I didn’t know anything about 2002’s Phone prior to seeing the soon-to-be-released DVD. I like to watch a movie for the first time as untainted and uninfluenced as is humanly possible in this Age of Information. I have since read up on it and learned that it’s been derided by critics as a Ringu rip off. While elements of 1998’s Ringu certainly are present in Phone’s milieu, Phone is a better-directed, more succinctly-told, and nicer-looking film than Ringu. Phone isn’t a rip off — it’s an improvement (and if you want to split hairs, Ringu wasn’t all that original either).
In spite of an inauspicious beginning (“Toilet Films Presents…”) the story starts right off with a hook — the demise of a lone woman in an elevator, terrified literally to death after she receives a disturbing phone call on her cell. After this, the story settles into pace and we meet Ji-won (Ha Ji-won), an investigative reporter who’s written a series of exposes on underage sex rings. She has to go into hiding after receiving some threatening calls, and luckily a married couple she knows has an extra country house she can stay at for a while until the perpetrators are put on trial. Ji-won shacks up in the roomy mansion alone, and changes her cell number… but the calls keep on coming.
She confides in Ho-jeong (Kim Yoo-Mi) and Chang-hoon (Choi Woo-jae), and while her home-owning friends are sympathetic, they are mostly unconcerned — that is, until their young daughter answers Ji-won’s incessantly ringing phone and gets a horrifying message from The Beyond. Before long, the terrified tot falls ill and then seems to change personalities overnight. As it turns out, the phone number is the key — it originally belonged to a young woman who disappeared, and whomever is assigned those diabolical digits is rung up and called into action. Two who failed to answer her ominous pleas have died, so it’s up to Ji-won to find out what the caller wants. Now that everyone is on the same page as far as believing a vengeful ghost is behind the mayhem, it’s time to solve the mystery and save the little girl’s soul.
Stylish, shocking and suspenseful, Phone is one of the best Asian horror films I have seen. Unlike so many that are touted as modern-day classics in their genre, Phone is directed in a straightforward fashion, beautifully and sumptuously filmed, and very well-acted. While there are no punches pulled when it comes to the bloody horror, Phone rings truest in its nerve-tingling suspense.
While Phone doesn’t know any new numbers and it does fall apart a little bit towards the end, I still recommend it well above its more popular peers (Ringu, Ju-On, and Living Hell, to name just a few).
The new DVD, released by Asia Extreme (January 25), is packed with additional release material. There’s an interview with the director (Byeong-ki Ahn) — who admits his Ringu influence, and talks about what it was like to work with the actors, how the house was built as a massive set, etc. There are two interchangeable features titled “Making of” and “Behind the Scenes” which are both basically just unedited, un-narrated footage of the film being rehearsed and shot. There are two deleted scenes (nothing gory), and scene-specific commentary with the child actress, Eun Seo-woo (it’s really not “commentary” per se; it’s more like a little kid rambling in answer to silly questions, but it’s cute). There’s also an epilogue, which covers the last day of shooting Phone, and some TV spots and trailers.