Initially sceptical at this urban legend she tracks their movements and she ends up at the hotel where apparently the group of friends (now all dead) watched this.
While speaking to the proprietor she spots an unmarked tape on the shelves.
No good will come of this.
Like many hugely influential films this is a flawed piece but important because it did something new and almost created a genre. I never saw it at the time but I did see "The Grudge" which gave me the willies so much I avoided seeing this, which unquestionably made "The Grudge" what it was.
It's clear it's quite cheaply made, the acting is dubious in places, Reiko gets simperingly hysterical and calls in her ex husband (who conveniently happens to be psychic) to boss her around and be "heroic". It's really quite old fashioned even for its time.
It's also not enormously scary to modern eyes and doesn't live up to its reputation at all. The famed TV scene happens once, quite late on and it's very slow throughout.
However you see the influence of Ringu all over the place. Movies like the excellent "It follows" (let's face it a near complete retread of Ringu) probably wouldn't exist without it but it also did a kind of horror that has essentially no gore or violence. There's something terrible coming that will kill you but not with violence. You can't fight it. Not because it's too strong but because it's ineffable.
Serious criticism says it's got subtext to do with fear of technology, societal change and neglecting maternal obligations. That might be in the novel it's based on but for me that doesn't come out, maybe I'm too literal in my viewing of things, but it just feels like "let's make a scary movie".
6/10 important but ultimately surpassed by the filmmakers it inspired.