Phone (2002) is a Korean entry into the genre. The film finds reporter Ji-won needing a little down time. An article she wrote about wealthy men getting schoolgirl lovers has been getting her threats from the philandering sect of grumpy men. She’s been followed, received threatening phone calls, and opened email containing doctored photos of herself bloodied and murdered. So, she retreats to her friends vacation home and has her phone number changed. But, from the moment she moves in, a new set of phone calls (static mixed with screaming) and weird visions begin to plague her.

After picking up one of the strange calls, her friends young daughter, Young-ju, begins to behave strangely. Ji-won puts her investigative skills on the case and finds that the previous owners of her phone number all met strange deaths. The beginning seems to stem from a highschool girl who disappeared. Meanwhile, faster than you can say Linda Blair, Young-ju’s behavior worsens, she is given to fits of anger against her mother and possessiveness of her father, and Ji-won suspects that the little girl may be possessed.

Now, anyone who isn’t a stranger to the modern supernatural Asian horror film will see all of the cliches right off the bat. Scary girl- Check. You even have not one, but two, the schoolgirl and Young-ju, the child. Ji-won’s journalist occupation seems a little too close to the woman in the The Ring, who was also a reporter. There is the imagery of the ghosty-girl having long strands of hair. There is the modern appliance as the carrier of the paranormal curse. Flashbacks, macguffins, mystery; it is all the formula that has become commonplace in The Ring, Ju-on, and Tomie series, as well as Kairo, Dark Water, and many others.

Having said that, you may expect me to say that Phone is just another tired imitator. Not so fast. While there is something to be said for originality, in many genres, especially horror, that just ain’t always going to happen. Especially when popularity breeds cloning, you can at least hope there will be some entertaining clones. Phone is one of them.

Phone panders to all of the established rules and plotting but does so with an engaging and slick production that is punctuated with some good scares/horror imagery and an involving story. Despite the b-level nature of the genre, most of the actors are not (pardon the pun) phoning it in. The standouts are Ji-won Ha, who gives a good everygirl, lead performance, and especially little Seo-woo Eun as Young-ju, who pulls off one of the best creepy-kid roles in the history of horror cinema. So, while it offers nothing new, Phone is still entertaining and amounts to a mixed bag of the best that this trend of Asian horror has to offer.

Conclusion: An entertaining entry from Korea to the ever increasing pile of Asian spooky horrors...

COMMENTS
I heard a lot of mixed reviews on this film before seeing it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The movie was directed by the same guy that did Nightmare, which I thought was a total IKWYDLS ripoff, but at least he tries to put a little more originality in this film.

The movie is basically about a reporter-chick that did a case on men who sleep with underage girls. She gets many threatening phone calls, so she decides to change her phone number. Immediately after she recieves her new number she begins to get strange phone calls. She investigates the source of the calls and learns more than she bargained for.

This was a pretty decent film, but I thought the sub-plot of the stalker was rather pointless and confusing. It's like the director tried to mix two different films together - one being supernatural and another being a slasher. The supernatural elements all have to do with the calls and the things the girl sees after she recieves them. Then there's this sub-plot of a guy stalking and wanting to kill the girl, which I thought just made the story confusing. It's like the director can't get away from the cliched slasher genre.

There weren't any good scares, it was a bit predictable, and there were some scenes that were obviously ripped off from Ringu, but it kept my interest and I've seen a lot worse, so I figured a 6-rating was best fitting. The ending had an interesting twist, but it was predictable like the rest of the film.

I also liked the two-disc DVD that came with the movie. It actually contained deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes stuff, that is actually kind of rare when it comes to asian dvd releases. At least from the ones I've seen. Hopefully the next film the director puts together just sticks with one genre.

OVERALL
A decent Korean horror film. Kept my interest and had its moments, but don't expect to get any good scares out of this. Worth a check if you're into asian horror.