Park Shin-Hye: "The Call" movie review

 

 Release Date: November 27, 2020  Length: 107 minutes Director: Lee Chung-Hyun

This film was scheduled to be released in theaters in the Spring of 2020 but because of the pandemic was cancelled and was aired on Netflix.

Main Cast: The setting is a remote area far from Seoul but the more important theme is the time. Year wise that is as the film is set in 2019 and also 1999, November/December of both years and you'll learn why in these two posts.

Park Shin-Hye as Kim Seo-Yeon.... Our 'heroine' who is 27 years old and we didn't learn much about what she was doing with her life. She seems to be working at a Seoul convenience store and had dropped out of college. Seo-Yeon has returned to her hometown to visit her ailing mother whom she's never gotten along with, the year she's living in is 2019.

Jeon Jong-Seo as Oh Young-Sook.... Also 27 years old and is living in the year 1999. She's been badly abused by her stepmother and somehow was able to use her phone to call the future, that's how she connected with Seo-Yeon. Though Young-Sook was a victim at first what a cruel woman she turned out to be and was responsible for many deaths, sometimes the same person twice!

Kim Sung-Ryung as Eun Ae.... Seo-Yeon's mother who in late 2019 is suffering from a brain tumor. But circumstances changed because of what happened in the past and the tumor disappeared, question is did the mother also disappear at the end of the movie?

Lee El as Sunwoo Ja-Ok.... Like a fairy tale she's Young-Sook's evil stepmother. Ja-Ok feels she's a Shaman and believes her stepdaughter was cursed by many evil spirits.

Park Ho-San as Mr. Kim.... Seo-Yeon's father who died three times in this movie!! First in 1999, then again in 2019 and the third time once again in 1999, will give the reasons how in the post.

Oh Jung-Se as Park Sung-Ho.... Local strawberry farmer in 2019 but because of the odd events later died in 1999. 

Lee Dong-Hwi as Baek.... Detective from 1999.

Uhm Chae-Young as Kim Seo-Yeon.... The seven year old Seo-Yeon in 1999.

Movie's original trailer

 Checked out some reviews but just skimmed through them as not to read any spoilers, all of the reviews were positive. But almost all said that the film was a bit confusing and I didn't know why as the first hour wasn't at all. But the last 45 minutes were to an extent, this is a quasi time travel movie so if you enjoy those this is right up your alley. There's two time settings, present day or 2019 and then also 1999, the months and days are the same for both years. So there was a lot of skipping back and forth between years, in those last 45 minutes what was happening was that an event that took place in 1999 affected what was taking place in 2019 at the same time. That may sound confusing but think I'll explain the details well enough in this post.

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 Change of plan for this movie review which was originally going to have two posts. Few reasons for the change, one is that I know viewers can get tired of reading two lengthy posts and can relate to that as so don't I reading them at other sites. Second is the lack of time, there's so many posts I'd like to do by the end of the month and these would take so long. Not that I can't type quickly but my laptop's keyboard is really hurting these days and it's been that way for a year. There's five loose letters so constantly have to backspace or edit so many words. Know how to change a keyboard but this laptop is at least seven years old, how much life does it have left? So will try to give a quick overview in about six paragraphs, will hit all of the key points and just consider it an intro to a terrific film. The hundred screenshots will go in exact order of events so you could really just view them to know what happened. Wish me luck with making this brief for if it works out will do many more like this.

 There's two time settings in this film, the date to begin off the movie was November 20, 2019. The main heroine is Seo-Yeon  but at the end of the film wondering if she truly was a good person. She's come from Seoul to Yeongcheon which is in the countryside to visit her ailing mother who has a brain tumor. Seo-Yeon has never cared for her mother and her father died twenty years before on November 27, 1999. In a 'tragedy' Seo-Yeon lost her phone on the train and had to use an old handheld one still at her mother's house. She soon received a pair of frantic calls pleading for help, was this some sort of gag? No it wasn't as this person truly was in trouble, may sound hard to believe but this woman was calling from the year 1999(!), the dates in both years are the same. Young-Jook is the woman and like Seo-Yeon is 27 in age, both are also living in the same house! Young-Jook is being abused badly by her stepmother Ja-Ok who thinks she's a Shaman and that her stepdaughter is cursed. 

 It was never revealed how Young-Sook can call into the future, Seo-Yeon though can't call into the past. The two become friendly very quickly and was there any way Seo-Yoon could help out her new friend from the past and stop the abuse? Yes there was as Seo-Yeon used the internet and was able to find out when and how Young-Sook was killed by her stepmother! The date was November 24, 1999 that the murder took place, now that she knew that info Young-Sook turned the tables on her mother and killed her! Needs to be noted that Young-Sook was a bit deranged and had been in an institution a few times, she kept that hidden from Seo-Yoon. So back in 1999 it was only three days before the November 27th death of Kim, Seo-Yoon's father who perished in a house fire. So one good turn deserved another as Young-Sook was able to prevent the death, the fire was because the gas stove had been left on and she snuck in Seo-Yeon's old house to turn it off. When an event happens in 1999 the change happens instantly in 2019, a few minutes later Seo-Yeon was reunited with her father!

 So in 2019 it's as if the last twenty years was changed, instead of dropping out of college Seo-Yeon is a graduate student and her mother no longer has a brain tumor. The first few incidents that took place were all positive but the good times came to an abrupt halt. For instance when the father magically reappeared in 2019 visiting Seo-Yeon's house was their neighbor Sung-Ho who was a strawberry farmer. But back in 1999 he had paid a visit to Young-Sook's house to see her mother and he was very suspicious of when she wasn't there, of course she wasn't there for Young-Sook had killed her! Young-Sook became a ruthless killer so quickly, she didn't think twice about killing Sung-Ho for his suspicions and at that instant in 2019 he disappeared! So now there's two dead people in Young-Sook's house and even the police came by to question her but she claimed to know zero, Young-Sook was supposed to be on medications but ceased taking them which is one reason for her brutal behavior. In 2019 Seo-Yeon began to do some investigating about Young-Sook, to her horror she was still alive but serving a life sentence for the murders, should she continue to help this woman out? Seo-Yeon had let her know of what her future held, Young-Sook asked how did they find the evidence to convict her and should

Seo-Yeon tell her for then she may commit even more murders.

 Final two paragraphs and there were more at least two more killings, perhaps even more. Most viewers thought the last half hour was a bit confusing, it was to an extent but more so at the end. Back in 1999 Young-Sook's mother had put up their house for sale, who should be the potential buyers but the family of Seo-Yeon! Just before that Seo-Yeon had given Young-Sook some fake info about her arrest, the plan was for her to be killed by an explosion but Young-Sook escaped in the nick of time and has vowed to get even. So when the seven year old Seo-Yeon and her father were checking out the house Young-Sook killed the father in front of Seo-Yeon. So when an event happens in 1999 the change takes place in 2019 so for the third time the father Kim was killed when he was driving down the road with Seo-Yeon which was the best scene of the movie. For a while wondered why Young-Sook didn't kill Seo-Yeon back in 1999 as it appears she won't help her out any more, also added to the death total was a young detective who had visited the house about the disappearance of her mother and Sung-Ho.

 After her father's demise Seo-Yoon had been locked in Young-Sook's basement, you may be wondering where's her mother? She appeared on the scene to find her husband lying on the floor dead with the evil Young-Sook ready to make her victim #5. It was quite a struggle between the pair and a few times it seemed Young-Sook would prevail. But during that battle Young-Sook's phone had been on, in the year 2019 Seo-Yeon overheard the fight and yelled loud enough to get the attention of her mother but also Young-Sook. Eventually the pair tumbled into the second floor's railing and went sprawling to the floor below. Young-Sook was knocked unconscious which allowed the mother Eun-Ae to escape, the next thing we knew it was the year 2019. So what happened with Young-Sook after the fierce battle is a mystery, she's not in jail nor dead so could she be lurking around the corner? In the final scene it was December 11, 2019 and both Seo-Yoon and her mother were visiting their the grave of Kim, the father and husband. As the pair were walking away from the cemetery we saw them in a very long shot, what took place was that Eun-Ae quickly vanished into thin air and Seo-Yoon was walking by herself! That ending partially set up the possibility of a sequel.

 The ending to most viewers was the most confusing part of the film but think I know what probably happened. Seo-Yeon had never liked her mother, the fire that killed her father was actually meant to kill the mother when Seo-Yeon was just seven in age, that error made Seo-Yoon hate her even more. So I'm thinking that Young-Sook survived that fight against the mother and did help Seo-Yeon one more time by killing Eun-Ae which is why she disappeared in that final scene. Sure it sounded a bit confusing and it was but with another watch or two it may not. This was the best new horror film I've seen in many years, will give this a rating of 9.1/10 which is very high for me. It does deserve to be watched a least once more and highly recommend this movie. Did leave some details out which may be a good thing if you want to view this movie, not every little thing needs to be discussed. Below are 89 screenshots, they go in order so they should help you follow the story better but there was a lot of skipping back between years.