Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: The cursed locker continues to lure in unsuspecting victims and idiots alike.
Review: After the shenanigans of part one, you would think this film would be even worse, but surprisingly it is much better. Like I wondered with the first movie, were these filmed back to back because the actors don't seem to have aged one bit and the continuity flows quite smoothly? Speaking of which, I greatly appreciate the excellent continuity and improved pacing when watching both films back to back feels complete. Picking up immediately where the first film left off, the cute Ayano character, played by Maki Horikita, takes center stage as Rieka handed her the key to the locker; I still don't understand why the locker-girl kills Rieka considering she seemed receptive to her embrace at the end of the first film. Ayano was probably the most likable character from the first film so it was wise that they decided to explore her character more as she tries to figure out what happened to Rieka and what all this nonsense with the locker is about. The thing that feels better about this film is that the scope has widened as we see more people using the locker and being killed, the doctor and his assistant play a larger role, and the same detectives remain as clueless as ever. The acting feels more solid, and there was an attempt to bring some real scares since the ghost is always in the little girl form from the beginning. However, the deaths still feel contrived, the ghost still looks too cute with the bad makeup effects, and there doesn't seem to be an overall goal to the story except to show random events. We learn virtually nothing more about the ghost besides clarification that it was born from a rape (which we kind of already could assume) and confirmation that it was abandoned in that locker five years ago. I felt like we should have learned more about what drives the spirit or more backstory to the pregnancy. I would have loved for there to be a connection between the ghost and some character but nope. And how did this urban legend even begin anyway? Instead, we see the story building toward some kind of revelation but nothing happens except more kids getting killed because they buy into this idiotic urban legend about the "lucky locker." In fact, this leads me to something I didn't bring up about the first one, that becomes increasingly annoying this time around, which is this lovelorn phenomenon that actually is quite common in many Japanese films/TV shows. Why is everyone so curious if someone has a boyfriend/girlfriend and always so shocked by the answer?! And what's with all the "wishing" for someone to love you rather than going out and making it happen? Ugh! Anyway, this film ends similarly to part one except at least we know the ghost wants to kill Ayano rather than in part one where we have no idea why the ghost tried to kill Rieka after sparing her once. Regardless, the ending still felt stupid since all of the sudden the ghost can now speak? For the most part, this is a vast improvement over part one, but it still suffers from many problems, including a few new ones, while not bothering to explore the mythos further. I felt as though there should be a part three that tells us more about why all of this is happening, but I don't see that ever coming together. I originally saw these movies one at a time long ago and hated them, but upon seeing them as a double-feature the films felt better and with a more cohesive story. So I continue to recommend that you try and watch these two together almost like a single movie to better appreciate the story. Eh, average films with average levels of entertainment I suppose.
Notable Moment: When the ghost appears at the karaoke bar. This is the only time the ghost looks remotely scary which is a shame too because they could have applied a better approach to her look more often.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
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