Look, let's just cut to the chase. Because there's no other way to really describe this film without comparing it to numerous others that came before.The story of "One Missed Call" is essentially just a cocktail comprised of two-parts "Ringu/Ring" to one-part "Ju-On: The Curse"... garnished with a dash of the visuals and tonality of the first couple "Tomie" flicks here and there for good measure. Oh, and a pinch of a handful of director Takashi Miike's previous films once or twice during particularly "gooey" scenes.Yes, yes, yes... I know it's based on a novel and that it's fair to say many Japanese horror films (Heck, I'd say Asian horror films in general) share a lot of common visuals, story structure and occasionally specific scenes. But at the same time, it's hard not to notice how much the movie does rely on borrowing materials we've generally seen done much better before, while just giving them a slight cosmetic face-lift.Stop me if you've heard this one: A small group of friends must fight for their lives after receiving phonecalls alerting them that they will die in just a few days. (...never heard that one before. Oh, wait...) Except instead of relying on a cursed video-tape, the dark forces at play in this film skip right to the nitty-gritty as the curse is just focused on the phone-call itself. You get the call, you die, someone else close to you gets the next call. And so, the search is on as young Yumi- who has lost several friends to the curse and appears to be its next victim- must team up with investigating detective Yamashita to solve the mystery of what's happening and how to stop it.I will make a minor apology for the use of sarcasm above, but I can't blame myself too much. It's just too hard to really talk about this film without addressing those obvious similarities that it has to other films. Really the only thing that sort-of sets this film apart from being just another generic horror-flick are some wonderfully subversive little scenes that pop up now and again and a few big stand-out scares thanks to the skill of director Miike. That and admittedly fun performances from our leads Kou Shibasaki and Shinichi Tsutsumi, who are both able to salvage some fine work despite a painfully derivative script and clichéd character development.One particularly remarkable scene relatively early in the film is what pulls it all together for me, and makes me able to forgive the film's faults and shortcomings. While I won't spoil the outcome, I will say it revolves around a character desperately trying to survive, even going so far as to appear on live-TV for an "exorcism" to save her from whatever dark force is at play. Not only does the scene contain some nice and very subtle bits of satire, but it's also just REALLY darned creepy and unsettling, building tension like a tightening wire until it all snaps and goes completely nuts. It's about a 10 minute sequence, but it packs more suspense, fear and even small chuckles than most films do in their entire runtime. It's frankly shocking just how amazingly effective this scene is compared to the relatively by-the-numbers rest of the proceedings. Another sequence set in a hospital later does come close with some truly twisted imagery and visual direction that just drips and oozes pure, dread-filled atmosphere... though it never quite matches the sheer power and ferocity of that earlier sequence. Still, it's another great sequence in its own right and should be mentioned as another of the film's stand-out moments.And honestly, it is scenes like those two that do make this a worthwhile sit... at least for hardcore horror fans or movie-buffs with a taste for Asian films. It's most definitely a case of "the parts being greater than the whole", but even still, the whole isn't too bad. It's just very routine. We've seen it all before. But that doesn't mean there's not still some fun to be had with it. It may not be one of Takashi Miike's best efforts. But it's one I think most people will get a kick (and a jump) out of.I give "One Missed Call" a slightly above average 6 out of 10. It's worth checking out at least once thanks to some great key scenes... just don't expect a particularly original story. And be prepared to roll your eyes once or twice.

Yes "The Ring" was great, but the whole J-Horror thing is wearing very thin by the time you get to "One Missed Call". Miike made his name in the West with a string of films made around 1998 - 2001. They were sloppy - anyone that works as fast as him would be - but they had an undeniable loopiness that twisted genre conventions. "One Missed Call" is totally generic, if you've seen "The Ring" and "The Grudge" there is no reason to see this. Like "Imprint" (disturbing theme yes but so badly made as to be laughable) and "Box" (as bad as Parks' "Cut") it gives an impression that Miike is played out _ much like Asian Horror in general. I recommend the great French film "Them" instead.

If John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween was a metaphorical and unsubtle morality tale on celibacy, does this make Takashi Miike's 2003 film One Missed Call a metaphorical and unsubtle tale on popularity? If you had sex in Halloween you were sliced and diced; if you own a mobile phone in this ever growing post-modern world of gadgets and modernity as well as being really popular, in One Missed Call you're arguably in even bigger trouble. But then again even I'm not sure if being stalked by Michael Myers is as scary or indeed scarier than being hunted by a supernatural ghost-like being. There is one thing for sure though, One Missed Call takes its idea and its feint ideas on the ever increasing demand for popularity and somewhat makes a hash of it.I suppose there is no surprise that the Japanese would produce a film such as this one. The general feel I think is that the Japanese are consistently producing the best horror films that the world is currently seeing and even when it's not Japan such as 2003's The Eye, it is still that Far Easterly Asia influence that makes them better than American or indeed European films in the genre. But One Missed Call is just one missed opportunity. With its premise revolving around a slice of technology that spawns greater fears (video tape in The Ring/laser eye technology in The Eye), One Missed Call feels a little dated right from the beginning. Usually the film will rely on daft logic from its characters and implausible situations to get across the bulk of its scares.The idea behind the film reads something along the lines of a mysterious caller trying to contact various people. When these people fail to answer their phones they have a missed call and these voice messages are their grizzly fates. It sounds interesting and like a compelling detective idea but the film dumbs down its premise by presenting the women within the film as weak; one-dimensional; squealing; screaming; inferior people who all share the common characterisations of being abused and the victims in general. Compare this to the male characters who have sad back-stories; are brave, strong and toward the end closely resemble a mythical knight in shining armour as the final acts plays out in a hospital. The men in the film are also authority figures with the few incidences of police presence all being of the male variety.But until these gender issues have arrived, the characters (usually the women) are given really embarrassing actions to carry out. Yumi (Shibasaki) is the protagonist of the film and the one who must find out what's going on before she herself comes to harm. In The Ring and The Eye, similar female heroines took on supernatural missions in order to save themselves and future people. Here, Yumi can only squeal, cry and put her hands over her eyes when faced with danger as the false-hero Hiroshi (Tsutsumi) comes to save her. Hiroshi is also given a prior tragedy; his sister succumbed to the missed call curse and he's in on figuring it all out purely out of spite. For him it is a revenge mission and we feel more for him because of this, thus taking away the focus and emphasis from Yumi.The final showdown in hospital makes for some interesting reading. Watch it and ask yourself "Who actually does what?" Yumi can only cry, stare and crawl around when faced with the film's antagonist and yet there is more at stake for her as it's her life on the line – Hiroshi is there purely for payback but it is him with the weapon and it is he who must fight the monster. Even getting to the hospital is an ordeal. Yumi figures out one thing or another and goes there all alone, at night, poking around. I'm all for scares and thrills, that's why we actively watch horror films but when the motivation for the scares come at such a disappointing and dumbed down level, it is then difficult to 'feel' for the people in the film as it was their own stupidity that got them there in the first place.So this really just acts as a set up to get the male saviour of the film to finish the story off. Getting to the final act is equally as silly. When someone's possession phenomenon is revealed earlier on, everyone's first reaction is to bung her on a TV show and have her exorcised live. This could be a statement on how Japan these days make a media circus out of anything but I'm not in touch enough with the culture to know this for sure. Needless to say that by the time the ghost appears, the entire studio has run away and left the female victim by herself – where were the security guards that were so desperate not to let Hiroshi and Yumi into the studio? Why are there no cautionary backups? Why does the girl just stay there and let it 'get' her? Because she's a female and it acts as a 'scary' scene, I suppose.One Missed Call plods along with its meek ideation about how phones and technology and popularity are maybe dangerous, but it never makes any serious stand. The film is a series of ill-motivated, uninteresting scenes that do not scare so much as they frustrate. By the time the showdown with the monster has arrived, you expect Yumi to be fighting for her life with it right in front of her alá The Ring, The Eye or even an American film like The Terminator or Alien, but she doesn't even seem interested. Not a great venture into the Far Easterly horror territory.

This just might be the most interesting psychological drama that I've seen since Miike's own masterpiece Audition (1999), and one that it seems has sadly been misinterpreted by many critics and viewers as being a work of simple J-Horror by numbers. Though it has elements of this, the characteristics of J-Horror, which are very much rooted in standard social and spiritual taboos that many Japanese people take incredibly seriously, are used as window dressing here, intended to distract the audience from the more important and subtle ideas at work behind the surface of the narrative.It certainly isn't a pastiche or a spoof as some viewers have indicated, though you could argue that it works on a certain satirical level, with the odd hint of benign humour that we've come to expect from Miike woven throughout. However, judging from much of the stylistic tone of the film, with its deeper allusions to child abuse and the murky and alienated tone that the director attaches to it, I honestly can't imagine that this is meant to be laughed at. Those who claim that the film is a comedy or a spoof are more likely to be Miike fans that are unfamiliar with the broader aspects of his work and the way in which he puts his films together; instead judging his films simply on the shock-value and tongue-in-cheek triviality of projects like Ichi the Killer (2002) and Dead or Alive (1999). Yes, he does accept any film that is offered to him, and more often than not chooses work that he feels he can do something interesting with; experimenting with the form and content and occasionally adding his own touches that are often subversive and somewhat attention seeking, but he always has in mind an approach that best suits the material.He doesn't condescend to his work; there's no cynicism here. As ever, Miike is fulfilling the wishes of his producer whilst simultaneously bringing something else to the film that may have been missed by a lesser filmmaker, more interested in the superficial quality of the story. In this case, a sly comment on the media and how it manipulates tragedy for profit; turning horror and pain into spectacle. It also continues the theme of lost youth; something quite prevalent in Japanese cinema, with films like Battle Royale (2000), Visitor Q (2001), Pulse (2001) and All About Lily Chou-Chou (2002) documenting the recent struggles in both social environments and education, with the idea of a generation of Japanese youth overwhelmed by expectations of family and society and cast adrift in such a way as to leave them ultimately more venerable to a greater evil (be it drugs, gang violence, suicide or crime). It's all done metaphorically of course - with the J-horror elements used to mask these ideas - though certainly, in many of the scenes, we see characters, kids even, isolated and with no one to turn to.Think about the presentation of both the film and the narrative; the absence of responsible adults creating a ghost world that these kids drift in and out of, turning only to each other for solace. The creation of a nocturnal world where school children hang out on railway bridges in the early hours of the morning, watching scenes of abject horror in a way that suggests tragic familiarity. The way that the background characters - the everyday people on the street - huddle under umbrellas watching a televised exorcism in the centre of Shinjuku completely cut off and detached from everything that is happening, becoming an almost representation of the audience even; eating up the pain and suffering as dismissible entertainment and completely missing the personal horror and exploitation of the abuse itself. Likewise, look at the scenes shot during the day. The streets are mostly empty, save for the presence of the adult media, the police (who have a complicated role within the film) and the students who are at the centre of the whole thing.Those claiming that this is a comedy seem uneducated when it comes to Miike and his work; looking for the vapid cartoon character and his torrents of gore and depraved sex, and not the finely nuanced filmmaker who gave us excellent, multi-layered works like Shinjuku Triad Society (1995), Rainy Dog (1997), The Bird People in China (1998), Audition (1999), Dead or Alive: Birds (2000) and Gozu (2003). As a horror film, this is effective. The scenes in the abandoned hospital, although clichéd, work incredibly well at ramping the tension. However, there's more to the film once we dig beneath the surface. The final act of the film takes place on at least three different levels; taking in the real, the imagined and the abstracted memory of both. The way Miike brings the various elements together - using stylised production design and skewed perspectives - creates a hall of mirrors like sense of abstraction familiar from the final act of Audition. Think about it. Is Gozu simply an absurd spoof on the latent homosexuality of the Yakuza sub-genre, or is there a more interest sub-textual argument about identity and gender being woven within? One Missed Call works on a similar level.Those who make the effort to watch Miike's work will know that there is always much more to his films than it initially seems, though you really have to work at it. To suggest that this is a spoof because you fail to appreciate the subtle, sub-textual storytelling and ask simply for mere cartoon-like abstraction is a discredit to a great filmmaker and those of us familiar with Miike's work beyond that of Ichi the Killer. With One Missed Call, Miike gives us a multi-layered film; shocking and satirical in equal measures and tied to a truly tragic depiction of loss, abuse and alienated youth.