One Missed Call 2

After the ultimate success of its predecessor, "One Missed Call 2" is released in 2005 with a different crew on-board. Having an upgraded premise, you'd expect this sequel to be better--but it really isn't. Sure, the deaths are more intriguing, but you've got to listen--the film has more cons than expected. The ending is somewhat unsatisfying, and it seems that a brand new story is attempted to be forced into the original lore of Mimiko from the first "One Missed Call" film. Fortunately, the runtime is much more reasonable than the first film, and the terror stays the same, not changing much from the original film!

In Japan, the daycare teacher Kyoko Okudera (Mimura) is convinced by her colleague and friend Madoka to visit her boyfriend Naoto Sakurai (Yû Yoshizawa) in the restaurant where he works instead of studying as planned. When the owner Mr. Wang answers the cellular call of his daughter, he receives a message telling that he would die in an accident in the kitchen that immediately comes true. Later, Naoto is visited by the snoopy journalist Takako Nozoe (Asaka Seto), who is researching the death call, and she plays the deadly ring tone for him. He recalls that not only Mr. Wang, but also Madoka have received similar calls. Meanwhile Kyoko is talking to Madoka and she sees a ghost in her phone. She rushes to Madoka's apartment and finds her dead in the bathtub, with Naoto and Takako arriving immediately after. Their investigation shows that Mimiko's grandfather Wei Zhang is in Taiwan and Takako asks her former husband Yuting to search him. Meanwhile, Kyoko receives a phone call and the autopsies of Mr. Wang and Madoka indicate the presence of coal dust in their lungs and no candies in their mouths. Takako, Naoto and Kyoko travel to Taiwan expecting to solve the mystery and save Kyoko from her fate.

"Chakushin Ari 2" is scary like most of the Asian horror movies, and has a promising beginning supported by a good sequel of Takashi Miike's "Chakushin Ari". I saw both movies in sequence and I found many explanations about characters and situations of the first movie. However, like in the first story, the conclusion the movie is confused, not clear, needing interpretation of the pretentious plot point that contradicts the whole plot and character development; therefore, the screenplay writer Minako Daira or the director Renpei Tsukamoto or both failed since they were not able to transmit a clear conclusion of the story to the audience. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Chamada Perdida 2" ("One Missed Call 2")

This is a nice follow up to the original (One Missed Call, 2003). It's not a rehash of the original film, but it builds on the story by introducing new perspectives on the mysterious process by which the killer telephone calls are made. There are some quite atmospheric scenes and a nice mystery for the characters to solve. I liked some of the acting, too. However, some elements of the plot are a little bit nonsensical. Something to mention... I watched the deleted scenes on the DVD and the director's interview about those deleted scenes. The director said he removed those scenes from the movie in order to improve the pacing. However, the deleted scenes improve the story, containing important information that explains the background (including an intriguing tale, told by an old woman, of how she saw the same thing in her youth, but with handwritten letters rather than phones!). In other words, the deleted scenes enrich the story and render the story more understandable. So, if you watch these on DVD, be sure to check out the deleted scenes afterwards.

Most disappointing aspect about this sequel is that it falls incredible flat as an horror.

It's a sequel to an already troubled first movie, that showed lots of premise with its main concept but was one that was not without its flaws and also fell kind of short as an horror movie.

I just can't see how horror lovers, or fans of the Japanese horror genre in particular, can get any satisfaction out of this movie. Seriously, most of the time there isn't a whole lot happening and its horror moment mostly consists out of people looking scared whenever they receive a phone call. And the other moment, the feature some more classic Japanese kind of horror elements, you most of the time have no idea what is going on.

Again, just like was the case with the first movie is that this movie becomes incredible confusing in its second half. I can't really say if this was because it was all hard to understand or simply because I had lost interest in this movie, halfway through. Whatever was the case, it ruined quite a lot for me. Before its second half I was still pretty much giving this movie the benefit of the doubt and was still willing to give this movie a better rating then I'm giving it now.

What also really doesn't help this movie is that it has some incredible poor acting in it. It especially ruins a lot of the supposedly scary and tense moments.

Otherwise, it's one fine looking movie, with a typical Japanese horror look and style all over it. Nothing about this movie is basically bad looking, so all the blame could be put on the movie its script and acting.

Disappointing sequel to an already average movie.

4/10

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I tend to like Japanese horror, whether is it a gory slasher, or just a creepy film like this one. I prefer the characters over the WB actors they use in Hollywood remakes.

There were some really good actors in the film: Mimura as Kyoko Okudera, Yû Yoshizawa as Naoto Sakurai, and Asaka Seto as Takako Nozoe.

It was a little hard to follow all the characters, but it still was scary and well worth watching.

It may have been better to see Takashi Miike's first part of this to have a better understanding, but it is not necessary to enjoy the movie.