Chakushin Ari is set in Japan where teenager Yumi Nakamura (Kou Shibasaki) attends University, while eating out her friend Yoko Okazaki (Anna Nagata) receives a call on her mobile. Yoko missed the call but a voice message was left, the strange message is dated the 18th April which is two days away & came from her own mobile number. Then two days later on the 18th Yoko dies in a mysterious accident, after that her friend Kenji Kawai (Atsushi Ida) receives a similar call & he too dies in mysterious circumstances shortly after. The rumour going around the University is that an evil ghost is killing people & using the contact list in their mobile phones to select another victim. Then Yumi's best friend Natsumi Yamashita (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi) receives a call, determined not to let her friend die or even become the next victim Yumi sets out to find the truth behind the killings & stop it...
More commonly known under the title One Missed Call to English speaking audiences this Japanese production was directed by Takashi Miike & for me is another rubbishy Asian ghost story, to be brutally honest it's a straight rip-off of Ringu (1998) only difference being instead of a mysterious video tape Chakushin Ari revolves around mobile phones. I suppose it had to happen, since mobile phones have become such an integral part of modern culture it was inevitable someone was going to make a horror film based around them & you know even evil killer ghost's have to keep up with the times & use mobile phones. The basic concept to me seems laughable as Chakushin Ari tries to make something as common & everyday as a mobile phone call scary & for me it fails totally. I'm sorry but seeing a mobile phone rings just isn't scary or a concept that sends shivers down my spine, that's basically what it boils down to & a big reason why I found Chakushin Ari so dull, lifeless & such a chore to sit through. The script by Minako Daira was based on a novel by Yasushi Akimoto & is throughly slow going, I found the whole story revolving around some sort of ghost who was wronged in someway when they were alive & wanting some sort of revenge old hat & the Japanese have flogged the idea to death & usually with considerably more success than Chakushin Ari. Then there's the ending, it's absolutely terrible & doesn't really make any sort of sense although maybe it's lost in the English translation. The ending is a complete mess that seems to have time travel, possession, ghost's & no sort of closure. The one thing I did learn from this film though is if a rotten zombie is walking towards you with the intent to kill you then hug it & say nice things to it, it'll work a treat.
Director Miike is usually known for his more outrageous & gory films but here with Chakushin Ari he really tones it down, there's certainly no blood or gore or violence expect for a severed arm. To be honest there's nothing here we haven't seen loads of times before, there's the obligatory female ghost who walks funny & makes strange noises that every Japanese supernatural horror film must include. Been there, done it & brought the T-shirt. Things pick up a bit towards the end with a haunted hospital but it's never really revealed why the hospital is haunted or how a woman's dead body got there or how it's mobile phone battery hasn't run out in six months. Like most of these Japanese ghost films Chakushin Ari is filmed in muted colours & in a very simple sort of way, it just looks bland & forgettable although maybe that was the intention.
Technically the film is alright, there's nothing here that's going to amaze anyone but it's reasonably well made for what it is. I must admit I really don't like subtitled films, I just find them a chore to watch & very distracting. The acting seems alright but since we never know what anyone is saying it's difficult to judge.
Chakushin Ari is a tedious film that I really didn't enjoy at all, I found it a throughly boring mess with a less than inspiring central premise that were mostly rehashes of other similar films. The film proved popular enough to spawn two sequels Chakushin Ari 2 (2005), Chakushin Ari Final (2006) as well as a Japanese TV series & a Hollywood remake.
More commonly known under the title One Missed Call to English speaking audiences this Japanese production was directed by Takashi Miike & for me is another rubbishy Asian ghost story, to be brutally honest it's a straight rip-off of Ringu (1998) only difference being instead of a mysterious video tape Chakushin Ari revolves around mobile phones. I suppose it had to happen, since mobile phones have become such an integral part of modern culture it was inevitable someone was going to make a horror film based around them & you know even evil killer ghost's have to keep up with the times & use mobile phones. The basic concept to me seems laughable as Chakushin Ari tries to make something as common & everyday as a mobile phone call scary & for me it fails totally. I'm sorry but seeing a mobile phone rings just isn't scary or a concept that sends shivers down my spine, that's basically what it boils down to & a big reason why I found Chakushin Ari so dull, lifeless & such a chore to sit through. The script by Minako Daira was based on a novel by Yasushi Akimoto & is throughly slow going, I found the whole story revolving around some sort of ghost who was wronged in someway when they were alive & wanting some sort of revenge old hat & the Japanese have flogged the idea to death & usually with considerably more success than Chakushin Ari. Then there's the ending, it's absolutely terrible & doesn't really make any sort of sense although maybe it's lost in the English translation. The ending is a complete mess that seems to have time travel, possession, ghost's & no sort of closure. The one thing I did learn from this film though is if a rotten zombie is walking towards you with the intent to kill you then hug it & say nice things to it, it'll work a treat.
Director Miike is usually known for his more outrageous & gory films but here with Chakushin Ari he really tones it down, there's certainly no blood or gore or violence expect for a severed arm. To be honest there's nothing here we haven't seen loads of times before, there's the obligatory female ghost who walks funny & makes strange noises that every Japanese supernatural horror film must include. Been there, done it & brought the T-shirt. Things pick up a bit towards the end with a haunted hospital but it's never really revealed why the hospital is haunted or how a woman's dead body got there or how it's mobile phone battery hasn't run out in six months. Like most of these Japanese ghost films Chakushin Ari is filmed in muted colours & in a very simple sort of way, it just looks bland & forgettable although maybe that was the intention.
Technically the film is alright, there's nothing here that's going to amaze anyone but it's reasonably well made for what it is. I must admit I really don't like subtitled films, I just find them a chore to watch & very distracting. The acting seems alright but since we never know what anyone is saying it's difficult to judge.
Chakushin Ari is a tedious film that I really didn't enjoy at all, I found it a throughly boring mess with a less than inspiring central premise that were mostly rehashes of other similar films. The film proved popular enough to spawn two sequels Chakushin Ari 2 (2005), Chakushin Ari Final (2006) as well as a Japanese TV series & a Hollywood remake.