ONE MISSED CALL (2003)
Director: Takashi Miike
Notable Cast: Ko Shibasaki,
Shinichi Tsutsumi, Kazue Fukiishi, Yutaka Matsushige, Goro Kishtani, Renji
Ishibashi
Miike is one of those directors that truly can direct damn
near anything and make it his own and, weirdly enough, make it great. The first
– and original – One Missed Call is a prime example of that talent.
While many of its ilk in the J-horror boom of the early 00s focused on a fear
of technology creeping into the realms of the spiritual world, One Missed
Call might feature one of the silliest concepts. A ghost who uses your cell
phone to call you from the near future from the period where it kills you? It’s
borderline asinine. Yet, watching this film is something of a suffocating and
incredibly creepy experience. Miike uses the concept to run with his usual
themes of outsider feelings and the unusual existing in the ‘real’ world and
the combination proves to be downright effective.