“The Call”: Dare you to answer a call from 20 years ago? I am sure that this is the best Korean mystery film this year

For a long time, using the ability to travel in time and space to go back to the past to change what has happened has been the theme of many time-related science fiction movies.

But have we ever thought about what interesting things will happen if we do not have the ability to go back in time and can only use messages or voices to communicate with other time and space?

The newly released “The Call” locks the story on two 28-year-old women. Through the undivided fate of the two who have never met because of an old phone, it brings the audience a thriller full of science fiction suspense. Experience.

Now that the concept of “traveling” is gradually being played badly, “The Call” actually has a new spark from it. Although the real escape from the normal time and space in the film is only the contact between the two heroines through the phone, but Even such a subtle connection is enough to create a butterfly effect in the world of both sides, which is the most interesting part of this film.

This is a film that is more like a film that you have to pay a follow-up price if you want to change the past. Of course, as long as you change the past, subsequent things will naturally not have good results. But the interesting thing about this movie is “You have to help you change your destiny through others”. This is the moment when the dark side of human nature is involved. For me, this is the essence of this movie.

The character design of “The Call” is great. Seo-yeon, played by 박신혜, is a woman who can’t get out of the shadow of losing her young father and is immersed in the sadness of the past, while Young-sook, played by 전종서, is a mentally ill. , And are restricted by a stepmother who is addicted to religious superstition.

Just like this, a phone call established a bridge between the present and the past for two people living in different time and space 20 years apart. From the beginning, Seo-yeon was baffled when facing this unreasonable call, to passing through the notebook in the secret room behind the wall. Knowing the true identity of Young-sook with the photos also made people curious about the subsequent story development of “The Call”.

How to create a sense of horror is the most important thing when you can’t meet. Not only does the audience feel the tension between the two aurally, as the plot develops, every sentence and every action gradually stacks the tension between the two, making the audience feel like sitting on pins and needles all the time.

The director also said that he hopes that the plot is unpredictable. It shows that the movie will have many unexpected turns.

Therefore, although the theme of “The Call” is no longer novel, the 2016 Korean TV series “Signal”, the 2011 British horror film “The Caller”, and the 2000 classic American science fiction film “Frequency” all have similar time-traveling call,

However, it is worth mentioning that “The Call” does not seem to have any special setting and storyline on the surface, but it is also explained by the scene switching of the whole film and the performance of the two actors. The two protagonists only want to The unfulfilled desire to live better” also gave “The Call” a new look that was rarely seen before.

People often say that seeing is relying, but what we see in front of us is really its original appearance in this world, and can we be sure that it can remain unchanged without any external influence? Perhaps this is true in the general three-dimensional space.

But the interesting thing is that after adding the variable factor of time, everything that was originally simple and easy to understand will become unpredictable.

Therefore, the story of “The Call” starts with Seo-yeon, who has been away from home for many years, returns to his hometown and receives a call from Young-sook. Under the entanglement of their hearts, they gradually uncover the friendship between Seo-yeon and Young-sook. The hidden crisis behind the relationship.

So just like all time-travel movies will revolve around the interaction between the past and the present, “The Call” is no exception. From the beginning Seo-yeon told Young-sook that there would be a plane crash at night and read Young-sook’s private The content of the diary, to the unpublished songs of the popular Korean singer Seo Tae-ji in the 90s, clearly brought out the main setting of Seo-yeon and Young-sook communicating with each other through voice transmission.

However, because of Young-sook’s unusual growth background, the two want to change the future through the past, and they hope to influence the bold decisions of people’s choices in the past by passing on the results of events, making the whole movie of “The Call” The story became out of control.

However, when it comes to Korean thriller movies, one has to mention the creation of the movie atmosphere and the setting of the scenes. Most of the shots of “The Call” are quite dim, and every scene seems to have an invisible spirit haunting it, quietly combining the two. The fate of the heroine is arranged to destruction. Only after Young-sook succeeded in changing Seo-yeon’s fate in the first part, it also made the picture feel warm. Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long, and Seo-yeon quickly paid the corresponding price. The director makes the atmosphere of the story more treacherous through the scheduling of the screen, and whenever Young-sook changes the future, Seo-yeon’s surroundings will appear as remakes of time and space, whether it is room layout or character appearance With the butterfly effect, there have been quite profound changes. The pictures are both fantasy and horror, and the visual communication is very successful.

In addition, as the characters’ emotions change, the lighting changes.

The dimmer Vanessa Taylor said that in the world of Seo-yeon, the use of blue tones represents sadness and despair. Even the wallpaper is light blue, and the lights are relatively blue and white; while in Young-sook’s The world uses red tones to present anger, danger, and violence. The most obvious is that the wallpaper is dark red and the lights are warm yellow.

The lines and intonation in the phone can still create a sense of tension, and each call is a layer of suspense.

The subject of telephone is a kind of horror and tension that is difficult to show, because you can’t see the other person’s face, cannot read the other person’s expression, and cannot guess what the other person is thinking, so you can only use the other person’s tone and voice Speed ​​and circumfluence to imagine the inner picture of the other person.

I think “The Call” presented this aspect very well. From the beginning, it used a few strange calls received by Seo-yeon to create strange events and used lines to give clues to the audience.

The suspenseful atmosphere in the first half is pretty good.

Just as everything becomes treacherous and changeable under the influence of time, the most fascinating part of the whole film of “The Call” is the unpredictable and constant reversal of the plot development, whether it is the knowledge that Seo-yeon’s father is about to Young-sook, who died later, decided to leave home to eliminate the greatest tragic pain of Seo-yeon’s life, or Young-sook decided to try to resist to change his destiny after learning from Seo-yeon that his mother would kill him at night …

Although these changes have brought positive results for the moment, just like the cold and cruel reality of society, the movie “The Call” has not made them so easily.

“I have an interesting idea.”

Although this sentence sounds nothing special, but what a dangerous sentence in the ears of the audience after watching “The Call”!

Perhaps Young-sook helped Seo-yeon to reverse the past and regain a happy family with her parents safe and sound, but just like telling a lie, you have to use more lies to make things happen, and to eliminate the fact that you killed yourself, also It can only be covered by killing more informed people.

The middle part of the movie “The Call” gradually turned from sci-fi suspense to crime thriller. No one would have expected that the two heroines originally only wanted to change their tragic past behavior, but they also ushered in a more terrifying future.

And the only one in the film that surprised me the most was “there is an older Young-sook!” Because of the existence of the old Young-sook, Seo-yeon himself was in danger at the end of the movie, and in the last egg Zhong also asked the old Young-sook to cooperate with the young Young-sook. In the end, Seo-yeon’s mother was killed, and Seo-yeon was also taken to the basement by the old Young-sook.

In addition, Korean movies have never let go of any opportunity to be tender, and the most eye-catching thing in “The Call” is of course the relationship between Seo-yeon and his mother. Although it does not take up much space, the arrangement is naturally revealed. Became the director’s most outstanding hand in the film.

At first, Seo-yeon was quite resentful that her mother always paid attention to appearance, which accidentally caused her childhood disaster, but during this unexpected journey across time and space, she also made her realize her mother again. The love for her cannot be erased by anything. As the story develops, the emotional lines between the characters are gradually tightened.

The emotional processing is still the best place for Korean directors, but deliberate or hypocritical can easily resonate with the audience.

The director Li Congxian showed the fighting between the two women very well. Although Young-sook’s soul that had been oppressed for many years after killing her stepmother was liberated and obtained the freedom she had always yearned for, Seo-yeon was a kind girl after all. Even as the benefactor to save her father, she could not accept Young-sook’s murder, which in turn caused an insoluble conflict between the two protagonists.

Li Congxian presents their interactions in different time and space quite well, from precise scene scheduling to the transformation of the color of the picture from the dangerous red-orange color to the melancholic blue cold color, while facing the murderer of Young-sook, an anti-social personality. , How can Seo-yeon be prevented in the future 20 years from now?

We all know that the “present” in “The Call” can be reversed by changing the “past”, but the “present” cannot actively influence the “past”. This is also true. Unlike the heroic perspective that we used to save the world by going back to the past, “The Call” has turned into a narrative that now gradually collapses due to changes in the past, intersecting the past and the present. With the combination of editing and special effects technology, the film cleverly uses the irreversibility of time, allowing Seo-yeon to find that his time and space are actually in the hands of others, and he can only look at the things in front of him because of the changes in the past. Completely powerless, all present the scariest part of the whole story of “The Call”.

Watching “The Call” Young-sook was talking with Seo-yeon 20 years later on the one hand, and Seo-yeon, who was young at the time, also came to the house. This extremely high-pressure scene made me admire. The director’s arrangement of the story and mastery of the audience’s emotions.

It’s strange to say that Young-sook is obviously a murderous murderer, but she can’t really hate her while watching the movie. Maybe it’s the past experience of the Young-sook character, or it may be the root of her just wanting to be free. Motivation, this final state of being like a devil also made her a very attractive villain.

Although the two people didn’t really have their first confrontational scene in the same scene until the end of the film, the high tension created by the interaction of the phone in the previous part is believed to be the key to the ultimate success of “The Call”. It’s great to “torture each other” with two favorite actresses.

Maybe we often regret what we didn’t say or do in the past, but even so, sometimes it’s better not to want to change the past too much. The final story of “The Call” is still about the present, rather than immersing in the past. It’s better to grasp what you have now.

Although Seo-yeon was given the opportunity to live with his father again during this period, he finally returned to reality. The most important thing is whether we can face it firmly and reach an emotional reconciliation with the mother beside him. I think this is the core of the plot of the time-space movie “The Call”.

Of course, as director Li Congxian’s first feature film, I can also understand that he doesn’t want “The Call” to be too ordinary, so after the end captions appeared, the final reversal carbine egg was arranged to increase the audience’s discussion space after watching the movie. It also created the possibility of development for the sequel.

Therefore, we can finally resurrect Young-sook, while Seo-yeon is always trapped in the nightmare as the final ending of the movie. It can also be regarded as just the director’s bad taste. I think this kind of unknown sense that everything can happen. , Is the fascinating part of the movie “The Call”.

On the whole, as a new director, Lee Congxian, although the 2015 short film “Value” has been highly affirmed by South Korea and many international film festivals, this time “The Call” fully demonstrates what a time-travel movie should have. The appearance, the rhythm is compact and smooth, and the cleverly avoiding the possible unreasonable parts of the plot, the confrontation between the two protagonists with both good and evil in their hearts is also quite satisfying and deserves high recognition.

But after reading the whole article, I still feel that there are some problems.

The world view adopted in “The Call” is set as the grandfather’s paradox, that is, it can affect the development of other timelines by changing the past or the future, but the biggest bug of this time paradox also appears in the movie .

The past timeline in the play has been changed countless times. For example, Seo-yeon’s father originally died in the fire, but later survived because of Young-sook’s changes in 1999. That’s the problem. Since Seo- Yeon’s father did not die in the fire, so why does Seo-yeon still have the memory or perception that “the parent died in the fire? In theory, things that have never happened will not appear in Seo-yeon’s mind. It’s right.

But in any case, Korean thriller movies often bring a lot of surprises to the audience. Whether it is the arrangement of the story, the presentation of the atmosphere, or even the depiction of human nature, it is difficult to detect obvious negligence in the control of all elements, just like a carefully crafted art. The product is always so perfect.