If the first One Missed Call owed a debt to Ringu’s haunted technology concept this one follows Ringu 2’s widening of the original mystery and gives an exploration of a convoluted back story and the expansion of the curse into an urban legend.
Ａ year after the events of One Missed Call the story has become a new urban legend. Kyoko Okudera (Mimura) is dining at a Chinese restaurant with her friend Madoka (Chisun) and her boyfriend Naoto (Yū Yoshizawa). Unfortunately the cursed ring tone is heard on a mobile phone but the restaurant’s owner answers and hears his daughter dying in the near future. His daughter Mei-Fang (Shadow Liu) comes back and takes the phone off him then meets Kyoko and Madoka for the meal. After the restaurant closes they swap contact details. Naoto discovers Mei-Fang’s father is dead in a method similar to the one he heard on the call and it looks like the curse is going to strike Madoka and Kyoko. In an effort to discover the cause of the curse and avoid dying Kyoko teams up with a detective (Ishibashi) and an investigative journalist named Takako Nozoe (Seto).
The film begins with a father dying after receiving his daughter’s missed call which was a great spin on the original concept! I want to see a version of this film where people send calls to each other within time periods. Just imagine the variety of deaths, betrayals and twists as people furiously forward messages as they try to avoid whatever fate a ghost has in store.
Unfortunately the film doesn’t base itself on this and tries to recapture the body-twising yurei horror of the original. However without Takashi Miike directing there is a notable lack of grue, black humour and the end result is a film that feels tired. Actually there is a haunted video conferencing call which was entertaining but otherwise it was unremarkable full of J-hora cliches.
Also lacking is the story which, in following from the first film, tries to tie up plot threads ends up becoming very convoluted. Characterisation is unremarkable, dialogue is plain and acting is solid. Even a change in locale to Taiwan fails to give it spark despite some decent locations.
There is very little exceptional about the film. The origin of the curse was vaguely interesting but the final result is a solidly directed film which fails to surprise. You can get it in a bundle with the first film.
3/5
One Missed Call 2 
Japanese: 着信アリ 2
Romaji: Chakushin Ari 2
Release Date: February 05th, 2005 (Japan)
Running Time: 106 mins.
Director: Renpei Tsukamoto
Writer: Minako Daira (Screenplay), Yasushi Akimoto (Original Novel)
Starring: Mimura, Asaka Seto, Yu Yoshizawa, Renji Ishibashi, Peter Ho, Karen Oshima, Mari Hayashida
Genkinahito 