Rating: 2.5/5
Hooptober 2.0 | 13/31 | Takashi Miike 3/5
It’s 2003 and cell phones are getting smaller, flippy-er, and SCARIER
Yumi is with her friends at a naemono place. She can’t get the hot pot burner to cut on. Her friends tease her about her phobia of peepholes. When she gets the burner on, she has a flash of several disparate images, including a train and cutting her toenails.
Her friend Yoko arrives in black from a friend’s funeral. Yuri and Yoko talk about it in the bathroom while Yoko changes clothes — Yoko’s phone, left by the sink, rings. By the time she gets out, she has missed the call. When Yoko checks, it says the call came from her phone. They both listen to the message. It’s dated for two days in the future. They hear a train, and Yoko screams.
A couple of days pass and Yumi receives a call from Yoko. Yoko repeats what they heard in the message unwittingly. Then, just like the call, Yoko turns and screams. Something pushes her off the bridge and onto the top of a passing train. Her disembodied hand continues to dial numbers.
Yuri visits Yoko’s apartment to investigate. She meets some girls living in the building who also had a friend who died similarly — she received a call from the time she died. They believe what the girl had passed on to Yoko.
Hideo Yamamoto has been Miike’s cinematographer for his best-looking movies. This movie is no exception. The writing is super dull, and I blame Akimoto’s book, on which they based this movie and the US franchise. Why adapt a record producer’s book? Who knows?
About halfway through is a live broadcast about the occurrences. It has Late Night With the Devil vibes and brings a brief jolt of life to the movie. The movie would be a blast if it kept up that baroque insanity.
I don’t care about the story feeling derivative of Ringu or Pulse. I care that it’s way too long and boring as hell.