A chilling prologue opens with a white-clad figure discarding a long-haired woman into a well, a grim tableau that reveals the well is crowded with other women, all with cascading hair and dressed in nightgowns. Thirteen years pass, and a pair of mysterious suicides jolts the city into action. Detective Koiso, [Ryosei Tayama], and his partner dive into a case that centers on deaths triggered by a video played on personal devices. Just before each fatal moment, a chilling voice murmurs, “You’re not the one,” casting a sense of inexorable doom over every screen that flickers to life.
The investigation soon intersects with Akane Ayukawa, [Satomi Ishihara], a homeroom teacher who once watched over a schoolgirl who died under strange circumstances. Akane learns that the dead girl’s best friend, Risa, [Hikari Takara], had been digging into the cursed video, even though the clip itself was reportedly deleted. What remains is an eerie Error 404, a digital glitch that somehow compels the viewer to watch alone, and within the footage, Kashiwada, the online artist, appears as the strange architect of a frightening scheme: [Yusuke Yamamoto] as Kiyoshi Kashiwada allows himself to be killed by a long-haired woman within the video.
As the case tightens, Akane and Risa become entwined in a web of fate and fear. The most haunting moment arrives when the video targets Akane herself; in their home the screens flare to life with the image of the woman, and Akane is pulled into a vision of possession and danger. The sequence culminates with Risa being attacked just as Akane rushes in to intervene. The ghost whispers that Akane is “the one,” and when Akane screams, the computer is literally destroyed in a blast of fear and force.
Back at Kashiwada’s apartment, the detectives scan a landscape of decor that feels almost staged—wallpaper, furniture, and a consistent motif that hints at a curated, artificial reality. The landlady, [Seiko Ozone], notes that everything around them seems superficial, a clue that ties into the larger theme of appearances masking something far more sinister.
Akane’s backstory adds another layer to the mystery: she is a telekinetic who revealed her power years earlier when a maniac attacked her high school, and though she saved the students, society branded her a freak. In this fragile balance between past scars and present peril, Takanori Andō, [Koji Seto], the son of Mitsuo Andō from the first film, grows into a devoted partner who not only understands her abilities but cherishes them.
The central threat intensifies as the video begins to circle back toward Akane. The home is invaded by a chorus of screens, each showing a variant of the same long-haired figure. Akane and Takanori are forced to flee into the streets, hoping to escape the reach of a force that operates through digital channels and urban spectacle. Yet a colossal LCD delivery truck materializes, displaying a giant, uncanny image of the ghost, and in a brutal moment, the apparition snatches Takanori away.
Detective Koiso’s skepticism crumbles as the plot reveals its broader mechanics: the original broadcast of the online video killed its initial viewers and even the staff of the site that hosted it. Compelled by the mounting evidence, Koiso returns to Kashiwada’s world, where he discovers a wallpapered repository—white butterflies fluttering in a hidden archive—that hides notes and a history of the deceit.
Together, Koiso and Akane trace the origin to the Yamamura household, once an inn, now replaced by a decrepit mall that sits near the well. Approaching the well, the pair confronts a grotesque Sadako facsimile that attacks Koiso and sinks its teeth into his neck. The impersonated Sadako versions—imperfect echoes born from the women who were once thrown into the well—descend on Akane, but she fights back with wary cunning and her telekinetic might.
In a pivotal confrontation at the center of a ruined, derelict building, Akane learns that Takanori has become trapped inside a mobile phone centered in the room. A swarm of imperfect Sadakos converges, yet Akane’s fear becomes a weapon, triggering a surge of telekinetic power that shatters those apparitions. She is lifted to the roof, where the real Sadako awaits, claiming a dangerous kinship: the two are said to be the same. Akane rejects the comparison, and a dramatic struggle ensues as Sadako uses her own power to unleash chaos while claiming to “help people” in a twisted logic.
With Takanori’s life in peril, Akane makes a selfless choice, trading herself for his safety. Sadako retaliates by merging with Akane, her hair threading through Akane’s body as the two become one in a visceral and perilous fusion. The moment passes when Takanori, freed from Sadako’s thrall, destroys the phone and disrupts the central mechanism that binds the spirits. The roof collapses, and Akane—now partially covered in Sadako’s hair and collapsed on the floor below—manages to escape with her life intact.
The film’s world lingers with a sense of artificiality that extends beyond the supernatural. A mid-credits moment shows Kashiwada’s landlady departing, her whispered line—“Isn’t it all artificial?”—echoing through the abandoned space. The post-credits sequence revisits the notorious video’s opening, with a new, defiant line delivered as a chilling sign of the cycle beginning anew: “Here we go again.” > Here we go again
In the end, the story threads together a meditation on belief, memory, and the power of digital myth, anchored by Akane’s resilient resolve and the haunting echo of a curse that refuses to stay buried.
