6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
One night at a party, Yumi's friend gets a weird voice message on her cell phone. The message is dated two days in the future and she can hear her own scream in it. Two days later Yumi's friend dies and Yumi starts to wonder if it had anything to do with the phone call. As fear starts spreading among the students at Yumi's school, Yumi soon realizes that she's also got one missed call.
Starring: Kō Shibasaki, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Kazue Fukiishi, Anna Nagata, Mariko TsutsuiHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 83% |
Mystery | 16% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Japanese: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is available as part of One
Missed Call Trilogy.
The annals of so-called “J Horror” are filled with films where technology is not a boon to Mankind, but rather a kind of threatening curse. In that
regard,
it’s perhaps only slightly cheeky to suggest that the One Missed Call “franchise” might have just as easily been called Ringu (or at least its Americanized version Ring), since a
sinister ringtone on cellphones becomes a harbinger of death. The fact that a joke can be made about interchangeable titles may point out,
however,
that as even commentator Tom Mes gets into with regard to the first film, there’s a kind of “been there, done that” quality to One Missed Call
in terms of technology run amok sprinkled liberally with what ultimately is a kinda sorta ghost story. While he only was responsible for the
first
film of the trilogy, it’s perhaps instructive to note how Takashi Miike talks in a supplement included on this release about wanting to do more than
simply “scare people” with a horror film, and in fact (as Mes also mentions) there are elements in the first film in particular but also with regard to
the
entire franchise that may not be “jump out of your seat” fright-mare inducing, but which are decidedly angsty and may in fact have you
looking at your Caller ID a little more closely the next time your cellphone rings.
All three films in the One Missed Call Trilogy are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.85:1. Arrow lumps all three together in their very brief verbiage about the transfers in their insert booklet:
One Missed Call, One Missed Call 2 and One Missed Call: Final are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 5.1 and 2.0 stereo sound. The high definition digital transfers were provided by Kadokawa.I frankly wish I knew a bit more about the provenance of this master, as One Missed Call exhibits some of the same odd looking elements that have afflicted other releases of Japanese cinema, with anemic contrast, a kind of slate gray tone underpinning a lot of the presentation, and pretty milky blacks. It's nowhere near the levels seen in The Twilight Samurai, to cite one example, but it just didn't quite look "right" to me. There's also a very heavy grainfield at times, to the point that skies can look a bit on the noisy side, as at circa 31:42. Those elements aside, there is definitely an agreeable delineation in detail levels throughout the presentation, at least when lighting conditions allow (this is probably the most relentlessly dark of the three One Missed Call films, with many sequences playing out in minimal lighting). Though the palette seems slightly odd due to the grayness of everything, colors do pop relatively well, again when lighting conditions allow.
All three films in this set feature DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks. One Missed Call exploits the surround channels in any number of sequences featuring a lot of people, as in scenes set in restaurants or school. There is also some nice placement of spooky ambient environmental effects throughout the presentation, along with occasional bursts of LFE obviously meant to provoke a startle response. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation.
Arrow has packaged this as a two disc release, with the first film and supplements on Disc One and the two sequels and supplements on Disc Two.
Here is a list of the supplementary material on both discs:
Disc One ( One Missed Call)
One Missed Call may in fact feel a bit like a kind of prank, refashioning a number of "technology run amok" tropes from other J Horror outings to intermittent effect. This is probably the most stylish of the three One Missed Call films courtesy of the typically florid touches from Takashi Miike, and fans of this sometimes gonzo auteur will probably be willing to overlook any perceived narrative deficiencies. Video is a little odd looking, but audio is fine, and the supplementary package excellent. With caveats noted, One Missed Call comes Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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