Review of One Missed Call

Introduction

If you`ve seen one Asian horror, you`ve seen them all. Truly, you have.

As much as their fans (myself included) like to delude themselves that there is ingenuity out there somewhere, sprinkled between Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, the time of the Asian horror as the connoisseur`s choice is well and truly over. Just like `Halloween` wowed audiences back in `78 and gave way to a multitude of poor imitators which retained the core elements but lacked the panache, `Ring` blew us away in 1999, and subsequently unleased a slew of vengeful ghosts in the form of little girls with long hair. The psychology over splatter motif which turned most of us onto their particular breed of horror flick, while still a greater measuring stick for scares than boo moments, has long since lost its lustre as some of the continent`s finest film-makers churn out identikit clones which brazenly copy their bedfellows without shame.

Which leads us to 2003`s `One Missed Call`, or technically, `Takeshi Miike`s One Missed Call`. As you would expect with a director whose name goes above the title, Miike is something of an auteur, his brutal violence and often perverse subject matter being his calling cards. He`s also one of Japan`s most prolific directors, and it`s not unheard of for him to helm six or seven movies in a given year. Here he turns his hand to a horror which sees a group of friends menaced by phonecalls from their future selves, just prior to their own grisly demise.

Released on UK DVD to coincide with the Hollywood remake`s cinema release next week, the disc comes from Contender`s Premier Asia label.

Video

The 1.85:1 transfer here doesn`t live up to the label`s generally decent reputation for converting Asian stock for UK audiences. Noticeably soft in appearance with a rather exhausted colour palette, there`s some severe ghosting throughout which really buckles the quality. While blacks aren`t particularly deep, they are stable throughout and there`s a distinct lack of edge enhancement, but it`s still a relatively poor showing from Premier Asia.

Audio

Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 with English subs and, laughably, an abominable SoCal-accented English dub, also in 5.1. I say laughable, but it`s recently come to my attention just how many people will opt for an over-dub as opposed to subtitles, even in live-action cinema, given the chance. Which makes me die a little inside.

The native language surround track - and let`s be honest, it`s really the only track on the disc - is Tartan-esque in its lack of fidelity. Reserved, yet clear throughout, you`ll see very little action from your soundstage beyond your centre speaker.

Features

The usual Premier Asia trailers are present, along with a hefty promotional gallery featuring about a dozen trailers, TV spots and the like. The main content is reserved for the hour-long `making of` which, as you`d expect, features plenty of behind the scenes material, B-roll footage and on-set interviews.

Conclusion

Rather late to the party, a full five years after `Ring` and two after `Kairo`, the brethren pair from which it cribs the heaviest, `One Missed Call` is, disappointingly, J-horror by numbers. Vengeful ghosts, viral deaths, male/female investigative partnerships, dead bodies to be discovered, yadda yadda yadda, it`s like paying £12.99 for a bad case of deja-vu. Even Takeshi Miike, a well-respected director, fails to bring anything fresh or interesting to the table, and the lengths it goes to pull off its bag of tricks verges on out and out plagiarism at times.

Only wavering from the path of `Ring` to have a poke at the omnipresence of technology, ie, turning mobile phones against us, an angle the flawed `Kairo` did much better, `One Missed Call` proves there`s only so much a decent director can do with mundane material. Being a Miike film, he of course adds his patented hotsauce, and so extremities are severed and heads are popped from shoulders like warm champagne in typically gruesome style, the deaths themselves more bloody, less reserved than J-horror, revered for its psychological approach, is accustomed to. But sadly missing is his patented black humour which may have given it an edge, albeit at the risk of ruining the film`s tone. Oh well, you can`t win them all. `One Missed Call` is a film to check out before you catch its much better genre bedfellows, and then gasp at the bare-faced thievery.