I’m a fan of Asian cinema, yet I’ve focused solely on Japanese cinema, but thanks to Netflix I’ve been broadening my horizons a bit. Lately I’ve been smitten by Korean films, with Oldboy kicking it off for me. The latest installment in my collection is Phone, a film written and directed by Ahn Byeong-ki. The most common critique of this movie was that it was basically another twist on Nakata Hideo’s Ringu, known to Western audiences as The Ring. While there are are a few things reminiscent of The Ring, most notably the vengeful spirit lashing out via some modern-day electronic device and a female reporter associated with it intent on tracking the cursed technology back to its source, there area a lot of differences.
A reporter named Ji-won, played by the beautiful Ha Ji-weon, exposes a ring of sexual offenders who are subsequently arrested and put on trial. Before the trial begins she receives threatening calls from one of the perpetrators who got rounded up in the police sweep resulting from her expose. Though the harassing calls are coming from someone who makes it more than clear that she is being stalked, the reporter makes the unwise assumption that if she simply changes the number on her cell phone the angry party will eventually have to give up on trying to keep her in a state of fear and panic. When she applies for the new number, only one particular number keeps appearing on the computer screen as being available. Time being precious as it is, she decides not to nit-pick over it and takes the number the computer glitch keeps coughing up.
Things then go from bad to worse, as she begins receiving a new set of calls on the new number. This has a very negative affect on little Yeong-Ju, played by the brilliant Eun Seo-woo, the reporter’s “niece,” who happened to be the very first person to answer the phone when it rang on the new number. As a result of what she heard on the other end of the line, the little girl experiences psychological trauma and undergoes some very disturbing behaviors, which often expresses itself as fits of rage, especially whenever her father becomes intimate with his wife. Psychological examinations show nothing to be too concerned about, suggesting that it is just a passing phase but as Yeong-Ju’s behavior becomes more destructive and more violent, her “aunti” uses her investigative skills as a reporter to track down the history of the phone number she adopted in order to determine what sort of connection it may have for the strange effect upon the little girl’s mind. The answers she finds are not pretty, as everything comes full circle. It must be said that Eun Seo-woo’s performance was absolutely brilliant, she outperformed everyone by a mile and that’s saying a lot because all of the acting was top notch.
One of the things which bothered me at first, but then grew on me favorably, was the number of “false climaxes.” A lot of people become annoyed by this sort of manipulation, but once this movie reveals its final secrets, you wind up appreciating the beauty and mastery in the way each layer was pulled back and each new revelation led to the moment of release.
I’ll be the first to admit that the premise of some supernatural force utilizing a cell phone seemed kind of hokey, but as the story progresses, the device is shown to not be a contrivance at all. Even if this weren’t the case, I’d still rate the movie highly. It’s simply a very effective scary movie, especially during the first half. It won’t get under your skin and haunt you like ‘A Tale of Two Sisters,’ but it should satisfy you. It’s also a beautiful movie in all respects.
