The Call (Korean: 콜; RR: Kol), is a 2020 South Korean science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Lee Chung-hyun, starring Park Shin-hye and Jeon Jong-seo. Based on the 2011 British and Puerto Rican film The Caller, The Call revolves around Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) and Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), two women from different times who connect through a phone call that interchanges their fates. The film was originally going to be released theatrically, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on Netflix globally on November 27, 2020.
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Plot
In 2019, 28-year-old Kim Seo-yeon visits her sick, estranged mother, Eun-ae, in a rural area. Arriving at her rundown childhood home, she finds a decades-old cordless phone, and through it receives calls from a distressed woman who says she's being tortured by her mother. After investigating the house, she figures out that the woman on the phone, Oh Young-sook, is living in the same house but in 1999. The two are able to communicate across time through the phone, and get to know each other. Both have troubled relationships with their mothers: Young-sook is orphaned and lives with her adoptive mother, a stern, domineering woman who is a shaman; Seo-yeon, whose father died in 1999, blames her mother for the fire that killed him.
Young-sook, acting on information from Seo-yeon, sneaks out to prevent the fire that killed Seo-yeon's father. She is successful, and Seo-yeon's reality changes - her parents are both alive and healthy, and their house is lavish. Young-sook, however, is punished by her mother for her disobedience, and becomes resentful that Seo-yeon's life has improved while hers is becoming more miserable.
