Korean movie, AKA Pon. Ji Won (Ha Ji-Won) is a reporter who has just uncovered a sex scandal. Among her many current difficulties are threatening phone calls, both from a man involved in the scandal and a ghost, who tends to make a screechy noise that either kills people or seriously disturbs them. Ji Won’s niece Young Ju (Seo-woo Eun) accidentally hears the phone ghost, and becomes possessed by it. Ji Won does some digging, and discovers Jin Hee (Ji-yeon Choi), a teenage girl who previously had Ji Won’s phone number, has mysteriously disappeared. Ji Won has to figure out what happened to her before she becomes the next victim.
It’s well-written, pretty unpredictable, and even creepy at times. There are also plenty of gross-out moments—some quite brutal, like the opening, when a girl who also had Jin Hee’s number is killed in an elevator and breaks her fingernails off. I myself am freaked out by loose hair (a staple in many Asian horror movies), and when Ji Won finds a large bundle of wet hair, I actually gagged.
There are a few funny moments despite the serious subject matter. I like the scene when Ji Won is getting settled in her friend’s house, where she’s hiding out from scandal guy; she sits down at the piano, cracks her knuckles, spreads her fingers, and plays “Chopsticks.” The expression on her face is blissful, as though she’s creating fine art. I’m also amused by the scene when (possessed) Young Ju and her mother Ho Jung (Kim Yu-Mi) are reading “Snow White.” Young Ju becomes angry at the concept of the rescue by the prince, calling it shit. All of the acting is decent, but my favorite performance is Seo-woo Eun as Young Ju; she’s not always 100% believable, but for a small child pretending to be possessed by a crazed teenage girl, she does a bang-up job.
I’ll always remember this movie as the first foreign horror movie that my sister Leslie and I foisted on her bf Kevin; he had been previously put off by subtitles, but he came to really enjoy it. Give it a look if you’re in the mood for a slick, well-made thriller. Captions take some getting used to, but they’re worth it. Seriously, don’t be such a Young Ju.
GhoulieJoe 