"Am I the only one who believes that Mai survived because she NEVER WATCHED THE VIDEO IN FULL? She saw bits of it every now and then, but she never actually saw the entire film,"
No, you're not the only one because that *is* the reason she survived, hence Sadako's confusion that she was able to survive. Mai was involved in the whole video ring/horror story because she was involved/loved/respected her professor/mentor/lover and that's why she followed the story in order to investigate what happened. Everyone else that has been so involved with the video and Sadako had seen the video and become part of the curse. Since Mai never watched the video herself and had the good sense to turn away/or break the television when the video (without the tape, no less!) played in the mental ward and in the lab instead of sitting there watching it and wondering what was happening like everyone else. The other answer to Mai surviving (in addition to NEVER watching the tape) is that the professor (perhaps his love and respect for her allowed him to come back from the "other world"?) aided her escape- told her to climb up the rope and not look back. (Did anyone get a total "pillar of salt" vibe when she looked back and saw Sadako crawling up after her? Shouldn't have looked back...)
"but masami and okizaki never saw the tape but they still ended up being hospitalized. i think there's more to it than that. "
But what happened to them? Masami saw Sadako kill her friend right in front of her. So...if watching your best friend get killed by a supernatural entity that crawls out of televisions isn't enough to make you lose your marbles, the extra added bonus of that fear that it caused (remember...it's really the "fear" that keeps the ring intact- the video is just a conduit), as that fear carries its own energy and since Masami is now afraid of Sadako even though she's never seen the video herself it is enough latent energy to carry the curse through her. I think Okazaki ended up hospitalized because he lied about seeing the video to Kanae who only got the video because he asked her to obtain a copy for him...then she watched it even though she admitted she was too afraid to watch it when he originally interviewed her. She gave him the video with the express request that he watch the video in order to save her from what would happen after "seven days". This too after he noticed while watching the footage of his interview with her that for a split second she actually morphed into Sadako... I think Kanae's fear having been so great, being falsely reassured that she wouldn't suffer the same fate as the others, and then still befalling the same horrific death at the surreal hands of Sadako- would create some vengeful feelings in her spirit- that on top of that fear. So Kanae's fear + vengence = big trouble for Okazaki. Bottom line- he shouldn't have lied about watching it and making Kanae believe that she was safe when she wasn't.
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