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Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop 
ONE MISSED CALL – Takashi Miike's original. I have vague memories of quite enjoying the remake, cardboard and tone-deaf though it may be (US attempts to re-do J-Horror usually are). Whilst it's not up there with the likes of 'Pulse' and 'Dark Water', both genuinely dark and affecting films, 'One Missed Call' is certainly pretty good stuff. Some students die after their future selves leave messages, recorded at the moment of death, on their mobiles. One such student teams up with the brother of another victim to track down the source of all this bad shit. Miike creates a sombre atmosphere around a bleak theme (child abuse), although the tech-angle seems tacked on and gimmicky. 'One Missed Call' opens strongly with an off hand vibe of spooky imminence, although it meanders a bit midway. The film comes into its own in a few powerful scenes, however – a TV exorcism which borders on hysteria, but also the strange moment when the lead character embraces a rotting ghost and weeps. Japanese horror films often have a strong undercurrent of sadness and melancholy (as opposed to only full on fear and dread) about them, and this is very much the case with 'One Missed Call'. Worth watching.
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Big fan of your reviews Frankie, you always take things from a different perspective angle when reviewing films and it gives quite a fresh view.
I watched this one myself a while back, can't remember if I reviewed it on here, but it really enjoyed it, even if occasionally if did shift the norm for J Horror which is usually quite isolated or a slow spread, with the exorcism scene you mentioned which I thought was fantastic. Interesting you mention Dark Water as well and child abuse, as there seems to be a running theme through a lot of J Horror I watch involving children of some kind, and some kind of neglect. Dark Water was my first J Horror at about 11 or so and that's a decision I regret to this day, scared the absolute shit out of me.
The whole child abuse/trouble thing seems to even go to other countries, as the other night I watched The Tale of Two Sisters, a film I've heard so much about over the years, so the second it came on a local speciality stations app, I watched it as soon as I saw it. And for the most part, I was very confused about how I felt about it all.
Two sisters return with their father from a psychiatric institute to their country home where their step mum waits for them, and tense relations all around as well as occasional strange disturbances and some abusive themes create an all encompassing mystery.
For starters, it's very very slow burn, not only with not much happening, but it's also very low on explanation, score, dialogue, everything. The scenery and atmosphere is rich (the film oozes atmosphere), but not an awful lot happens in the first 20 minutes, and I'd say the first hour has about soemthing seriously spooky happen every 20 minutes and that's it. Despite that, the whole thing is very very eerie, and the spooky stuff that does happen is fairly full on. An interesting approach is taken in the way they set up multiple mysteries and questions, and even at the bit twist 70 minutes or so in, there's still so much time left after, you can't help but keep asking questions. The twists themselves are a bit of stretch, and really ask you to take some liberties in understanding them, but all comes clear in the final 5 minute scene which explains everything, and is so absolutely horrible it's like a punch in the gut
Great performances all round and the direction is fantastic, and the film has such a strong sense of mystery that it never feels very slow or boring, you are left so interested. That being said, I wish I kept a direction or tone, at times it was really strongly psychological horror, and other small intervals were really strong ghost type horror, including one slightly out of place seeming scene right before the end that only makes sense at the end and with a bit of thinking and putting two and two together on the part of the viewers.
In conclusion, Tale of Two Sisters isn't an as straight forward a mystery as One Missed Call or more straight ghost horror like Dark Water, it's more psychological and takes it own course, and isn't kind to the viewers. Overall I gave it an 8/10, but I can't really give it a rating easily, I definitely reccomend it for a watch.
Anyone else have any J Horror reccomendations? Didn't mean to end up writing my review for Tale of Two Sisters here but I did. The Red Shoes is also on the app, I have Suicide Club already, and on my list I have:
Uzumaki and Long Dream being a massive Junji Ito fan
Cure
Pulse
Strange Circus
Kwaidan
Don't Look Up
Seance
Rinne
Marebito
If anyone has seen those and has opinions on them, or any others they think I should watch, let me know
