year: 2005
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Chakushin ari 2
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
With the events of the first film passed off as urban legend, a reporter helps a group of friends experiencing the same situation as the legendary tale featuring their cell phone receiving a message from the future of their own death, and upon investigating finds that there was more to the curse forcing them to stop the chain of events.
Review:
This one had a couple of good points that really helped it out. One of the big ones is the connection it has with the first entry making it exactly what a closely-related sequel should be like. This is important as it takes the first one and expands upon the elements introduced, at times rewriting them but still keeps enough of it to appear as to not be trampling too heavily on it, and it comes off nicely. Scenes, plot points, even characters, from the first one are touched upon and give it a deeper connection than expected. That it also decides to give us the true backstory also shines nicely, going into a lot more detail and being able to really get into the mystery is a nice plus, and it also manages to showcase the disfigured and incredibly freaky-looking ghost, a tie-in with the events that are shown in this sequence, all combine together with these other elements to give off a really fantastic time that marks the best part of the film.
The last plus here is the usual high-standard of extremely good ghost action present, and the hauntings are just as good. The first one, where the ghost creeping up on the video message is shown on the receiver but not to the broadcaster, is an immensely entertaining sequence that shows the real dangers of the technologically-minded ghost better than anything else and the final outcome is still as shocking. A couple of other brief pop-ups are just as much fun and set the stage for the final half down in the underground mines. This is a fairly involved and extended segment with a lot of time devoted to it, from the haunting voices appearing to the lone victim, the action and setting working well and allows for an outstanding opening to a grand segment. The later attacks are just as fun, especially with the big highlight coming from the rock-projectile attack that is both inventive, clever and adds a special addition to a fun sequence. These are the film's good points.
There are a few problems holding it down. One of the main ones is that there's a large segment of the film that really suffers from absolutely no action at all. In the middle segment, when they learn about the family's true origins and the trip to Taiwan, is incredibly dull and slow-going as hardly anything at all really happens during that time. That there's a lack of ghost action or even appearance during this time, is the main factor here as the film has them wandering around talking, spouting off useless plot meanderings that really just amount to endless scenes building up with no payoff. That isn't even remotely interesting or exciting, and as a result, leaves these scenes feeling drained of life and it really suffers a lot from its fun opening. The other problem here is the fact that the ending gag is played out for so long it really loses its power and would've been fine if shortened. These are the film's problems.
Overview: ***.5/5
While it's only slightly better than the original, even if the positives aren't as big, due mainly to the lessening impact of the flaws allows this one to become a quite enjoyable effort. Give it a shot if you're into the original, like these kinds of Asian ghost films or find it interesting, while those who aren't into the genre or turned off by the original should heed caution.
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