The movie's core plot element—that young Japanese adults will receive a call from themselves several days in the future and then die at that very time—is an interesting one, despite its obvious similarities to other girl ghost films. Naturally, protagonist Yumi (Kou Shibasaki) finds herself in the circle of friends getting the call and sets out to not only save herself, but those who are near and dear to her. Again, this all plays out like Ringu, Ju-On, etc.—only with a few unique touches that could only come from Takashi Miike setting it apart.
Two of these moments are what really make the film unique. The first finds a woman on a train platform at the time she's supposed to die. A supernatural force shoves her off the platform onto a speeding train. The result isn't pretty, but the scene becomes surreal when Miike cuts to a shot of the severed arm, cell phone still in hand, dialing up the next person on the list to pass along the curse. It's a simple moment, but it so perfectly personifies the offbeat world of Miike's cinema that longtime fans won't be able to help smiling.
The second moment comes later, when a local news show brings one of the girls into the studio to televise her deathwatch. The set up is hysterical, complete with stiff-haired anchors, a psychic, and a countdown clock. Watching the show, one can't help but think this is probably the kind of program that Kenichi Endo's character worked on in Miike's Visitor Q.
Yet for every inspired moment (including the appearance of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy as a plot element) there are at least two where the film bogs down with the tropes of the Asian horror film. Granted, one thing that's been lost on most western audiences is that Miike played a part in the formation of this whole "techno-horror" genre with his rarely seen MPD Psycho series (which has just turned up on domestic DVD), but it doesn't make most of these sequences seem any less stale.
Of course, one can make the argument that this is Miike's most commercial and mainstream film to date and by that logic alone it should be less daring and confrontational than his earlier works—and I even agree to a point. Every director should take a crack at a big mainstream film if for no other reason than to see how the other half lives and see how that experience colors their own work in the aftermath. That doesn't mean that the director automatically gets a pass because he's making his "mainstream" film, though. If the film still doesn't hit all the right notes, someone should point out where it gets off the track.
In the end, though, Miike takes one last opportunity to thumb his nose at the establishment. The ending of One Missed Call is a confusing thing guaranteed to leave viewers scratching their heads and wondering what it all means well after the end credits have rolled. Had Miike ended the film with the single line of dialogue featured at the hour-and-forty-five minute mark, the film would have ended perfectly, with implications that hit like a sledge hammer to the cranium. Instead, the film wanders along for another five minutes, and during this span it crosses into more of the typically ambiguous territory where most of Miike's narratives dwell. It's not as obtuse as Izo or Gozu, but anyone who likes a neat and tidy resolution to their girl ghost movies is bound to be disappointed here. In a way, that's actually a good thing. No one wants to see a maverick like Miike completely conform to mainstream sensibilities even if he is making a commercial film.
That being said, One Missed Call is a really good girl ghost film that simply came too late in the cycle to garner the kind of success and praise it deserved. It's superior to nearly all the "classics" that inspired it (I'd watch this a dozen times before I'd sit through Ringu again) and only the audience's apathy toward the whole girl ghost motif holds it back from being a genuine classic. Miike has crafted what is arguably his most mainstream production to date, but in the process has retained just enough of the wild and surreal motifs of his regular work to make One Missed Call feel more daring and inspired than it should. If you see only one Japanese girl ghost film, this is the one. If you can't take the thought of another double-jointed pissed off dead girl, get over it and see this anyway…you'll thank me for it later.
