One of my all time favorites.

A Brilliant Conflict

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I tend to like Japanese horror, whether is it a gory slasher, or just a creepy film like this one. I prefer the characters over the WB actors they use in Hollywood remakes.There were some really good actors in the film: Mimura as Kyoko Okudera, Yû Yoshizawa as Naoto Sakurai, and Asaka Seto as Takako Nozoe.It was a little hard to follow all the characters, but it still was scary and well worth watching.It may have been better to see Takashi Miike's first part of this to have a better understanding, but it is not necessary to enjoy the movie.

It is strange indeed how people dismiss sequels on the sheer basis of them not being 'distant' from their original! And to top it off those very same people repeat over and over that the only sequel that could surpass its original is Godfather II.Talk about shamelessness.Chakushin Ari 2 is a very powerful example of such cases. Even for a Miike Takashi fan such as myself, I cannot but bow to Renpei's unique entry.Renpei Tsukamoto's style, at least here, does very much remind me of M. Night Shyamalan. It should be noted that I find it quite uneasy to endure 90 minutes of Shyamalan's viewers-are-mentally-challenged- and-my-mission-is-to- sing-them-a-lullaby 'technique', which, thank god, is not the case with Renpei. Rather, he uses Shyamalan's dream-like/fairy-tale atmosphere mixed with the harshness of classic Greek tragedies, as well as 'hidden' complex personae for his characters. Renpei also pays homage to the infamous Franco-ish nature-loving crossover, which sucks! Daira Minako provided an intriguing screenplay where each character's actions end up uncovering aims that might even contradict with what had appeared on-screen (note Ho's character as Nozoe Takako's husband). This device is taken to the extreme with the vengeful Li Li, whose reaction to others' compassion towards her past life ordeal is a merciless, cruel indifference(!), together with an utter hunger that makes her accept even replacement sacrifice.Beautiful Mimura, with her cute accent, puts up a so-so performance, occasionally tainted by J-Horror clichés (one of them felt as if it had been ported scene by scene from Honno Gurai Mizuno Soko Kara) and the annoying turn-slowly-to-scream-at-some-ghastly-presence. The most noteworthy of all though was Yoshizawa's performance as Kyoko's boyfriend-- he could actually create something good out of a god-awful, flatly-written Hollywood-style character.Seto Asaka (Nozoe Takako) was mediocre, while all the others were extra-ish more or less.Plot devices taken from the original, i.e. the ring-tone and blue-skin ghost appearing in unlikely places, were used almost to the point of perfection despite the apparent excessiveness of the former.The plot itself felt a little distracted and moved a little out of control as the Taiwan act starts; however, it soon manages to tie its knots and form a satisfying narrative. Ending was brilliant in a way, even though it clearly shows that Renpei wanted more space for his vision to be realised, and hence it is more of a cliff-hanger rather than an open ending like in the original.Summing up, this picture is one of the most artistically-satisfying "mainstream" J-Horror titles, clearly surpassing its initial entry while introducing a Japan-made cross J-Hollywood taste to the genre.

In Japan, the daycare teacher Kyoko Okudera (Mimura) is convinced by her colleague and friend Madoka to visit her boyfriend Naoto Sakurai (Yû Yoshizawa) in the restaurant where he works instead of studying as planned. When the owner Mr. Wang answers the cellular call of his daughter, he receives a message telling that he would die in an accident in the kitchen that immediately comes true. Later, Naoto is visited by the snoopy journalist Takako Nozoe (Asaka Seto), who is researching the death call, and she plays the deadly ring tone for him. He recalls that not only Mr. Wang, but also Madoka have received similar calls. Meanwhile Kyoko is talking to Madoka and she sees a ghost in her phone. She rushes to Madoka's apartment and finds her dead in the bathtub, with Naoto and Takako arriving immediately after. Their investigation shows that Mimiko's grandfather Wei Zhang is in Taiwan and Takako asks her former husband Yuting to search him. Meanwhile, Kyoko receives a phone call and the autopsies of Mr. Wang and Madoka indicate the presence of coal dust in their lungs and no candies in their mouths. Takako, Naoto and Kyoko travel to Taiwan expecting to solve the mystery and save Kyoko from her fate."Chakushin Ari 2" is scary like most of the Asian horror movies, and has a promising beginning supported by a good sequel of Takashi Miike's "Chakushin Ari". I saw both movies in sequence and I found many explanations about characters and situations of the first movie. However, like in the first story, the conclusion the movie is confused, not clear, needing interpretation of the pretentious plot point that contradicts the whole plot and character development; therefore, the screenplay writer Minako Daira or the director Renpei Tsukamoto or both failed since they were not able to transmit a clear conclusion of the story to the audience. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Uma Chamada Perdida 2" ("One Missed Call 2")

I can clearly remembered the frightening moments I have when I saw the Chakushin ari 1, which is considered as one of the most classic Japanese horror movies. But this one,the following one, is just like something went wrong in the writer and the director.The whole "horror" story went in a very gentle way. I can say that I was not frightened even one single time. The actors played dull and stupid. this is an horror movie that makes me sleepy.The director was changed to a rookie who is completely unknowledgable about directing a movie.(He just made some series before). And the bad script again make the movie die.I even got completely disappointed about Japanese Horrors.