Directed by: Lee Chung-hyeon (이충현) Starring: Park Shin-hye (박신혜), Jeon Jong-seo (전종서), Kim Sung-ryung (김성령), Lee El (이엘), Park Ho-san (박호산), Oh Jung-se (오정세), Lee Dong-hwi (이동휘) Release Date: November 27th, 2020
When So-yeon (Park Shin-hye) arrives at her old family home that she lived in with her ailing mother (Kim Sung-ryung), she receives an incoming call through the home land line from a young woman in panic named Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who claims her mother (Lee El) is trying to burn her alive. After several frantic calls like this, the girls eventually get to talking and discover that they are actually calling from the same phone and house separated by 20 years, with So-yeon calling from the year 2020 and Young-sook from 1999.
In their newfound friendship, the girls decide to try and change each other’s present lives and begin sharing knowledge that begins to re-shape their realities. When Young-sook goes as far as to prevent a family tragedy that resulted in the early death of So-yeon’s father (Park Ho-san), So-yeon attempts to return the favor by helping Young-sook avoid her tragic future. But as the alterations bring the girls happiness and freedom, unexpected consequences await as Young-sook’s psychotic tendencies begin to threaten So-yeon’s future with her power to change history.
The Call is a beautifully photographed and intricately crafted thriller full of twists, time paradoxes, & nail-biting drama that will leave you breathless. The most memorable film of the year.
I believe we should allow the filmmakers to visually represent the two possible outcomes artistically as they did with the ending. Twists and surprises are nothing new, they can play with our emotions this way. Showing us a fate if past Young-sook died provides hope, but then showing what would have happened if 1999 Young-sook actually survived/came back from the dead (which I think is scientifically possible for small amounts of time) is a fun way to visually represent both possible futures for Seo-yeon. This can make for fun discussions or let people to make up their own minds as to how it will/could end for Seo-yeon. Showing one outcome before the other though would lean me towards preferring the ending with Seo-yeon being a prisoner of Young-sook.
But this is how I’m reading the logic with a literal interpretation of what we the viewers see playing out: The reality does indeed change only from Seo-yeon’s perspective and in “real time” based on events taking place in the 1999 timeline that we see being played out. Any event that was supposed to happen in 1999 but was altered by Young-sook based on the advice she gets from 2019…changes the reality in 2019 from Seo-yeon’s perspective. But what “is to be” that has not yet taken place according to the 1999 “real time,” can be altered still (as we see with the death avoidance of Seo-yeon’s father or the reversal of that phenomenon with the strawberry man’s existence in 2019 being wiped out).
This allows for constant updates to 2019’s reality from Seo-yeon’s perspective. So when Young-sook is no longer murdered by her stepmother (thanks to advice from 2019 Seo-yeon), in 2019 she would presumably appear in jail (lifetime imprisonment according to the news article). Her newfound life in 2019 would understandably incorporate knowledge of the phone connection to 2019 that saved her life, and she would presumably be stewing on how she can change her situation for all these years, because she does NOT want life imprisonment. When Seo-yeon tells 1999 Young-sook where the murder weapon was to be found that put her in jail (presumably granting imprisoned 2019 Young-sook’s wish), the 2019 reality alters again and Young-sook was never caught and continued her life of crime from within that very house (presumably to STILL have the knowledge of the magical phone that got her out of having to go to jail since it happened in the “real time” 1999 timeline. So as far as we the viewers can tell, at this reality in 2019, she should have grown up with the knowledge of the magical phone.
Safe in her murder home in 2019, adult Young-sook sits with an opened laptop on the table where she is presumably to have been searching the past records, just like Seo-yeon can do, getting herself caught up to speed (note: from her new timeline, has she been in contact with herself for one month now? We know memories/experiences of the 2019 people besides Seo-yeon also change with alterations to the past, i.e. when mom and dad no longer remember the strawberry man after his 1999 death). We can assume here that she can see a record of her death/injury/getting caught again..or something enough to warrant giving the warning and advice to her 1999 self to “keep the phone on no matter how things turn out” when Seo-yeon’s mother and the police man show up. This will presumably allow 2019 Young-sook to learn in her “real time” how the past is unfolding because she knows it is susceptible to change. She will also know that 1999 Young-sook will be calling the phone often to find out the future details surrounding her disposing of the evidence that would have put her in jail. So she’s eager to answer it and work some magic. “The magic” is that we don’t know how that advice/keeping the phone on could have helped her past self survive or change the outcome of whatever was “to be”, but the movie is saying that it was enough.
I also think a sequel where 1999 Young-sook begins to hunt down/stalk young So-yeon and her mother could be interesting. This would also have 2019 So-yeon trying to escape her prison and help her 1999 mother survive.
Thanks to Sean (in the YouTube comments) for pointing out details about the tombstone in the final sequence. It appears to have the same birthday as the father’s which we see early on in the movie, and the death day changed since instead of him dying in the gas leak on November 27th 1999, he lived a bit longer only to get presumably murdered by a vengeful Young-sook on December 11th, 1999. Although the film has him die on December 31st, there are still logical inconsistencies I want to sort through. The only death we know of that came sometime around the 11th could have been Young-sook’s shaman mother or the strawberry man. More food for thought.
The best clues as to when villain of the future (2019) began that connection with herself in 1999 come with the changing appearances of the house. 1) Before any changes are made, in 2019 it is the old home family home of the heroine and her mother who moved in after her father died originally in the house fire in 1999. 2) When the villain saves the heroine’s father in 1999, the house becomes the beautiful home mom dad & daughter live in together in 2019. 3) When father is murdered in 1999 by the villain, the house becomes dilapidated and abandon looking in 2019. We can assume the killer is dead or in jail in 2019 because the news article said she got life imprisonment and she herself did not end up living in that house. 4) After the heroine tells the villain where to find the knife (evidence that would get her caught in 1999) from within the abandoned house, the heroine suddenly finds herself inside the home of the free killer in 2019 where she never had to leave, where we can assume the magical phone has still been connected to 1999 and the killer receives the call from her older self during this brief window of time before she could have died. This would allow the 2019 killer to warn her 1999 self about the potentially fateful day the mother arrived with the policeman, so she instructs her to leave the phone on so she can “help out.” It was also pointed out that the 2019 killer has a laptop on the table in her house that she most likely used to research the past and gain knowledge about her new reality.
The house phone seemed to be the magical device, it would have been in the house in both 1999 & 2019, and when the heroine helped the villain to not get caught, their realities merged and the abandoned home suddenly became the villain’s house instead. This would allow her to make contact her past self within the home.
I can see multiple deaths referring to the murders Young-sook is to commit, hence the premonition her stepmother has. This could explain why the stepmother doubles down on her efforts to excise the demons. But that scene of the stepmother doing all those astrological calculations and coming to a shocking realization that she needs to kill the daughter still leads me to believe that she may think her actually murdering Young-sook wasn’t meant to be an act of finality, but a new “treatment” method and that somehow she thought Young-sook may even survive it. A premonition is a pretty drastic reason to straight up murder a stepdaughter. So I still like reading into it as a multiple deaths for Young-sook. Even Young-sook surviving that crazy gas explosion was almost a kind of a coming back from the dead.
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