I have been watching more Japanese movies. Here is the latest one.

I just saw the movie Rasen (Spiral) this past week. Rasen is the original sequel to Ringu.

This movie follows the book pretty well. Everyone said it was horrible, but I actually kind of enjoyed it. The Ringu series of books takes the Ring in a completely different direction than the movies do. Rasen is much more of a medical thriller/paranormal events movie than an actual “horror” movie.

If you like Ringu, and if you are interested in how the author originally meant for the direction to go, I recommend seeing this movie.

Rumor has it that the audiences didn't appreciate a drama filled non-horror sequel to Ringu, so they made Ringu 2.

I thought "Spiral" was written by the same author but wasn't a direct sequel like you're implying. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyone else? Aphew?

Spiral/Rasen kind of freaked me out. Okay, more than kind of. I didn't know what was going on, but it was so surreal I guess I wasn't supposed to.

I thought "Spiral" was written by the same author but wasn't a direct sequel like you're implying. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyone else? Aphew?

Spiral (the book) piggybacks off of the original Ring storyline. It does not have a complete list of the same characters, but it is indeed the second book in the series of Ring books. It is about the death of Ryuji and the doctor that does his autopsy. This doctor is the main character. This expands the story so that it isn't just about a videotape anymore.

There is even a sticker on the cover that says "the Sequel to Ring".