The Phone

Become a major fan of the Tartan video/Asia Extreme movies of late - from the more better known movies like Ring,Dark Water and Ju-On to the more obscure but equally satisfying films like A Tale of Two Sisters and this Korean movie is another fine example. Ji-Won-Hau plays Ji-Won whose story about several men indulging in under-age sex has resulted in them being sent for trial - she is being stalked by one of them so changes her mobile to avoid his abusive calls.As a consequence she begins to receive even weirder calls that she finds really distressing. One of her friends suggests she moves into the house they are renovating to get some peace which she does but all this does is intensify her fears. Her friend Ho-Jeong(Ju-Me-Kim) has a little girl Yeong-Ju(See-Woo Eun) who answers one of the calls and begins to act very strangely indeed.

At first this is put down to part of growing up but as begins to exhibit hostility to her Mother and an unhealthy obsession with her Father Ji-Won becomes increasingly concerned.Her anxieties are heightened when she discovers that several people who owned the phone before her have died in mysterious circumststances and this seems to be linked to the disappearance of a local schoolgirl - how this all works out I shall leave but its a very effective film. For obvious reasons it has been dubbed as Ring on a mobile ,but although it does share certain elements with that the way the plot works out makes it distinctive on its own. Some very creepy moments but what lifts it is See-Woo-Eun as the little girl who appears to be possessed - its a very disturbing performance - forget Linda Blair and the green vomit - this kid is genuinely scary in ways that kids her age shouldn't be....it takes the film into a new area.....and one that will haunt you for some time.....and you will never listen to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in the same way ever again. I can't put my finger on just what makes these Asian movies so effective but with so much dross coming out of mainstream Western cinema these are a haven for people who really appreciate first rate movies.

Highly recommended.

After writing a series of articles about pedophilia, the journalist Ji-won (Ji-won Ha) receives threatening calls on her cellular and she changes her number. Her close friend Ho-jung (Yu-mi Kim) and her husband Chang-hoon (Woo-jae Choi) invite Ji-won to move to their house in Bang Bae that is empty and closed. When the young daughter of her friends Young-Su (Seo-woo Eun) answers a phone call in her mobile phone, the girl screams and changes her behavior, feeling a great attraction for her father and rejecting her mother. Meanwhile Ji-won receives weird phone calls and sees and listens to a teenager playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano. After investigating her phone number, Ji-won discovers that the original owner of the number, Jin-hee (Ji-yeon Choi), had vanished and the two next owners of the number have mysteriously died in unusual circumstances. Her further investigation about Jin-hee discloses that the teenager was absolutely disturbed with her obsessive love for a man that had broken the relationship with her, and later she unravels dark and tragic secrets about the fate of Jin-hee.

"Pon" is a scary and consistent ghost story that uses elements of many other horror movies but works very well. The association is immediate with "Fatal Attraction" and "Memento Mori" with the obsessive love of Jin-hee; "The Exorcist", with the possession of Young-Su; "Whispering Corridors" franchise with the ghost in the high-school; "Ringu" , "Dark Water", "Ju-on the Grudge" and many other Asian horror movies with the shape of the haired ghost and supernatural situations. The screenplay follows the standard of most Asian horror movies, with non-chronological sequences and a strong twist in the very end. The actresses are excellent and extremely gorgeous, but I was impressed with the performance of the very young Seo-woo Eun, specially after her possession, with her face changing abruptly in many situations. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Telefone" ("The Telephone")

The biggest problem this film has is that everyone's first impression of it is "Ringu (1998) with a cell phone". While understandable, it's not really a fair assessment. While both deal with spirits using modern technology to exact their revenge, Phone is more a story about personal betrayal and revenge that uses the supernatural as a means of exposing the actions of the living characters. It's not really groundbreaking, but overall I found it to be a very enjoyable film.

Special recognition, in my opinion, should go to Seo-woo Eun, who played Yeong-ju. The kid has a definite talent for looking creepy.

Ji-Won is a young and ambitious reporter, whose recent articles about underage sex rings have made her more than a few enemies. When she begins receiving threatening calls on her mobile phone, she changes the number and moves into the house that her sister and brother-in-law are currently not using. On an excursion with her sister and young niece one day, Ji- Won's phone begins to ring. When her niece Young-Ju answers it, she begins screaming and crying hysterically. At first, Ji-Won thinks perhaps one of her stalkers got her new number, but when she answers the phone herself the next time, she hears the enraged voice of a teenage girl, screaming incoherently. Ji-Won begins suffering from horrific and realistic nightmares, in which a young girl with a ghost white face and very long hair plays Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" ceaselessly on the piano. Worse, Ji-Won's young niece Young-Ju has begun acting very oddly since answering her phone. The girl (who looks to be about 5) becomes fixated on her father and resentful of her mother. The normally angelic child is having violent outbursts of rage, cussing and injuring herself. Ji-Won soon becomes convinced that a ghost is to blame. When she traces her new mobile number back to the two previous owners, she discovers that they both died under strange circumstances. As Ji-Won digs deeper into the past, she slowly unravels the story of a disturbed schoolgirl named Jin-Hee and her obsessive love for a mystery man..a man who was given the now infamous mobile number by Jin-Hee herself.

This Korean ghost story bears similarities to its popular Japanese predecessor "Ringu" but also to other such films as "Memento Mori" "Dark Water" "What Lies Beneath" and "The Exorcist." It is a strong, well-cast film with some amazing performances, particularly by the little girl who plays Young-Ju. It is amazing to see this girl, who couldn't have been more than five or six when she did this film, play her role of possessed victim so well, her facial expressions shifting rapidly with every violent mood swing. The story can be dizzily confusing at times, shifting back and forth from past to present with no warning, but always infused with a strong sense of dread and a few humorous moments to ease the tension. It also has a nice twist ending that I truly hadn't seen coming. This is probably one of the better films that followed in the wake of Ringu's success. Ringu is still my own personal favorite, but Phone is strong enough to stand on its own. Fans of Asian horror will not want to miss this one.

Ji-won is a reporter who recently uncovered a kiddie sex-scandal. Now the target of hatred by the allies of those she exposed, Ji-Won finds herself being stalked and harassed via her cellular phone. She gets a new phone, but the malicious calls continue. When her young niece Yeong-ju answers the phone one day, she starts yowling and seems permanently traumatized. When Ji-Won starts seeing visions of what appears to be a ghost, she sets out to determine what the hell is going on with her cellular phone, and finds out that the terror is much more personal than she realized.

So there's lots of familiar stuff going on in "Phone." We have a female investigative reporter, the typical female ghost with long black hair, a haunting via modern technology, and jumbled chronology. But this splendid little horror movie is not a rip-off of the effective (but overrated) Ringu. In fact, where many contemporary Asian "supernatural horrors" fail, Phone succeeds. The lead character is admirable and tough as nails, the antagonists are genuinely frightening, the tension is severe, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to follow the non-linear narrative.

The story twists and turns to the point of unpredictability but not absurdity. The acting is great, mostly by first time actors. But this movie really belongs to the little girl who plays Yeong-ju. This girl OWNS the movie and the right to the title of "Creepiest kid." She goes from an adorable little kid to a demonic looking imp with wild facial contortions (sans CGI!) that has violent outbursts and tries to snog her father.

Some parts of the film are cheesy (after all, it is about a possessed cellphone), but all in all this is a great and rather sick movie. Phone confirms for me that the new wave of South Korea cinema is one of the best places to look for effective horror films these days.

My Rating: 8/10.