The Call

 The Call [2020]

Starring Park Shin-Hye, Jeon Jong-Seo, Lee El, Kim Min-Ha

Direction by Lee Chung-Hyeon

Language: Korean

I can safely say that I have experienced thrillers, across cultures. Whilst taking a well-needed break from mock revision, I visited my friend's house. She has an obsession with all things thriller, and roped me into watching this at first confusing but ultimately fantastic thriller film. I tend to be able to understand films, but thrillers, being outside of my reign of expertise, often stump me, particularly if they have complex story plots like this one. 

The movie revolves around two people: one in the past and one in the present. The character in the past is a serial killer, who communicates with the character in the present through telephone calls. It is the character in the past who has the power to change the future reality of the character in the present day. From me explaining the plotline in three lines, it is still a little difficult to grasp what this movie actually explores. This leads me into the main issue I had with this movie. That is clarity: how everything played out. For the first forty minutes, it was incredibly difficult for me to decipher what was going on: the distinctions between the past and the present felt so subtle for me at first that I couldn't understand what was going on. I also found it difficult to understand the connection between the two main characters. Maybe this was because I was watching the movie with subtitles, and I got overstimulated. However, I was lucky that I had some thriller-heads to watch this movie with, who had did explain (multiple times) what was going on. 

After I did understand, however, everything changed. I became so engrossed in what I was watching, that I barely registered that everything was happening in a foreign language, and forgot that I tend to hate thrillers. In Hollywood, I think that thrillers rely too much on guns, violence, and fast cars to the point where I lose interest very quickly. I find that the two foreign thrillers I have watched, both this and Rehla 404, had all the tropes of thriller without being overdramatic or too heavily reliant on violence. Not only were the performances in this movie fantastic (I was literally yelping at every little movement at one point), but the plotline was just so engaging after a certain point that it was almost impossible not to love the movie. Just like any good thriller should, 'The Call' got me squirming around in my seat, hooked onto every syllable uttered by the main characters. 

Overall, this movie was thoroughly enjoyable. My recommendation is that you keep a Wikipedia plot page open for the first third of the movie, which you can use for clarification and cross referencing if there's ever a point where you don't understand what is going on. As the movie progresses, all the blocks will fall into place and you'll realise how brilliant this movie is to watch.