One Missed Call

Sad to see Miike finding nothing better to do than direct a late straggler in the Ring cycle. The all too familiar schtick here is that high school kids are alerted by an odd ring tone to messages left on their mobile numbers: the calls are from three days in the future, and record the moment of the phone owner's death. Several deaths later, schoolgirl Yumi (Shibasaki) teams up with bereaved funeral director Yamashita (Tsutsumi) to trace the source of the phantom calls. Everything from the various attempts to cheat fate to the falsely reassuring fake denouement is hugely predictable, and the skill with which it's put together somehow makes it all the more tedious.