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 yeong-ki Ahn's "Phone" is another in a long line
of "Dark Hair Ghost Story" movies, in which a vengeful female spirit,
sporting unnaturally long dark hair and unsightly dark, black eyes appear in the
most inappropriate places to go "boo!" -- silently, of course. The
Japanese film "Ring"
began the craze, which led to, besides a hundred copycats by all of Asia, an
American remake in 2002. To say that there's nothing new in "Phone" is
an understatement. The movie is really a giant collection of all the elements of
a Dark Hair Ghost Story movie and a Slow Bore Horror film, which itself has many
elements of the Dark Hair Ghost Story. (The only difference between the two
Asian horror subgenres is that in a Slow Bore Horror film everything crawls by,
making a two-hour movie seem like 4 hours by its lack of perceived physical
movement.)
"Phone" stars Ji-weon Ha as Ji-won, a spunky
journalist who, after one of her articles endangers her life, has to go into
hiding. She moves into the newly renovated home of her best friend, who is
married with a daughter name Yeong-ju. As the movie opens, a woman dies
mysteriously while in an elevator after receiving a call on her cellphone with
the text message, "I'm your destiny." It seems a vengeful spirit,
seeking (what else?) revenge for a past deed, is going around haunting anyone
who happens to subscribe to a particular cellphone number. And guess what? The
latest person to receive the new cell number is none other than spunky Ji-won.
But as it turns out, there's more to Ji-won's troubles than
mere coincidence. The ghostly spirit used to be a high school girl name Jin-hie
(Ji-yeon Choi), who was having an affair with an older man when she mysteriously
vanished (and died, since she's now a ghost, natch). So what exactly does all of
this have to do with Ji-won? Or the family of Ji-won's best friend? Better yet,
why is it seeming more and more likely that something, or someone royally ticked
off, is possessing poor little Yeong-ju and making her do some bad, bad things?
There are a lot of things so-called "responsible
filmmakers" aren't supposed to do, and one of them is throw a child actor
(or in this case, her character) down a flight of stairs. (Yes, I know, it's a
prop. Still…) This particular scene takes place in the Third Act of
"Phone", which despite being incredibly generic, still manages to be
quite effective. I was surprised when I jumped at some of the obvious scare
scenes in "Phone", despite the fact that I knew they were coming a
mile away. The movie really has no original bone in its body, but that doesn't
stop it from making me look over my shoulder more than once while watching it.
Technology vs. Humans movies have been around for decades,
ever since there was, well, technology. The tech element here is the cellphone,
which rings constantly throughout the movie. (It was the Internet in "Fear
dot com" and "Kairo",
the VCR in the "Ring" movies, and androids in "Blade
Runner".) The cellphone brand of choice here is Motorola, which must have
paid a pretty penny to get their logo in every other frame. The reasons why the
spirit seems to be expressing her anger via the phone is explained, as well as
the seemingly coincidental nature of Ji-won's involvement in the haunting.
(Hint: it isn't coincidence!)
Like every Dark Hair Ghost Stories of the last 5 years
(ever since the Japanese "Ring"
and the American "The Sixth Sense"), this particular Dark Hair Ghost
Story involves a third party who must discover a terrible secret and, if they
can't put things right, then at least expose the killer/killers. Until they do,
the spirit will haunt their ass off. (Excuse the vulgarity.) Anyone who has seen
any amount of movies in this subgenre will know what to expect, and
"Phone" gives you everything you expected, and nothing else.
What puts "Phone" out of the Slow Bore Horror
subgenre is that it doesn't move slowly at all; the scare scenes come fast and
furious, replete with a throbbing soundtrack to remind us to be scared in case
we forget. This doesn't mean the movie is all about fast cutting; if anything,
"Phone" is mostly about clever frame composition and computer effects
that merge different scenes. Director Byeong-ki Ahn ("Nightmare")
continues to improve within the genre, and although his second stab at a Dark
Hair Ghost Story movie is still too familiar and grossly unoriginal, his
camerawork is super slick, highly creative, and very effective.
The one element besides the derivative nature of
"Phone" that may turn some people off is the usage of the child
character. As in the "Exorcist", child actor Seo-woo Eun is required
to do quite a bit of acting, the bulk of which she probably doesn't understand
the reasons for. Because a vengeful ghost is possessing the child, she's
required to act evil and dark, and although the actress is quite good in the
role, I have to wonder what repercussions this might have on her in the future.
I bring this up only because the child is required to do, and say, a number of
things that are, in all honestly, not acceptable in civilized society.
The whole fall-down-the-stairs scene notwithstanding.
FYI: The opening credits of "Phone" features the
Walt Disney logo! Also, apparently the Koreans, like many of their Asian
neighbors, don't have the same aversion to the number "13" as those of
us in the States and Europe; although I believe the Japanese are a bit skittish
around the number "4".
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