Spiral

is a 1998 Japanese supernatural horror world cinema film. It is a sequel to the 1998 film Ring. It is directed by Jōji Iida and is based on the novel of the same title by Koji Suzuki. It is titled The Spiral (stylized as the Spiral) in English on the Japanese poster and video packaging, and it was previously released in North America as Rasen (a transliteration of the Japanese title) and in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Philippines as The Spiral. Ring and its sequel Spiral were released in Japan at the same time. The studio hoped this would increase revenues, because the Ring story was already a successful novel and television film. The two films shared a few cast members and had the same production team, but different directors and screenwriters; Spiral was written and directed by Jōji Iida whereas Ring was written by Hiroshi Takahashi and directed by Hideo Nakata. After their release, Ring became an enormous success while Spiral floundered, quickly becoming the "forgotten sequel". Takahashi and Nakata were later recruited to produce another sequel, Ring 2, which replaced Spiral as the sequel to Ring, not based on Suzuki's works, and thus ultimately ignores the story of Spiral. Plot Following the events of Ring, the body of Ryūji Takayama, former husband of Reiko Asakawa and father of Yōichi Asakawa, is examined by his friend and rival, pathologist Mitsuo Andō. After he finds a cryptic note in Takayama's stomach, Reiko and Yōichi also turn up dead. Andō soon learns of a mysterious cursed videotape, haunted by the spirit of a murdered young woman. Rumor has it that anyone who watches the video will die exactly one week later. Despondent over the death of his own child, and believing that he is being guided by his rival's ghost, Andō decides to see the video for himself. After watching the tape, strange things begin to happen around him, and he soon discovers that the tape's restless spirit has different plans in store for him.