Esta resenha pode conter spoilers
I’ve had this on my watchlist since March or April. It starred the most popular actresses in South Korean in Park Shin-hye alongside Jeon Jong-seo who starred in one of my all time favourite films, ‘Burning’. So the cast was what intrigued me but the plot is what hooked me. The synopsis is very broad and vague. Same with one of the trailers that I caught - at least compared to what actually happens in the film. This is Lee Chung-hyun’s first full length feature after a few short films, including Blue Dragon Nominated ‘Bargain’, and I must say that I thought it was excellent. The Call has me feeling very eerie and sort of distributed for large parts of the film. As we see our two characters, Young-sook & Seo-yeon, start talking with each other and connecting, we get hints of something stranger. Both bond throughout their isolation over the phone. It’s all nice. Seo-yeon teaches Young-sook about the internet, smartphones. Young-sook offers treats and sweats from the past. But there are lingering consequences, hints from other characters that go in the ear and out of the ear on first hearing but will cause disaster later in the film. We start to see the repercussion of changing one's destiny. The Call did a great job at keeping you invested into the characters and the journey of seeing them be friends to something very dark. Young-sook is an abused (constantly tortured both physically and mentally) person due to her mental illness, which brings me back to the aforementioned key info that proved to be pivotal later. How is she ill? We don’t know, *yet*. All we feel is sympathy for her due to her evil Stepmom, and that’s the sucker. The Call has two protagonists that are both likeable until we don’t. The film has a tremendous twist that explores what has been set up and makes for a tremendous and nervous viewing. That ending had me clapping. Honestly, the final act, to me, was the weakest act of the film but the twist added a whole new dimension to the film. And turned a usually predictable ending into a brilliant one.
Jeon Jong-seo proved that her magnificent performance in Burning wasn’t just beginners luck. She again wow’d me in her gripping and convincing portrayal of Young-sook. The character itself is different from the first half of the film and the second half but in a subtle way. Almost unnoticeable until it’s too late. Incredibly sly and wicked. Well done to her. Two films; two tremendous performances.
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Suspenseful thriller with excellent acting from Park Shin Hye & Jeon Jong Seo
I watched this for Park Shin Hye, but came out a huge fan of Jeon Jong Seo. Wow. They both acted so well.Like people have said, it's a similar concept to the drama Signal in where there is a parallel/time travel aspect happening through a phone call. From the 2nd half on, I felt like I was holding my breath the entire time. It was so creepy and suspenseful.
Jeon Jong Seo. I get why there is buzz about this rookie actor. This is only her 2nd film and her acting is so mesmerizing. She embodies her character and has such depth in her acting. If she's already this good at the beginning of her career, I'm excited to see what she can do in the future.
Park Shin Hye is great as always. There has never been a role that I've seen her in where I don't believe that she's her character. For someone so famous, that is hard to do, but she does it so effortlessly.
I'm glad I checked this film out!
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STORY
Spoiler free:
So when i was watching the trailer i thought it looked very scary for a thriller which i personally liked but also feared. However, the movie did start quite peacefull and than it suddenly got very scary without anything scary happening. I applaud the director for making the beginning of the plot very scary without doing Much. The camera angles, lighting and background music were very eery and i had chills all over my body. I did follow the plot until the end and Oh my, that got really messy..
SPOILER:
So for people who watched the end, did y'all get it? Because i didn't lol. My interpretation of the ending was that Young-sook from the 90's survived the fall, later on killed the mom and kidnapped Seo-Yeon. And when Seo-Yeon was blacked out after Young-Sook's torture she visited her father's grave and that's what we saw, but it wasn't what happened! So when we were watching the movie most of us thought about the Butterfly theory right? (FYI the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.) Yet somehow this movie didn't use this theory even though because of the small changes , the future changed. This becomes clear when watching the ending because we saw two different endings: One where Seo-yeon's mom survives after the fall and Young-Sook dies, and one where they both survive and where Young-Sook later on kills the mom and kidnaps Seo-Yoon. But these weren't the only timelines. Everytime Young-Sook changes anything, another timeline gets created and Seo-Yoon's consiousness travels to the other timeline. That theory of the movie is honestly so confusing and weird but its the only thing that could make the ending of the movie make sense. But than again, how did future Young-sook call her younger self to warn her she was gonna die? Like that doesn't make sense. She survived without the call otherwise present Young Sook couldn't survive so why did she call? That could've messed up the past and it could've resulted in her dying (which i think it did in that timeline). The only explanation of that part of the movie is that older Young-Sook was from another timeline, but how is she able to call herself from another timeline if Seo-Yoon could only call back to the past?
In conclusion:
The plot of the movie was very good but the ending was poorly executed which resulted in not really understanding what was going on. I was very dissapointed because my favorite Korean movie is Forgotten so i had quite high standards. When i read the plot and watched the trailer i got my hopes up as well, but they disregarded the Butterfly theory at the point where it doesn't make sense anymore. It's not a bad movie, it just has a dissapointing ending.
I only understood the ending because of this review, so read it if you really want to understand the ending:
https://www.thisisbarry.com/film/korean-movie-the-call-ending-explained-2020-netflix/
I also really want to applause the main actresses because both of them were spectacular and tbh i didn't expect such acting from Park Shin Hye! I would love to see her act in more movies/ dramas without romance. Her partner did outshine her tho and i was very surprised to learn that she is a rookie! I have seen her in Burning as well, and her acting is so natural.
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Esta resenha pode conter spoilers
Watch like no watch ,waste time!
I did not understand what the initial call was, when young suk told Sunhee to come to her house and said her mother would burn her down ... and the secret room at SEOYEON's house was also on fire,,,and the next call youngsuk asked why SEOYEON did not come to his house, meaning the phone was received not counting down, but going forward, because the incident of being burned has happened,before of this i think the call is counting day 18 17 16 nov, but not,,,but why are youngsuk still alive? And what happens next with the secret rooms's fire(present)? Just pass without any reason
May of scene happens without any reasonable reason!
And so what the meaning of the end? I think i can understand the end not like the others comment said
Even though it was warned by her who was from present but it doesn't make sense If she can survive being pushed from the second floor because it was an accident that even she can't predict it doesn't make sense If she can prepare before, no matter what,, Moreover, there was quite a lot of blood flowing and many parts of her body that I think were broken from the position after she fall
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All the elements were good except the story
I admit this has been a thrilling ride and a very good acting for the casts however the pointless plot really disappointed me.Applause to the wonderful casts who made their characters come to life realistically. Park ShinHye showed a range of emotions into this movie. The psychopath also made her character undesirable than ever which means she has done a great job.
The story is pretty unique with this time warp concept where the past and present affect each other as it is expected. It was a quite complicated story but I was able to follow, it's just that this kind of genre is not really something that I am a fan of. Also, I was looking for some sort of impact that will keep this movie on my mind but instead it just made me wonder, "so what is this movie really trying to say?"
I personally don't like it because of the story but if you enjoy similar kinds movies, the cinematography and acting is something that you can look forward into this one.
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Scam-Likely just got real! o.O
It's been a while since I watched a good Korean Horror/Thriller so I was excited to see this. It may not be perfect but it won't disappoint fans of the genre. "The Call" plays on "when the past meets the future" tropes but I think the story is really fun (if you find creepy scares fun) and pretty original. It stars Park Shin Hye as Seo Yeon, who returns home resentfully to care for her sick mother. She loses her phone on the way there and so she starts using her landline phone at home. That's when things start to get interesting.Park Shin Hye is good. I have found her performances to be a little boring lately, but she delivers on the tears and scared gasps necessary. She doesn't necessarily bring anything special to the role, but she does play it well. In contrast,
Jeon Jong Seo as Oh Yeong Sook is amazing! It's hard to say too much without giving the story away but she is the highlight and true star of this film. I will also give an honorable mention to Lee El for being just the right amount of sinister as Yeong Sook's mother. I loved how mysterious the past scenes were, especially in the beginning, but some of the beginning phone calls may seem like they drag for a horror movie. Just trust that it will all come together and the pace will definitely pick up to feel more like a traditional horror movie.
The rest of the cast is great too, although they definitely play up some of the campy and cheesy moments. It was nice to see actors I love in bit parts (like Oh Jung Se) too. Another cheesy aspect is the direction at times which relied on some pretty corny special effects. It didn't ruin it for me, they were still effective, but it made it less scary.
Would I watch this again? Yes! This is the kind of story that makes me want to rewatch it after knowing the ending. It's also fun to yell at the screen at all the stupid choices made and it doesn't lose that fun with repeat viewing. I admit that part of the story is slightly confusing and may be inconsistent, but I think it's well-told all the way through to the credits.
Overall, I can see this becoming a horror classic. It's not the best I've seen but it's memorable and fun, especially if you love amazing villains like I do! It's not too predictable and definitely delivers on thrilling and frightening moments. There's lots of violence but most of the gore is implied, which I prefer. If you look for flaws in the story timeline you can definitely find some, but I chose to just accept the fun of the story instead, especially the end. I say grab some gummy bear heads and enjoy the ride. Also, like a twisted "It's a wonderful life" this may even make you appreciate the life you have a little more. It will definitely make you think twice about talking to strangers on the phone.
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Watched for Park Shin Hye, stayed for the thrills!
I LOVE a good thriller and this was right up my alley and I was even happier to find out Park Shin Hye is in this one. She's definitely killing it in the thriller movie scene, even though I'm bias and would love to see her in more romcoms (Coffee Prince feels, AM I RIGHT??)This movie got me on the edge of my seat and they did the whole time travelling well, it was easy to distinguish the time differences and it actually made sense. The acting was impeccable and wow Jeon Jong Seo can really act.
I have no idea why you aren't immediately clicking the 'play' button on this one!!
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Oh Snap!
Well if you're looking for a reason to never answer the phone again look no further lmao I actually enjoyed this movie more than I thought...definitely not something to watch right before Christmas but YOLO. You can never go wrong with a good creepy/psycho theme. The female lead(s) were incredible in providing all the feels! I've noticed quite a few people compared this movie to some others and since I haven't seen those movies mentioned I can't give my input. Either way it's definitely worth the watch! The ending isn't at all what I was expecting hence why my re-watch is average and my score isn't higher.Watch alone at night and enjoy...
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One of the best stories ever written.
I'd like to note that I studied to become a writer. I wrote novel, short story, mainly thriller. I consider myself lazy to write this kind of thing, never wrote a review, but now here I am. I want to encourage writers and authors to watch this movie and learn from it. The Call, for me, one of the best stories ever written. So well made.In literature especially for thriller, there's a concept called "stake". Basically, it means that the protagonist, who has a goal, encounter the antagonist who disrupts the goal, and the antagonist threaten the protagonist so that the protagonist has no choice but to pursue the goal.
This may sounded complicated, but listen. Most of the stories out there forget this thing. They write the protagonist need to pursue his/her goal because it's the goal, some sort of ambition. Wrong. Writers need to set the stake, for example, if the protagonist fails to reach the goal, they will die, or somebody die.
One thing that I'd like to note about The Call is there are no scene that useless. I hate this kind of useless scene. Most writers often uses scene for a simple "dramatic effect" that actually so silly. They fails to realize that those scene are garbage.
A scene must have one important key, "progression". Something yearns to progress. Either a new information, character development, relationship, etc. Two types of scene: action scene and reaction scene. Not trying to be a nerd with this but I analyzed everything in The Call, and it followed the basic theory of 27 structure.
This is how you write a story. All of the directors! Writers! whatever, watch this thing. Watch this. Learn.
"Oh, that concept of time paradox is very common."
Bro, shut up. I don't care about the theme. I'm not talking about the theme. If it's mainstream, so be it. I don't care. I watched lots of movie with great concept, big potential, but ended up as a waste, a dogshit.
Good or bad writing in movie is a preferences. But, correct or wrong writing in movie is a fact.
Spoiler:
It's just that police's death that felt off to me. That probably the only one plot hole nonsense in the story. Also, I felt it silly when the antagonist manages to avoid getting caught, somehow. I mean, starts from she killed her mom, especially when she killed the strawberry guy, it obvious that the police should know about this. However, they didn't. And it made the police looked dumb, disappointing the viewer and also insulting the viewer.
I think what should be done is the writer should create the antagonist more organized, not impulsive like that. This made the antagonist appeared smart, and the viewer would respect her and more scared to her. I mean, seriously? She killed the strawberry guy like it was Tuesday and the police really that one of an imbecile?
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PROS:
+ Netflix must have a ton of money, because the effects [both visual and audio] are outstanding
+ Well-constructed story that manages to keep the viewer engaged and thinking until AFTER the end
+ Wonderful performances from the cast [I could read the lead actress' emotions and actually FEEL the weight of more impactful scenes and I could even sense the evil from Young-sook]
+ The time manipulation plot device is executed in a brilliant way that also increases panic
CONS:
- There is a quick shot during the credits that is bothersome and requires some analysis to understand the intention
It is rare to find a movie that is of this high-caliber in the fantasy thriller subgenre! I loved how there is so much detail poured into the story and characters. I felt a wide variety of emotions during this film.
If you like serial killer or time travel movies, than you NEED to watch this.
Make sure to silence your phone. ;)
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Just me being out of my comfort zone
This movie felt short but like in not a bad way ofc. I gave this review headline like this because it's true. When i look at my watchlist i can find there different genders but my least watched is "time traveling"(in this movie it was the connection between the present and past). The reason for it is that i will most likely get bored what didn't happened that much while watching this movie. I started watching this movie without knowing who will act in it and then i found out that i know at least one actor. The reason why i gave it 9.5 star rating and not 10 is because of the ending. I felt like that was something i did not expected to happen but it did. And right now i am going to sleep :)Esta resenha foi útil para você?
Just stick to your smartphone...
It started off as a beautifully friendship... the type that goes beyond time and space... you know that type of friendship that may just change the future type of deal, bringing people back from the dead and all... Cute, sweet and all fluffy... with gummy bears, pastels as far as the eye can see .beautiful scenery and a dysfunctional family or two... if you overlook the locking people up and performing an exorcism or three...Had it not been a horror movie one would almost think it was as cute as cute can be... However this is a Thriller, Mystery, Horror, Schi fi... and boy does it live up to its name with gore. blood, suspense teaching us all never ever to take a call from the past... heck just stay away from all forms of old communication.
Things that did bother me: the killer portrayed as mentally ill... other then that it was really well made and had a decent plot. And though there may not be an appa as far as the eyes can see this movie proves once and for all that you can enjoy Korean content without them.
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