One missed call (2006)

Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: horror
Cast: Kuroki Meisa, Horikita Maki, Jang Geun Suk, Itao Itsuji, Asakura Erika, Kamiwaki Yu, Oshima Karen, Tsuneyoshi Rie, Tochihara Rakuto, Kawamoto Takanori, Hashimoto Mami, Morioka Ryu, Takagi Koto,
Synopsis: High school student, called PAM, makes a suicide after severe bullying case. She is left in coma, while all other students go to Busan, South-Korea to have fun on school trip. One by one students start to receive death message saying that only way to escape is by forwarding it to others. Panic arises when students actually start to die to horrifying deaths.
Rating: 1/7
While I was hoping that third movie is at least better than second then I was totally wrong. Despite having famous cast playing the main characters, movie itself was more than disappointing.

The main character is Emiri. Beautiful, but rather silent girl who does not seem to have many friends. Compared to others she has the biggest empathy feeling. She is knows sign language and one of the biggest reasons why she wanted to go to Busan was to meet again with Jino. There is more about her in spoiler-review. I think there is a lot of things that did not make sense to me and she definitely does not seem the character they later made her to be. I have never been a fan of Kuroki Meisa either. She just cannot act at all and it is almost painful to see her on the screen. Only thing that saves her is that she looks great and despite the troubles is still married to Akanishi Jin.

Jino is deaf guy who helps children to learn sign language. He met with Emiri in Japan during sign language meeting. I actually bet his real Korean name would be Shin Wo. Because he cannot talk, we will not know much about him. There are some hints that he makes in the talk about things, but it is really difficult to understand him. It was so satisfying to see Jang Geun Suk in a role where he has to keep his mouth shut up. But this hair is giving me cramps from laughter. I more felt that they just wanted to put in Korean actor, because it is filmed in Busan and they might appeal more Korean audience by adding Jang Geun Suk.

Then we have Asuka who sees things from the other side. Seeing that PAM's death had made no influence on others she is disappointed and mad about it. Maki is definitely the star of the movie. Acting as almost split-personality character, Maki makes it totally work. She is able to play out the both sides of character so you could actually make a difference between the situation. Without her the movie would have been really difficult to watch and not even Jang Geun Suk could have saved it due his hair.

I did not like the fact that they made so little references to previous movies and while I was waiting to see how everything actually started then I did not get wiser at all. It would have been nice to kinda solve the mystery how and why, but they just added Mimiko to totally different movie. I understand that during that time school bullying was one of the most popular topics for youth dramas. One thing for sure - in school bullying those people who just sit and watch while doing nothing to stop bullying are also fault as the ones bullying. But in the end, we should have Mimiko as she is in the first movie, not just as she is in the first movie.
It is interesting to see how the curse involves with years as the cellphones also developed. Though I am not sure how much I liked the fact that in this movie it was rather easy to get away from the curse this time. Sorry for giving a spoiler, but the only thing connected to original "One missed call" is that death message comes through phone. the show Mimiko and the jaw-breaker candy. That is it.
The first movie was definitely the best out of all three movies.

Spoiler-review: I understand that most students who once have been bullied are afraid to become bullying objects again, but I think that she was a real bitch to let Asuka suffer after all she had made for Emiri. Jino is making some references to the past, but it is about himself that he actually let his girlfriend die from the phone-call and he is the deaf violist. I did not like this reference, because in reality it is no reference - viewers did not know it before, so also I was yelling "who the heck was it? there was nobody like that before!!" So it was rather stupid. In addition, to believe that they could actually bring an end to it by sacrificing is so naive. In every movie someone has wanted to sacrifice themselves and it has never worked.