Customer Reviews

Phone

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

PHONE concerns a young investigative journalist named Ji-Won, who begins to receive menacing calls on her mobile phone. Suspecting it is one of the men she recently wrote an exposé on, she has her number changed, but what she hears when her phone rings next is even more disturbing. After her best friend's daughter accidentally receives one of the calls, the girl begins behaving erratically. The only clue Ji-Won has to go on is the phone number that keeps appearing on her laptop, so she begins to look into the people who had her number previously, and what she finds is interesting indeed.

I'll be the first to admit that the premise of a supernatural force utilizing a cellular phone seemed 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 while viewing. It's also a beautiful movie in all respects. Ignore the clunky title and check it out.

The DVD is of very high quality with many extras including trailers, and cast interviews, including one with the little girl from the movie, who is very funny. There are two deleted scenes, and the little girl gives hilarious commentary on selected scenes (prompted by an interviewer.) There is also a lot of behind the scenes footage. A nice package for a fairly obscure movie, one that puts many major studio home video releases to shame.

I looked through the reviews below and many of them are chock full of spoilers. Perhaps it's best that you just watch this movie without finding anything out about it first as it's the sort of movie that is far more enjoyable if you go in without knowing too much about it.

As for my commentary, this is not really a horror, but more like a mystery and dark drama involving a ghost. It's not really scary, and I don't think it's really meant to be. It has a very mysterious style, but the plot is what this is about.

If you thought the plot of The Ring was great, but don't need the horror aspect so much, then you will love this one. It's a very similar style, in which a person must investigate the ghost that haunts her and the plot turns in many directions as it unfolds to gradually explain the meaning of the haunting. I thought this movie was absolutely brilliant, but if you go in just looking for a good scare, you'll be disappointed.

This movie has some very good acting reminds you on how much a woman will do to keep her family and that secrets will always come to to the light one way or another. Sometimes the sins of the father will affect the whole family. The little girl in this did some of the best acting I've ever seen someone so young do .She totally gave me the creeps and I loved every minute of it.

Koreans have been big players in the Asian horror boom of the last few years, producing acclaimed genre fare such as "Ring Virus", "A tale of two sisters" and the sadistic revenge thriller "Oldboy" among others. One of the more successful was the 2002 Korean box office smash "Phone" just now released in America through TLA Entertainment Group. No doubt "Phone" owes part of its success to the splash that Ringu made on the international horror scene. However, knocking off "Phone" as a Ringu ripoff would be a mistake. This is an excellent film in its own right.

Ji-Won, a successful journalist, is being stalked. Her revealing sex-scandal articles have made her quite a few enemies lately including a creep who keeps phoning her cell and following her around so she changes her phone number and accepts her friend's offer of a retreat into a secluded country cabin. But even with new digs and a new phone number, Ji-Won is still getting creepy calls. Even worse, she finds out that the last 3 people who were registered under the same phone# have died mysterious deaths...

"Phone" wastes no time getting started. The initial elevator scene is a real chiller as are the initial stalker calls that Ji-Won receives. Barely 20 minutes into it and this one is a full-blown creepfest. The incessant ringing is a clever way to scare the viewer; the first few had me on edge but after a half dozen rings and a bunch of Red Herrings later my nerves were pretty well fried. At this point, however effective it may be in scaring us, "Phone" does feel derivative of Ringu. But halfway through the movie the plot takes a very interesting turn of events, involving a complex backstory of the events surrounding the birth of creepy kid Yeong-ju and a hidden affair between one of the main characters and a schoolgirl who may or may not be a vengeful ghost, all the while as Ji-Won tries to uncover the mysteries surrounding the deaths of the previous owners of the same phone #. Got all that? I know "Phone" seems routine on the surface when you haven't seen the movie, but trust me it is anything but.

As in "Ju-On The Grudge" these backstories are told in a non-linear style that keeps us wondering what is a dream and what's not? Is this in the past or in the future? It's all rather confusing in parts but this is what makes "Phone" even better upon repeat viewings. This is yet another fine addition in the cannon of mind-blowing Asian horror films to come out in recent years. Oh, one more thing. Why not just chuck the darn phone or let it ring? Doesn't make much sense but then again we ARE living in the 21st century. People have become way too attached to the ghastly things...

PHONE is a nice example of Asian horror's use of haunted technology. In the same way that RINGU made video tapes an instrument of eeevil, and PULSE turned the internet into a terrifying abyss, PHONE, like JU-ON, utilizes our cell-phone addiction to great effect. With all of these films, we get the idea that supernatural forces are using our gadgets against us. After all, how can we possibly escape these spooks if we put their conduits in our homes and even carry them around w/ us? PHONE also has one of the best portrayals of child-possession since THE EXORCIST! Filled w/ betrayal, jealousy, bitterness, and murder, PHONE is well worth owning...

PHONE falls into the long line of supernatural revenge films that were released across Asia in the early 2000s. Ahn Byung-Ki draws a great deal of influence from Hideo Nakata's RINGU, while also sharing many similar elements with the WHISPERING CORRIDORS series. A young reporter begins receiving terrifying phone calls from an unknown caller, but her search for the truth leads into a dark and twisted tale of obsession and vengeance. Though the plot structure is undoubtedly familiar, PHONE still introduces an original story and a number of chilling moments. The most frightening scenes involve the young Yeong-ju, a 5yr old whose possession by the evil spirit causes her to contort her body and lash out at her mother. In addition, the powerful score and strong cinematography contribute to the mounting suspense. Asian Horror fans will find plenty to like here.

-Carl Manes

I Like Horror Movies

"Phone" is top-of-the-line Asian horror thanks to Ahn Byung Ki, who also directed "Apartment" and "Bunshinsaba". If you enjoyed films like "Shutter" (original Thai version), "A Tale Of Two Sisters", "Ju-on", "The Eye" (2002), "One Missed Call" (original Takashi Miike version), "Ringu", "Dark Water" (original Hideo Nakata version) and "Alone", then you will enjoy "Phone". The Asian horror market has been a bit stale as of late with the exceptions of "Chaw", "4bia", "Whispering Corridors 5: A Blood Pledge", "Rule No. 1", "Alone", "Epitaph", "Death Bell", "Coming Soon", "Hair Extensions", "Hidden Floor" and "Loner". Great time to go back and catch some of the good ones like: "Re-cycle", "The Eye 2", "The Red Shoes", "Silk", "Sigaw", "Carved The Slit-Mouthed Woman", "Wishing Stairs", "Ghost Of Mae Nak", "Cello", "Face", "Inner Senses", "The Maid", "Red Eye", "Premonition", "Infection", "Otoshimono" aka "Ghost Train", "Ouija", "The Locker", "Naina", "Into The Mirror", "Arang", "White Lady", "Sick Nurses", "The Sisters" and "The Ghost" aka "Dead Friend".

Now this is how good horror movies are done! Korean, American, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter that there are subtitles. This is just hand's down a creepy-fun movie! FANTASTIC cast. The little girl is so good. Excellent unique twist on a common horror theme. I really enjoyed Phone.

The crazy little girl is very, very, scary in this movie. A woman works to uncover peoples secrets and reveal them to the world. When her life is threatened she keeps her guard up. She starts receiving weird phone calls. Her niece also starts to act strange. It's a lovely tail of jealousy and murder. This one is a little complicated but a good thriller all the same

It's been a few months since I saw this film, but what I have to say doesn't need that many details. First of all, I'm a pretty big horror fan, but I can't totally get into the Asian horror film scene of the last decade or so. Sure, there are a number of great films that I've seen, (Cure, Audition, Tale of Two Sisters, Uzumaki) but I find it tough to come up with too much enthusiasm for seeing that many more films from the the period. The movement seems to basically be a combination of generic girl-ghost and a number of oddball horror/exploitation films that don't fit into any particular subgenre, or sound particularly thrilling to me. This is one of those generic girl-ghost ones. It's pretty well done, nicely shot and whatnot, much slicker than say Ringu or Ju-On or the original Dark Water but I don't think this subgenre needs to be endlessly repeated. I don't actually have anything against the girl-ghost movie in and of itself, but it's too narrow to allow for excess repetition. This expands out a little, reminding me of 'Stir of Echoes' and 'What Lies Beneath', but that's not really that far to go. (One might suppose this is quite derivative of the latter, but the similar plot developments in each film are insufficiently novel for me to assume that this is the case.) It's moderately scary at the beginning, but it tends toward overkill, as we see the ghost again and again in a very short timespan. (The opening scene is very good, the best of the movie, which is pretty much always a bad sign.) Then, when we get to unravelling the mystery the whole things slows down a lot and is quite a bit more low-key, and a lot less tense. Also the whole tech-horror aspect doesn't really work for me. Like others, I'm not especially terrified of the telephone. Frankly, Ringu and The Ring worked in spite of the technological element, rather than because of them. I find it tough to imagine that I'm the only one who was initially hesitant about those films because they were about cursed videotapes. But, whatever.

If you're a fan of the genre you definitely ought to see this. It's pretty well done. But, if you don't feel any particular need to see another girl-ghost movie, there's no strong reason why you should make an exception for this one.

Grade: B-