May 13, 2005
Japanese Text Messaging Horror Flick
Bill Stamets for the Chicago Sun-Times, reviews a Japanese horror flick entitled One Missed Call which is part of the independent and art films event opening around town this weekend.
"One Missed Call" reads the screen on cell phones: Victims hear themselves scream in messages sent from their own phones and dated two days in the future, which is precisely when they die an outlandish death.
College student Yumi Nakamura (Kou Shibasaki) suffers searing flashbacks of her abusive mother, cued by extreme close-ups of an eye. All her friends get the fatal calls. She teams up with undertaker Hiroshi Yamashita (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi), whose sister also suffered the curse of "One Missed Call." Together they run and scream. Stay tuned for the text-message massacre".
Other films where cellphones have played a leading role:
-- Cellular A US film with Kim Basinger and William H. Macy. The Nokia 6600 is central to the film's dark storyline, which portrays both the best and worst features of cellphones.
-- Cellphone A Chinese film and a dark comedy about a morally bankrupt television talk show host who lies, cheats and schemes his way through life using his feature-laden cell phone.
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