Phone (2002)

The Age of Commercialism

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Absolutely the worst movie.

The acting in this movie is really good.

PHONE, a South Korean horror flick about a family haunted by a long-haired female spirit, isn't quite sure what it wants to be. The title and opening scenes make it look like nothing more than a mobile phone version of RING, although Takashi Miike's ONE MISSED CALL did the same thing (and much better) a year later. Then there's some real nonsense about a serial killer who makes threatening phone calls a la SCREAM, and it's all very much par for the course.Around half an hour in, the writer/director gets bored with this stuff and shifts the focus to some weird goings-on at a school, which is where the film becomes a variant on the whole WHISPERING CORRIDORS series. This material is equally uninteresting, but a little while later PHONE finally hits its stride when it becomes a small-scale, family-focused horror film about adultery, murder and vengeance. It's just unfortunate that it takes half the running time to figure out just what kind of movie it wants to be.The cast are adequate rather than engaging, although the movie features an excellent turn from the child actress who acts way beyond her years. Production values are fairly good, and the direction is solid, which is why it's a shame that the material is so uninspired for the most part. The second half gets a lot better, dealing out one scare scene after another, and even some badly-placed flashbacks don't spoil the fun. Things culminate in a predictable but effective ghostly climax that ties things up in a way that's both satisfying and neat.

I gave up on J-K-L-M-N-O-P-horror after having to sit through half a dozen films that were either A: Exactly the same as the rest or B: Just genuinely crap. No longer did I believe that horror films from the far East were better than those from Hollywood, because I realised that both industries were just rehashing ideas in order to part me from my cash.So imagine my non-surprise when Phone revealed to me the usual cavalcade of vengeful ghosts, spooky kids, hair coming out of taps, ominous storms, a scene in a lift, ghostly phone calls and crazy Asian schoolgirls. The only thing that genuinely shocked me was the realisation that, clichéd though it is, Phone manages to be one of the better horror flicks that clog up the world cinema racks of Global (Video?) A journalist chick has just exposed an underage sex scandal that forces her to go into hiding to avoid stalkers and that. Luckily for her there's an empty house owned by her sister and brother in law in which she can hide out in. Unluckily for her this is a horror film and empty houses don't bode well for people (plus she seemed to be out in public rather a lot for someone being stalked by a psycho).Level-headedly changing her mobile number, she selects a number that appeared seemingly at random on her computer while she was looking at gory pictures of herself that her stalker had sent - and that when the troubles begins. Well, the supernatural trouble, not the old 'getting killed by a stalker' trouble.While hiding out in public with her sister and niece, journalist chick manages to draw even more attention to herself by letting her niece pick up her phone when it rings and start throwing a complete screaming fit. One thing this film has got going for it above all else - the kid in this one can act creepy, instead of just staring at things and looking bored like the kid in the Grudge.The kid begins to act up in a way that reminded me of the kid in Beyond the Door 2 - that is, disturbing sexual advances towards their parents and the hostile attitude to their mothers. But what has this to do with the phone? What has moonlight sanata got to do with the phone? What about that giant hairball the chick dreams in on her bed? Eh? EH? EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH? This is one of those films where there's many twists and turns into more of an investigation than an all out fright fest, and to be honest is all the better for it. Quite a bit of the last portion of the film is told in flashback and what I've learned from this film is that I'm never having an affair with a Korean schoolgirl nor indeed doing any DIY ever. It did have all the clichés up the kazoo but at least had a good story to draw you in. And for those of you who like things falling downstairs you get that too.

Phone begins as a horror movie about a mysterious phone number, that seems to kill people. A reporter, Ji-Won (ji-Won Ha) gets a new number, after she begins to get telephone calls she suspects to be connected on a underage sex scandal she has revealed. But the calls continue.But then somewhere in the middle the plot turns into more of a thriller mystery with supernatural themes in it and the whole ghost thing gets a form of "who did it".The script is okay, but the direction jumps a bit too much from one place to another and lot of things happen very suddenly and unexplained. Other than that the film is okay and manages to give a scare or a two, but it really depends a bit too much to a viewer to make a leap of faith a couple of times too many .

Ji-won is a reporter who's has just exposed a child-sex crime ring and from that break through she starts receiving threatening phone calls from a stalker. So, she moves into her sister's vacant house and also switches her mobile number to escape it. But the harassing phone calls still keep on coming and one day her niece Yeong-ju answers it and not too long she starts acting rather unusually. Ji-won continues to receive these eerie phone calls, which she comes to learn that her new number happens to be cursed by the spirit of Jin-hie, a love-struck girl.Asian horror films really love their fashionable technology or either vengeful female ghosts. And this one is no exception to the trend. Now it's the dreaded phone's turn for some paranormal activity in the form of the medium. This is definitely the phone call from hell! You'll be hoping they'd put their mobile on silent with the constant ringing. You can only take so much within a short time. Now you're probably thinking it'll be the been-there-done-that musty modern Asian ghost story and I can't say it isn't at times. Some scenes and ideas absolutely resemble "Ringu", "Ju-on" and "Dark Water". Although saying that, the Korean entry "Phone" does provide an effectively, glum mystery-thriller, where the supernatural tone is more a smokescreen to the bigger picture. The twists are not so predictable and I found it to offer many surprising revelations… mainly the climax. Inconsistencies and lack of logic makes its way into the knotty story, but at least it wasn't terribly convoluted like most of the same field. It was definitely a compelling slow-burn type of story that slows up drastically in the mid-section, but really picks up for the final third. Mixed through the plot are interesting side-stories, the traditional flashbacks and the investigation into the curse that all ties in. Sounds derivative, but it's far from uninspired. The strongest aspect of the film has to be that it's a highly polished and slick looking production, which manages to invoke such a menacing claustrophobic feel from its murky backdrop. Director Ahn Byeong-ki does well in streamlining the film with eerie set pieces and visually striking images without so much of telegraphing them. Helping the subdued air of mystery and dread is the elegantly pulsating score and a good mix of bone rattling sounds. Special effects are steadily controlled within the story and they're executed to perfection. The performances were mild by the leads Ji-won Ha and Yu-mi Kim, but with the exception of Seo-woo, who's very good as Yeong-ju, the scary little girl who can't stop pulling ugly faces and hissing.After watching this you'll won't be waiting by the phone for too long. A traditional Asian entry into the contemporary tragic ghost story, which is entertaining and technically well made.