[One Missed Call 2]
Plot:In Japan, the daycare teacher Kyoko Okudera is convinced by her colleague and friend Madoka to visit her boyfriend Naoto Sakurai in the restaurant where he works instead of studying as planned. When the owner Mr. Wang answers his daughter's mobile phone, he receives a message telling him that he would die in an accident in the kitchen. This immediately comes true. Later, Naoto is visited by the snoopy journalist Takako Nozoe, who is researching the death call, and she plays the deadly ring tone for him. He recalls that not only Mr. Wang, but also Madoka have received similar calls. Meanwhile Kyoko is talking to Madoka and she sees a ghost in her phone. She rushes to Madoka's apartment and finds her dead in the bathtub, with Naoto and Takako arriving immediately after. Their investigation shows that Mimiko's grandfather Wei Zhang is in Taiwan and Takako asks her former husband Yuting to search him. Meanwhile, Kyoko receives a phone call and the autopsies of Mr. Wang and Madoka indicate the presence of coal dust in their lungs and no candies in their mouths. Takako, Naoto and Kyoko travel to Taiwan expecting to solve the mystery and save Kyoko from her fate.

Cast:Mimura, Yu Yoshizawa, Renji Ishibashi, Haruko Wanibuchi, Peter Ho, Asaka Seto.

My Thoughts:Extremely effective sequel.

Review:"One Missed Call 2" or "Chakushin Ari 2", is the 2005 sequel to 2003's "Chakushin Ari". The film doesn't stray away from it's sequel roots like most other horror films do, trying to be a standalone horror movie, or a companion piece. It connects to the first film exactly like a sequel should, and manages to not only keep the base story intact, but also manages to add on alot of other cool shit in the process. The film follows a new group of people who receive the chilling voicemails introduced in the first film.

Signaling that they will die at an exact date and exact time. Only this time, the voicemails seem to be predicting the deaths of other people instead. Thus putting in play a scenario where the calls are not exactly meant for the person who's phone they arrive to, but instead meant for people close to that person. Also these new victims mouths aren't filled with a red jawbreaker, as a detective who's been investigating the phone murders ever since they began soon learns. Instead, these new victims have traces of coal dust in their bodies.

Could there be a change in pattern that the deadly Mimiko has steeped herself in? Deciding to kill her victims and leave a new calling card behind? Is there a human hand at work? Or is there another angry spirit who has somehow glommed on to the killer voicemails as their new M.O.? The movie, which was directed by Renpei Tsukamoto...puts so many different questions, possibilities, and paths in play....that it makes the movie not only fun to watch, but fun to ponder as well. You're really presented with a mystery that you can spend time trying to solve before the characters do.

A mystery which runs alot deeper than the mystery of the first film, which was a jumping off point for the sequel. Part two presents new characters, new challenges, and at the same time...draws in loose ends from part one, and connects them with the blossoming story of part two. The pic is very well-acted, and very well shot. Alot of the scenes manage to come through very well, and complete whatever task they were meant to complete. Whether it be creep you out, freak you out, or add a bit of humor to a very tense situation.

The demises this time around are also alot more sinister, one of which involves a woman dying in the shower in a way that god never intended. The downside to this death, which comes early on in the movie...is that the ones that follow it can never really measure up to it's greatness. But they come close, and the films story is so intriguing, interesting, dark and spooky, that you kind of stop caring about whether or not the deaths are grade A standard.

This is what most asian horrors manage to do with the viewer, present you with deep characters and a smart and deep story, which can allow you to focus on alot of different aspects of a movie besides just who dies and how. Something american horror in all it's generic ugliness....rarely manages to do. The ending of "One Missed Call 2" is the typical Japanese/Asian horror movie ending though. It's not clear, it's not absolute, and can be taken in many different ways and or theories. People will probably theorize for awhile about the ending, and how things all came together to conclude in such a way.

Me? I found the ending brilliant, smart, and very creepy. It's also got SWERVE written all over it, and begs the question of why horror cannot always be this brilliant. If there's one thing that can act as a chink in the films armor, it's that it utilizes the evil twin plot arc, a plot arc which is very familiar in asian horror. And while it does get somewhat tiresome, because it's been done so many times, it seems to work alot better in Asian horror for some reason.

I suspect it's because the characters are alot more fleshed out and the director and writer go to great lengths to make the twin a scary beotch. But the good news is that the evil twin fiasco doesn't overshadow the films ending, so if you're worried about the ending being some twin twist, then don't because the writer while utilizing the evil twin plot point, is smart enough not to let it be a period at the end of the overall sentence. "One Missed Call 2" is one of the best asian horror sequels I've seen, it not only improves upon the first movie, but adds to it's mythology and story as well. In other words....it seres the overall exact purpose that a sequel should.

Positives:Solid story, good acting, good kills, great camerawork, alot of creepy moments, and a clever finale.

Negatives:The evil twin plot arc makes another appearance. It's getting a bit stale.

Overall:Three and a half out of four stars.





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