One Missed Call 2 Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A journalist, trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious phone killings, discovers the curse may have a different origin than originally believed.

Review: Sometimes sequels strive to surpass the original. Sometimes sequels want to merely cash-in. And sometimes sequels want to be completely retarded as is the case with this movie. Forget everything you knew and loved about the first movie, because they disregard as much as they could feasibly get away with. I really don't understand what they were thinking. I can tolerate taking a series in a different direction but not at the expense of trivializing the original in favor of a nonsensical plotline. No wonder the most they ever made it up to was part 3; they milked the cow too hard, too soon, and it had mad cow disease.

First, let's address what gets forgotten and/or written out of the plot. None of the characters return except the one skeptical detective who doesn't do much and is pathetically killed off screen. Want to know what became of Yumi and Yamashita? Well, apparently Yamashita was simply killed after the last scene in part one. Yumi then went running around Japan for a year, doing nothing it would seem, until she dies out of the blue. The sad part was that you don't even see this, you only hear about it, and we have no idea what killed her. Wasn't she supposed to be possessed as we clearly see? This movie says nope. Mimiko simply brought out the inner evil in her. Psh yeah, okay. That's why her reflection in a mirror was Mimiko, she talked like her, and had the same candy? Nah, that's just a coincidence when you awaken someone's magical inner evil. They do mention Natsumi's death on live TV, but they downplay it like people barely remember it and one of the main characters conveniently didn't watch it. Okay, you don't have to watch something to be aware of its existence and that shit would be big news all over the world...not something you half remember only a year later. Anyway, Nanako is never seen or heard from again. As for the exploits of Mimiko, I'll get to her later.

The main story is a fucking mess so I will try and explain it in a way that makes sense. More people are being killed in a manner similar to part one whereby you get a call from the future when you die; the same ringtone is there too. But they've modified the rules a bit conveniently. Now you get your death call again while in the process of dying. This, of course, will become important since if someone else answers that second call they die instead. The detective from part one notices that there's no candy in the mouth of these victims either. After her friend dies, the next person to receive the call is a girl named Kyoko and she is accompanied by her love interest Naoto. However, the main character of the movie is a woman named Takako, played by Asaka Seto, who is better recognized as Misora from "Death Note." Also, whoever wrote up the wikipedia page for OMC2 needs to get punched, because Takako is a journalist (she even says this) not a detective! I'll note now that Takako has weird headaches connected to the death of her twin sister when she was a child.

The movie feels off from the beginning, but it still held promise up to a certain point. From here on out, we cross into shitacular territory and never return. Takako talks to Mimiko's grandma who swears she always knew Mimiko was a monster. Right, because Marie didn't realize it nor did anyone who knew of the family up until her death. And where was this bitch at when it came to taking care of Nanako, huh?! Then they pull a Freddy and swear Mimiko is the bastard child of a rape on Marie. Oh for the love fuck! I'm cringing for realzies here. To make matters worse, Mimiko's grandfather somehow killed the rapist and went to prison for this. Then when he got out he went crazy and lived in Taiwan. If you think any of this is leading to some huge twist, it isn't--you're just becoming well acquainted with contrivances.

Blah blah blah, Takako, Kyoko, and Naoto all go to Taiwan to figure out what's going on especially after they learn the new victims that didn't have candy died with the stomachs lined with coal specific to a mine in Taiwan. Actually, I should mention Kyoko coincidentally overheard a bullshit story before they left, while walking down the street, about a girl with her mouth sewn shut. Oh how fucking convenient that a random chick walking down the street can foreshadow for the audience. She was hot as hell though...she should have been the lead. Takako finds Mimiko's grandfather's body clutching a cell phone, and, through another fucking contrivance, Takako's estranged husband, who just happens to live in Taiwan, explains that the cursed phone calls were happening in Taiwan long before in Japan. My god, how many times am I going to write "contrivance" and "convenient" before this nightmare ends? Rest assured, there are plenty more ahead! Also, the estranged husband got the cursed phone call too as an attempt for the movie to annoy me further.

To make a convoluted story short, once upon a time there was some little girl named Li Li who allegedly cursed people with death who messed with her. After many deaths, the town's people decided the only way to deal with this situation was to tie the girl up, sow her mouth shut, and bury her in a mine. Hmm, makes sense to me. I mean, duh, of course you sow someone's mouth shut that you are already going to bury. You have to make sure they look extra creepy for when they come back as a ghost! What this means is that at some point Mimiko was apparently a victim of Li Li or was meant to be--the movie isn't quite clear on this. Uh, no. Let's just humor it and say, yes, Mimiko was killed by Li Li. Why would Mimiko then come back as a killer ghost too? And conveniently uses the same M.O. to boot? Plus, the ringtone was specific to Mimiko's story, so why would Li Li use it too? Arrghh. Even dumber, they completely minimalize Li Li's power by saying there was a disease going around and perhaps she simply sensed it, therefore, keeping her degree of evil ambiguous.

With time running out, Takako, Kyoko, and Naoto go to the mine where Li Li was buried and are fucked with by both Li Li and Mimiko although the two do not appear to be working together and are never shown interacting. We realize that Takako's twin sister appears to have been a victim of Li Li although it is not explicitly explained. Takako eventually ditches the other two in order to be with her estranged husband when he's about to die; for some reason he doesn't die though. Kyoko and Naoto try to escape the mine after finding Li Li's burial location but she torments them. They soon discover some kind of transmitter was built above the mine thus explaining why the ghost uses the phones. When Kyoko is about to die, Naoto intervenes and answers her phone to take the place of her death. I'm so glad they added that convenient change in the rules in order to have a pointlessly dramatic scene between two characters I want to die.

If you thought that business about different skies made no sense in part one, wait until you see this ending. After Takako and Kyoko meet at a hospital, they act like things are fine for some reason. Uh, the curse is still fucking going ladies--you guys didn't accomplish shit! Takako goes to her little hubby and only finds a video camera while Kyoko is told that they found two bodies at the mine instead of just Naoto. Takako watches the footage and sees herself killing the hubby and verifies this by finding his body in the tub. Then Takako remembers being killed by Mimiko at the mine and that she had actually received a cursed phone call without realizing it. The movie ends with Takako smiling like a dumbass as she spits out a piece of candy in her mouth. Uuuuggghhhh. Fuck it, I'm not even going to bother explaining why this is stupid as I believe the ludicrous nature of it all speaks for itself.

Wow, way to drop the ball. The only thing they really succeeded at with this movie was cancelling out the events of the first one. The story makes so little sense and is confounded with a nearly unlimited supply of contrivances and idiotic decisions. We are also left with many unanswered questions that appear to serve as plot holes; on top of that, we have multiple continuity errors unless we are meant to readily accept the sheer implausibility of the contrivances. I wanted to give this film a lower rating, but, in all fairness, the production was high and there were still a few decent scares; I really liked the moment with Mimiko/Li Li/whoever lurking behind Kyoko's friend. Overall, this fact makes the film fall into the mediocre category; things started off well enough but takes a nosedive all too quickly into the realm of stupidity--a place to which there is no return. Honestly, any fan should stick with part one and forget this thing even exists.

Notable Moment: When they first learn about Li Li's town and a little boy materializes out of thin air to talk shit and then disappears just as suddenly. Well, thanks for that, kid. This scene is laughably bad, but the dubbed version is worse.

Final Rating: 5/10