Screened as part of NZIFF 2004
One Missed Call 2003
Chakushin ari
The cine-maniac behind previous film festival gems Audition, The Happiness of the Katakuris and the seldom seen Visitor Q is back with a vengeance. Just when you thought it was safe to re-enter the cinema, One Missed Call comes a-calling, the latest in the long line of Asian thrillers like Pulse and Ring that fuse technology and horror to connect with today’s terminally ‘online’ youth. Shibasaki, who played the sadistic femme fatale in Battle Royale, here plays the polar opposite, the very friendly Yumi. While at a restaurant, her friend gets a very strange cell phone call, just a weird scream. More troubling is that the call appears to have come from her very own number, three days in the future. Exactly 72 hours later she plunges off a railway bridge. As Yumi investigates the disturbing proceedings, director Miike fills this horror outing with peephole phobias, trash reality TV shows, still-operating severed limbs, evil elevators and unruly undead, delivering an eye-popping mix of heady shocks, satire and edge-of-your-seat suspense. — Ant Timpson