Differently from the first installment in the "Ring" series, this time around they were much more faithful to the book ("Rasen" being the best of the lot, imho). Of course, minus the changes that had already been previously done and thus needed to be kept for coherence. I know that most people tend to overlook this "Spiral" or to underscore it , but I beg to differ. Consider this: the two movies were brought to the public's attention at the same time. Why? Simple: they're to be seen as a whole. The first part was just the introduction, THIS is were the story gets interesting, and all the pieces of the puzzle finally come together to show a picture which is terrifying not because of easy horror-clichés, no...this time the horror is much more psychological, and it comes from the realization that, in the main character's shoes, we might have done just the same. Superb performance by Sato Koichi! As for Nakatani Miki, she's just perfect for this part. Impossible not be charmed. And impossible not be terrified, all things considered. I don't give it a 10 because of the small changes they did to the original story. But it's close...^__-