Netflix’s disturbing new South Korean bet

Before K-pop took the world by storm, the artistic cover letter of South Korea it was the movies and names like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho. Two examples from an extensive list to which Lee Chung-Huyn now joins with his tape The phone.

The debut in the feature film of this 30-year-old director, which originally would hit South Korean movie theaters in March, but was forced by covid-19 to postpone and then move to streaming, today having Netflix as its world premiere showcase .

A tape that drinks directly from suspense, with hints of terror, to show an unusual story that begins to unfold when 28-year-old Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) returns to the family home located in a rural part of South Korea.

She recently got there by train from Seoul and when she is heading down a dirt road she meets a family acquaintance, strawberry grower Sung-ho (Oh Jeong-se), who takes her home in his truck and also He asks about his mother’s health.

Once in the house, which has been closed for a while, Seo-yeon must find a landline phone, since she forgot her cell phone on the train. Thus, he discovers a wireless device that he did not remember, where you will receive a call that will completely change your existence.

In it a young woman asks for another person, while asking for help because she is being attacked by her mother. A surprised Seo-yeon thinks this is a wrong call until she gets back to that girl, Young-sook (Jun Jong-seo).

Between the past and the present

Everything starts to get even more complicated when Seo-yeon discovers that Young-sook inhabits the same house as she is in 2019, but 20 years ago. Soon he realizes that the link that unites them and manages to overcome the time barrier is the wireless telephone.

From that moment, through the calls, the two girls begin to know about each other. While Seo-yeon only has her mother, as her father died in a fire as a child, Young-sook lives with her deranged stepmother, who abuses her.

This marks the beginning of a unique relationship that will begin to erase and transform events from the past and present. Like Young-sook avoiding the explosion that killed Seo-yeon’s father and Seo-yeon’s father alerting her new “friend” to her own murder.

But they also begin to reveal even darker passages of their existences, among which the mental instability of Young-sook stands out; that it will be a catalyst for a change in the past that will affect not only her, but also Seo-yeon and her surroundings.

A particular filmic game that restless and surprising, and with which Lee Chung-Huyn makes his debut in a very good way in feature films and also in suspense edged with psychological terror, after having proven himself as a short filmmaker.

And that locates The phone as a good example of the recent and ever-active South Korean cinematography. The same one that for some time now has a prominent place within Netflix’s extensive international catalog.

Far and Netflix