As if there were enough room for another post Ring 'creepy Asian, ghost story' flick. No, there certainly wasn't. Yet, leave it 'the hardest working man in Japanese showbiz,' Takashi Miike to direct an utterly useless, yet thoroughly entertaining entry in the aforementioned sub genre that will have you cursing the Japanese film gods...for enjoying it.

The story? Well, it actually starts out quite clever, with a nifty little spin on The Ring mythos, this time with cell phones. It begins when a young girl receives a call on her cell phone...from herself. That's right! From HERSELF! Muwahahahahahaha! The call is time stamped 3 days ahead. Creeped out, she lets it ring until her phone reads 'One Missed Call.' Upon checking her voicemail, she listens to the message, wich happens to be from her own voice, followed by a scream. 3 days later, while walking close to some train tracks, at exactly the time the previous call had been placed, she finds herself uttering the same words from the message, and then she's brutally killed. Her severed arm dials a number on her cell phone, and then the whole process starts over again.

At this point, more of her friends are assaulted by the mysterious phone demon, receiving calls from themselves in the future, and eventually biting the bullet in some super grisly fashion. The beat goes on until someone is clever enough to figure out what or 'who' may be doing this, and why. Unfortunately, this is exactly the point in which the film screeches to a grinding halt (with about an hour of film to go, mind you). Still, Miike proves his filmic prowess in delivering a mostly entertaining knock off of a sub genre of horror film; I've quickly learned how to just about loathe in any form.

Hello Yumi, this is Yumi!

I don't even know what film we're in anymore, but we're having a hell of a time! (Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Film Society)

What works? Well, as usual, Miike manages to slip in some sly pop culture nods and still delivers his unique brand of social commentary and filmmaking wit. One Missed Call is full of great bits, including a scene in which one of the victims is coerced into appearing on a reality show, hours before she's scheduled to die...good stuff. Unfortunately, once we're down to what appears to be our last victim, the film drags on its heels. Just another case of a film not needing to be nearly 2 hours long. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, there are more than a handful of references to other films of this ilk. Whether Miike was serious in his intentions, or even if he was just giving a big ole' FU to his more mainstream filmmaking peers, I don't know. But what I do know is that One Missed Call delivers a tremendous visual sense (for this type of film), and some truly effective and almost (dare I say) frightening bits. Even if they were blatantly swiped from other films, American or otherwise (oh, how painfully obvious it is).

I'll be the first to admit that I liked the original The Ring, and I thought the American remake was OK...for an American remake of a far superior foreign film. Since then, I've been extremely selective in accepting these types of films. Some I've liked (the original Japanese version of The Grudge), and some I've disliked (Dark Water). It's even gotten to the point in which it becomes difficult for me to distinguish why I like the ones that I like (and hate the ones that I hate) I admit it...I mean, they're all so damn similar! I guess the reason I liked One Missed Call (despite the fact that it's really NOT a great film, especially for Miike standards) is because it comes across almost as a greatest hits of sorts (of all of these types of films), and in the end, is everything a decent piece of fluff (or huge pile of celluloid shit) should be, simply entertaining.

It's not deep, it's not original and more than anything else, it reminded me of an Asian take on Final Destination for some reason. But hey, it was one hell of an entertaining flick. If you wind up enjoying it, you'll probably hate yourself (almost as much as I do myself for enjoying it). But that's OK. Even though I HATE the term 'guilty pleasure,' One Missed Call is without a doubt, a guilty pleasure like no other.

Editor's Note: Walking out of the theater Michael and I overheard someone say "That movie didn't make any sense!" To which Michael's reply was. "It made perfect sense, it was just fucking stupid!" I couldn't have said it better myself. Be sure to keep an eye out for the American remake of One Missed Call starring Jessica Biel as Yumi. "I'm Yumi dammit! And I won't answer that phone!" Bravo!

Thumbs Up You got me Miike, you fucking copycat!