Notable Cast: Kou Shibasaki, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Kazue Fukiishi, Shimizu Seinami, Anna Nagata, Renji Ishibashi
The J-horror explosion of the 2000s was a big key to my
exploration of foreign film markets. Films like Ju-On and Ringu paved the way
for me to start exploring a lot of different styles of film in my teenage years
and so I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the genre as a whole.
Yet, one of the strangest and most challenging films from this boom is Takashi
Miike’s One Missed Call. The American remake couldn’t possibly try and
translate its often odd story for American audiences and even to this day I
find this film’s social commentary and strange twists to be off setting at times.
Leave it to Miike to take a fairly formulaic and popular horror style and throw
his own spin on it to develop a rather silly concept to make an impactful
film. A film that shockingly holds its own to this day.
For Kumi (Kou Shibasaki) and her group of friends, it’s normal life
with social gathers and school. However, her friends are starting to get
unusual calls and messages from their own numbers – messages that tell them
when they are going to die under mysterious circumstances. Now it’s up to Kumi
with the help of another man who lost his sister to the same effect, to unravel
a mystery and unveil the angry spirit that’s slaughtering people.
Flip phones...oh the horror! |
There are a few times during the film that you have to wonder if Miike simply picked this film as a challenge to inject some thoughtful under tones and plotting for the audience. It’s not only a film that slathers on atmosphere and some creepy elements, it also seems to have a slew of different messages. The cell phone and technophobia elements are fairly obvious, but there are running themes about domestic violence and family that run rampant throughout the film. There is even a fairly scathing criticism of how the Japanese culture treats the horror of these events by having one of the girls marked for death appear on a televised exorcism that seems less intent on helping her and more intent on selling the “curse” as a gimmick to its uninterested audience. Needless to say, things go a bit bat shit crazy and the horrors become all too real for everyone.
In true Miike fashion though, don’t expect things to be tied
up nicely in a bow as he constantly shifts the film’s tone into some artistic
directions too. It’s not all J-horror tropes and violent material here (there
is an arm breaking moment that still makes me cringe) and the film ends on a
rather vague and open ended note that will have many people scratching their
heads about what exactly happened. It’s classic Miike in this sense.
All new meaning to 'twist and shout.' |
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