One Missed Call

By Thomas Tan
November 15, 2007

Mention the name "Takashi Miike" to any fan of Asian horror and you will instantly drag up visions of the ultra gory Ichi the Killer, or the twisted S&M flick Audition. Having gained a reputation as an over the top stylist, the last thing anybody thought the man would do was deliberately paced, creepy ghost stories in the vein of Ringu, a style commonly referred to as "J-Horror."

It therefore comes as a surprise to discover that, not only did Mr. Takashi make a J-Horror film, he also managed to plug in almost every single trope of the genre. Creepy dead girl with long hair? Check. Deliberate pacing? Check. Strong heroine who sees her friends die? Check. Said strong heroine launches into an investigation to find the source? Check.

Takashi did all this and more, while trying to stamp his own style into a genre that patently rejects over the top histrionics. The question is... did he do it well?

One Missed Call opens up at a party, where a young woman named Yumi (Kou Shibasaki) witnesses a friend get a missed call. The voice message left behind is certainly disturbing, as the message seems to be time stamped from three days into the future. The message contains her own voice... and it sounds like she's dying.

They dismiss it as a joke or a mistake... until she dies three days later, in the same manner predicted. Then, other people in Yumi's circle start getting missed calls and dying. Yumi and a mysterious man named Hiroshi (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi), whose sister fell victim to the curse, launch an investigation to find out the truth behind the missed calls... a mission that gets more desperate when Yumi herself receives one.

One Missed Call is a tale of two movies. The first half of the film is definitely a disappointment. While Takashi's visual style of odd angles and high tension still burn through, the story is a definite case of "been there, done that." Asian horror (yes, not just Japanese) does not have the same hang up about originality that Western cinema does. Long accused of recycling traditional elements in countless movies, Asian filmmakers believe that originality is all well and good... it's just that they'd rather refine what they have first. The best Asian horror movies aren't terribly original... but they definitely refine elements that we have all seen before and make them better. I'm fine with that.

Sadly, the first half of One Missed Call is copied from countless other films, with not an ounce of refinement. The scares are the same, the story is the same... heck, even the dialogue sounds the same at times. You could easily call this "Ringu-on-cellphones."

But Takashi Miike didn't get his reputation as a good filmmaker for nothing, and the second half bursts into vibrancy, shucking away the drabness that came previously and showing us things we've seen before... but refined.

Pivoting on a massive set piece in a television studio oozing with the Grand Guignol-esque horror that only Takashi Miike can provide, the film proceeds to unravel the mysteries at a breakneck speed.

Tightly crafted as it is though, the plot of the second half is secondary to something more important: the theme. Great horror stories and films through the years have always contained messages, usually of the social commentary sort. One Missed Call is no exception. When our heroes discover the true reason why people die, as well as a secret Yumi herself hides, it is a poignantly scary glimpse into the depravity that lurks in our own humanity.

As Yumi, Kou Shibasaki is near perfect. Having first gained prominence in the ultra violent Battle Royale, as a psychopathic killer, she manages to go in a completely opposite direction. Her Yumi is a woman of strength and caring, hurting from past difficulties but striving to make things right.

But good as she is, the real star of the movie is Takashi Miike. Say what you will about his tendency to over-gore things, the man knows how to build fear. Especially in the second half.

Too bad the first half wasn't up to snuff. If he had only managed to remain consistent all throughout the film, we would have ended up with one of the finest examples of J-Horror out there. But, as it stands, it's only half a good movie.

It will be interesting to see how the American remake (starring Shannyn Sossamon) will hold up without Takashi's influence.

Running Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Takashi Miike
Producers: Yoichi Arishige, Fumio Inoue, and Naoki Sato
Screenplay: Minako Daira based on the novel by Yasushi Akimoto
Director of Photography: Hideo Yamamoto
Editor: Yasushi Shimamura
Music: Kôji Endô