#thecall

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19-20 Repentance is a word that is so often used among believers but yet still misunderstood. We interpret repentance as saying “I’m sorry” or turning away from a particular sin. According to scripture, true repentance is urged by “godly sorrow,” and it…

안녕하세요! Una de las cosas que me hizo caer perdidamente enamorada del coreano es el cine. Me gusta mucho el cine, sobretodo el género de terror, thriller y suspense, y los coreanos lo bordan. Existen muchas webs donde podéis acceder a contenido muy variado y de calidad.

Hoy me centro en tres películas aceptables que podéis encontrar en Netflix España. Dramas hay bastantes y algunos son buenos (perdonadme, pero es que soy MUY crítica con los dramas) pero películas hay muy pocas y normalitas.       

-    Space Sweepers: A ver, el guión es flojete. No es buena, pero para ver así una tarde tonta de domingo, no está mal. Los efectos especiales me sorprendieron, tal vez fue porque no esperaba gran cosa, pero estaba muy bien hecho todo. El punto de mezclar diferentes idiomas y personajes de diferentes nacionalidades es muy efectivo, desgraciadamente la actuación no está a la altura.

-          The Call: Maravillosa Lee El. Es cierto que no es el personaje principal y que no les quito mérito a las otras dos protagonistas, pero es que ella es divina. Es así. Buenísimo remake, te atrapa desde el principio.

Many great premises still have a lot to offer to storytellers who take them in unexpected directions. Communicating via phone (or letters) with someone in the past/future? We’ve seen it done in films like The Lake House but we haven’t seen it in a horror/thriller. The Call presents many unexpected turns and makes great use of its gimmick.

Kim Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) begins receiving mysterious phone calls. They come from the house’s previous inhabitant, Oh Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who lived there 20 years ago. Seo-yeon convinces her “roommate” to interfere in the past and save her father from a lethal household blaze. In return, a disaster in Young-sook's future is averted. As their lives are altered, the consequences of these changes come to light.

Numerous big twists come in the second half of the film and the less you know about them, the better. The synopsis I read while getting ready gave away too much for my taste so I’ve left key bits out of my synopsis. When the story begins, you have no idea what’s coming. Did a murder trigger this connection between timelines? Did the father's death? Once the unique method of communication is established, your mind swarms with possibilities and questions. Seo-yeon wants to save her father, now dead exactly 20 years. First, she’s got to convince Young-sook of what’s going on, then get her to interfere. You can’t shake the feeling the dates line up just a bit too well. There’s got to be something else going on, but what?

As the answers trickle in and the callers grasp the power this window into time grants them, things get intense. The two women can influence each other but cannot meet. Seo-yeon controls the information being fed to Young-sook and her actions influence the future. This dynamic always keeps you guessing and brings some sinister developments later on. Both women must evaluate their situation and come up with ways to use their unique position in ways that prove the filmmakers paid attention. The Call always follows its own rules but they're not spelled out through clunky exposition. You have to piece together what can and can't be done at the same speed as the characters. This makes their discoveries shocking, frightening, and unsettling. The conclusion is particularly skin-crawling. The Call “ends”, and then we get a few brief scenes during the end credits that show there are other layers to this nightmare you didn’t expect.

Based on the 2011 British/Puerto Rican supernatural film The Caller, this South Korean picture took me completely by surprise. With the title and the familiar-looking setup, you think you’re in for standard ghostly business but this is a complicated, innovative story. It leaves you excited to see more. I’m planning on checking out the original just to see if there are any other clever maneuvers this film left out or invented. (Original Korean with English subtitles, November 29, 2020)