One Missed Call: Final Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A bullied girl uses the cursed phone calls to seek revenge on her classmates while they're on a trip to Korea.

Review: Remember how part 2 disregarded most of part 1? Well, this film decides to disregard both movies and make up its own rules. Hell, you might as well, right? Actually, some of part one's ideas do carry over, but the continuity is totally shot and only one aspect of part two is acknowledged. I never would have imagined that the first movies' themes were this complicated that writers couldn't continue it properly. Keeping everything in mind, this is a slight improvement over the last film. The story is mainstreamed and the action is faster but at a cost of losing scares. Although I like the lack of convolution and more focused approach, there is this cheap feeling to the production and most aspects are noticeably inferior. Luckily, to somewhat make up for this, the main girls are cute and help ease the dumbing down of the plot whereby you could just tell they tailored the story to be accessible to those who did not see the first two movies.

So what are the new rules and what carried on from the last two movies? The new way things work is that people are randomly sent the cursed calls from the same class. The ringtone is still the same, but I would say the calls are more like text messages. When someone is called they have the option to forward the curse to another person once only; this means that the first caller has an option but the forwarded person is toasty toast no matter what. The time between the deaths are quick--like a matter of minutes--but it seems to vary inconsistently as a contrivance. As far as what storyline aspects carried over...it's essentially just the ringtone, the basics of the curse (like the candy), and Mimiko. Li Li is off hanging out in Kayako-land I suppose. Nothing else is touched on so don't expect more concerning Yumi, Takako, Kyoko, or even anyone mentioning Natsumi's death on TV. In fact, only one character knows about the curse and he's in Korea! Oh come on. Finally, the only aspect of part two that is touched on is that shit about answering the second call to get killed instead of the original victim. I should also mention that Karen Oshima, who has been playing Mimiko all this time, must have had like a huge growth spurt over the years, because they had to pull off some next level hobbit shit on her. You see closeups of her face, but they have a little kid double for faraway shots; you can often tell Ms. Oshima is on her knees in multiple shots (that doesn't sound right). Hey, I'll give them some credit for shooting around the same actress rather than replacing her like other movies would.

The story begins by introducing us to Asuka, played by Maki Horikita, who is the bullied student out for revenge; I've mentioned the cute Ms. Horikita multiple times now, but I think I'm down to only one horror movie of hers left to cover. Something funny worth noting is that the dub is hilarious when it comes to pronouncing "Asuka" as the English voice actors each say it differently and none correctly. There is bullshit about Asuka having a friend that hung herself, named Pam, but I'll tell you now that it is painfully obvious Asuka and Pam are one and the same. Because of all the bullying, Asuka, nicknamed (s)Pam, tried to kill herself by hanging but it simply put her in a coma when a school staff member found her. Her spirit then conveniently teams up with Mimiko without a real explanation of how this is possible. Working through Asuka's computer, the two send messages to the classmates which are the cursed calls. When someone dies, their photo becomes warped in the class portrait Asuka has.

The main character, Emiri, played by the beautiful Meisa Kuroki, and her classmates go on a trip to Korea where Emiri has a deaf boyfriend-ish-guy, named Jin-wo, waiting to meet up with her. I'm not going to lie, I really liked Emiri and Jin-wo's relationship; they're so cute signing back and forth. I wish this would have been its own movie so it could have more time spent on it! Anyway, I don't know what was the point of this trip, but they gave everyone cell phones to stay in contact which works as a wonderful contrivance. It's not long before the first person gets a cursed call which is accompanied by a photo of the girl hanging similarly to Asuka. Again, this is yet another contrivance so the characters will make an association between the curse and Asuka that wouldn't have worked any other way. Eventually a bunch of kids are killed as the characters figure out the rules of the curse along with Jin-wo explaining to them that he's the only one that's heard of the curse before. He claims to know a violinist that let his girlfriend die when he could have intervened; this will be mildly important later. The deaths in this movie are a mixed bag of some looking cool and some looking terribly bad.

With the classmates beginning to turn on each other, as they don't want someone to forward the curse to them, Emiri tries to contact Asuka, believing she awoke from her coma. Asuka of course explains that she is behind the deaths and expresses there will be more as she wants revenge on all of them. Jin-wo shows Emiri information about Mimiko in an attempt to understand what's going on. This is dumb, because if it is so readily known that Mimiko is behind the curse, and this has been going on for years, why is everyone in this movie so oblivious to this fact?! Plus, I love that Mimiko's death is online and magically the nanny-cam can show different angles! Later, after more banter with Asuka and Emiri, we learn that it was actually Emiri that was bullied first and Asuka took her place in order to protect her; the two were best friends at one point as well, but Emiri regretfully accepted Asuka's position as the bullied one. This is fucking hilarious...the two hottest chicks are supposed to be the two most bullied?! Is the OMC universe connected to the "Eye of the Beholder" episode of "The Twilight Zone" or something? Emiri has one more conversation with Asuka where she somehow reaches the comatose version and awakens her. Apparently Mimiko was partially influencing Asuka's thoughts, but this is not explained at all. I should probably throw out there that during all of the main events more students are being killed, but they're insignificant fodder and their overacting sucks.

Jin-wo concocts a plan to defeat Mimiko, and the curse, permanently as they believe Mimiko is working inside Asuka's computer. He thinks if they can get enough people to spam Asuka's computer with emails it should crash the system and destroy Mimiko. Umm, sure, I'll go with it...I guess. This part is super corny with people gathering around the world to do their part in messaging Asuka's computer, but it borders on so bad it's good. Asuka walks all the way home from the hospital without anyone stopping her and apparently has no parents too. Emiri and Asuka magically can see each other through computers as they try and reconcile, but Mimiko teleports them to their school after sending Emiri the cursed call. Asuka is confronted by the ghosts of those that she feels guilty for killing as she accepts death at the hands of Mimiko. Before Asuka can be killed, Emiri says she wants to take her place just as the computer is finally crashed by the bombardment of spam. The two girls are teleported back to where they were and Asuka's computer humorously blows up--seemingly Mimiko is defeated along with her curse. Jin-wo and Emiri eventually share some sweet words before Jin-wo says this is goodbye. Emiri then realizes he was actually the violinist from his own story about the dead girlfriend. Jin-wo steals Emiri's cell phone and decides to be the last victim of the curse by answering her phone in her place. Uhh, isn't Mimiko defeated? Isn't the curse over? Oh I get it, this is somehow connected to Li Li, right? Jin-wo dies and spits out a piece of candy. Fuck you! This makes no sense. What exactly is killing Jin-wo? If it's still Mimiko then she's not defeated. If it's Li Li, then the curse is nowhere near over and why the hell is she giving people candy now? Oh hell, Li Li is out there no matter what the fuck happened to Mimiko! Was no one thinking about the idiocy of this scene? Whatever. The final shot is of Asuka taking a catatonic Emiri to the ocean as they once promised each other. The end...to the franchise. Not sure how this is a happy ending or even satisfying. The curse is obviously not over but okay. Yatta!

You know, I really wish they would have went back to the basics with this movie and dealt with Mimiko properly. They should have made an effort to explore her character and make her defeat more personal. If I were tasked to make one more movie, I'd have it about Nanako overcoming the evil of Mimiko and releasing her spirit. However, I would have also continued with the possessed Yumi plotline anyway, but that's neither here nor there. The ending to the TV show worked better as a finale since it implied the curse spread all over the world. Overall, this is a mediocre, cash-in followup trying to appeal to the broadest audience without any consideration to its own lore. There are shoddy effects, contrivances, and plain stupidity. On the other hand, there are some decent deaths, the music is great toward the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the cheesy romance plotline, and Ms. Kuroki and Ms. Horikita serve as excellent eye candy. Since the story didn't bastardize the material as much as part 2, and because there are more fun, so bad they're good, moments, I have to give a few extra points. It's not the ending we deserve, but perhaps it's the ending we need.

Notable Moment: When they find the one girl dead in a dryer. This was an interesting and brutal death. If not this scene, then when that computer blows up like it's the Death Star.

Final Rating: 6/10

The lovely Ms. Kuroki:

And Ms. Horikita looking way too serious: