Takashi Miike is one of my favorite filmmakers. "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer" rank as some of my most beloved films of all time. To be fair though, Miike also made some terrible films such as "Izo" "City of the Lost Souls" and "Dead or Alive:Final", films that are pretty unwatchable. "One Missed Call" falls somewhere in between. It is watchable and suspenseful but you can tell that Miike was not on the top of his game.
"One Missed Call" is Miike's take on the J-Horror trend that is becoming less trendier now days. Elements are lifted from "Ringu", "Ju-On", "Cure" and "Pulse/Kairo". Unlike "Cure" or "Pulse/Kairo", this film has no philosophical insight or even tries to be anything but a standard horror show. The only sequence that yells Miike is the surreal final hospital sequence, which is up for interpretations for the meaning.
Basically, "One Missed Call" follows a heroine and a hero through a series of deaths of their friends. They must follow clues to search for answers and stop the cursed cell phone ringtone. The gimmick is that someone gets a missed call voicemail from him or herself in the future and hears his or her own death. The victim knows exactly the time and date of death and there is no escape! Some creative death scenes are shown including one on live television which is pretty hilarious.
Let's hope Miike was just amusing himself before pumping out more memorable films like "Visitor Q", "Gozu" or "The Happiness of the Katakuris".
Rated R for violence and gruesome images
Aspect Ratio: 1.85
Japanese
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