Korean Movie ‘The Call’ Review: A Time-Bending Thriller That’ll Make You Yell “Just Lie!”
The Call (2020) keeps you on edge from start to finish until you realise everything could’ve been avoided with one good lie.
Korean Movie Name: 콜 (Call)
Where To Watch: Netflix ← *Click for direct link*
Average Rating: 8.3/10 (Mydramalist)
My Rating: 8/10
One Sentence Description: A haunting, time-twisting thriller where one call changes everything and common sense takes a vacation.
Trailer:
Disclaimer: This review is 100% my opinion — I’m not here to hate, just to share my thoughts! Also, SPOILERS AHEAD, so proceed with caution if you haven’t watched yet. Watch it, come back and let’s see if you agree. Let’s keep the discussion respectful and fun! 💕
Simple Description
The Call is about two girls who connect through a phone that enables them to talk to each other despite being in two different time periods. What starts out as innocent friends connecting and laughing, quickly turns into a dangerous game where one saves the other’s life at the cost of dozens.
⚠️Length Note: This post includes a detailed (and long) story breakdown. Want to skip straight to the review? Jump to the Review
Our story begins with Seo Yeon, our female lead, walking through a rural area with suitcases in hand. She’s moving back into her childhood home, loses her phone, and meets a strawberry farmer. After settling in, she finds an old cordless phone and uses it to call her lost cell. Someone answers — they want money. They hang up. But later, the same phone rings again. This time, it’s a girl claiming her mother is crazy. Realizing she’s called the wrong number, the girl hangs up.
Not long after, we meet Seo Yeon’s mother, who’s hospitalized with cancer. Their relationship is tense, as Seo Yeon still blames her for her father’s death. Soon, the mysterious girl calls again, saying her mother is trying to kill her. The call ends abruptly, and Seo Yeon eventually tries to sleep… until she’s woken by a loud bang. While investigating, she finds a secret room hidden behind a wall, leading to a basement. Inside, she discovers a strange diary and a photo of a girl named Young Sook. When she asks the strawberry farmer about her, he acts strangely dismissive.
Later that day, the girl calls again — this time in full panic. Her mother is about to set her on fire. We see her being dragged, her mother lighting a stick and chasing her. They struggle, and the stick drops on the steps. Strangely, in Seo Yeon’s basement, smoke begins to rise. What is going on?
The next day, the girl calls again and introduces herself as Young Sook. As they talk, Seo Yeon begins to suspect they’re living in the same house… just not in the same year. Young Sook confirms it. And just like that, they form a bond.
The following day, a family visits Young Sook’s house to buy it and it ends up being Seo Yeon’s family. Young Sook calls 2019 Seo Yeon and decides to help keep her father alive. She sneaks out and rushes to Seo Yeon’s house. Seo Yeon waits anxiously by the phone, and as Young Sook changes the past, the present begins to shift. One moment, Seo Yeon’s in a rundown house and the next, it’s modern, she’s in a dress, and her father is alive. Young Sook did it.
Their friendship blossoms. For a while, everything is perfect. But as Seo Yeon begins to enjoy her new life, Young Sook is left behind in her old one. And since Seo Yeon’s life has finally turned around, answering Young Sook’s calls is no longer her top priority.
Eventually, Seo Yeon gets suspicious and looks up Young Sook online. After some digging, she discovers that Young Sook’s mother kills her during an exorcism. Seo Yeon warns her and Young Sook escapes death. But not without consequence. She kills her mother instead.
Young Sook starts living her best life — eating out, dressing up, and finally free from her mother. But peace doesn’t last. The strawberry farmer accidentally stumbles upon a body part of Young Sook’s mother and calls Seo Yeon by mistake. All we hear is the sound of bones being smashed. Moments later, the strawberry farmer no longer exists in 2019, which is alarming since Seo Yeon’s family had just been eating with him before the call.
Seo Yeon rushes to the police station, where she’s told Young Sook was caught after killing both her mother and the farmer. Horrified, Seo Yeon calls Young Sook for answers. Young Sook plays dumb, but Seo Yeon reads out a news article: Young Sook was a serial killer sentenced to life in prison. Seo Yeon is devastated. Young Sook? She’s just focused on staying out of jail. When Seo Yeon stops answering her calls, Young Sook’s anger begins to spiral.
As Young Sook stews in rage, young Seo Yeon and her father visit her house, unaware of the danger. While 2019 Seo Yeon and her father practice driving, Young Sook murders her father in 2000—causing him to vanish from Seo Yeon’s present timeline. Her life resets. She rushes home and the house is destroyed again.
She finally answers Young Sook’s call. Young Sook threatens to kill her mother unless Seo Yeon tells her how she was caught. Seo Yeon has one hour. She finds out the knife Young Sook used will be discovered with blood and fingerprints. She tells her. Young Sook shows up, burns the knife, and calls back. She burns Seo Yeon’s leg and drops a bomb: it was actually Seo Yeon’s fault her father died — not her mother.
After helping Young Sook avoid prison, Seo Yeon watches the present shift again. Her old burnt-down house? Now perfectly intact. And Young Sook is alive and living there.
We cut to the year 2000. Seo Yeon’s mother is desperately searching for her daughter. She tries to call her husband but reaches 2019 Seo Yeon instead. Seo Yeon begs her mother to leave the house, but before she can, present-day Young Sook knocks her out. Seo Yeon and Young Sook fight. Seo Yeon escapes and locks herself in a bedroom.
Back in 2000, Young Sook kills the policeman who was helping Seo Yeon’s mother and chases her down. Seo Yeon’s mother locks herself in the same bedroom Seo Yeon is hiding in — just in a different time. She hears Seo Yeon crying outside, opens the door, and finds her daughter sobbing.
2019 Seo Yeon listens over the phone, crying as Young Sook and her mother fight. And as the fight unfolds, things begin to break in the present — history is changing in real time.
The fight between Young Sook and Seo Yeon’s mother reaches its climax. Just as Young Sook is about to strike 2000 Seo Yeon, her mother appears and pushes her off the railing. At the same time, 2019 Young Sook tries to attack Seo Yeon — but she vanishes as her past self falls.
Seo Yeon runs out of the house, desperate to find her mother. She arrives at her father’s grave, and her mother shows up. The nightmare is finally over.
Or so we think.
In the epilogue, we see Young Sook call her younger self and tell her everything that happened. As Seo Yeon and her mother walk away from the grave, her mother slowly begins to disappear. The future is changing again.
The show ends with Seo Yeon waking up in Young Sook’s basement. Young Sook wins.
The End.
The Review
The Good
A Storyline That Grabs You by the Throat
When I first watched this movie, I thought the storyline was excellent. I’m a sucker for psychological thrillers, and The Call delivered. The anxiety of knowing Young Sook could change the past and that Seo Yeon was powerless to stop it had me on edge the entire time. The concept was super creative and surprisingly well thought through. It wasn’t just time travel for the sake of it, it was time travel with consequences— and that made every phone call feel like a loaded gun.
Acting That Carries the Chaos
I watched this years ago when I first got into K-dramas, and I didn’t realise just how stacked the cast was. From the leads to the supporting roles — even the extras — everyone brought their A-game. These actors are well-known for a reason, and it shows. Every scream, every stare, every breakdown felt real. I wasn’t just hooked because of the plot, I was fully immersed because the performances made every twist hit harder.
The Bad
Everything Was Painfully Avoidable
I can’t get over how avoidable everything was. Seo Yeon clearly didn’t think things through, and that’s exactly why things turned out the way they did. She could’ve had her happy ending if she’d just taken a second to plan. Sure, Young Sook had power being in the past—but Seo Yeon had power too. The easiest one? The power to lie.
Why did she tell Young Sook she was going to become a serial killer sentenced to life in prison? Did she really think Young Sook wouldn’t care? She was already a murderer. Seo Yeon could’ve said she saw a vague article or pretended she didn’t know. It made no sense that she kept acting like Young Sook didn’t hold all the cards — especially when her entire life was at stake. There’s no way she thought Young Sook would let her live happily while she rotted in jail. Be serious.
“She was probably scared.” Okay, fine. But even then, lie. She never told Young Sook the date she’d get caught, so make something up. Say she gets caught five years later strangling someone in a parking lot. Young Sook had to trust everything Seo Yeon said, so why not use that to her advantage?
Everything was avoidable. There was always a way. I get that the plot had to move forward, but it didn’t just feel reckless — it felt lazy.
The Useless Phone
I get that not everything needs to be explained—like how the phone connected their timelines—but some things didn’t add up. How come Young Sook’s phone only connected to Seo Yeon? No matter what number she dialed, it always went to the same person twenty years in the future. How? And how did her mother never accidentally call Seo Yeon?
What if there was an emergency, like when her mom tried to call 911? Or when the poor strawberry farmer tried to get help? Everyone just dies because the phone only connects to the most helpless person in the future? That’s not eerie, that’s just broken logic.
Who was Young Sook really trying to call?
At the beginning of the movie, Young Sook thought she was calling a store and consistently made it seem like the person on the other end would be able to do something to help her. Did the girl on the other end really do something before the calls started going to Seo Yoon? And if the girl was getting abused by her father, why would she have been of help? Wouldn’t she be afraid of her father doing something to her?
In 2019, the adult version of the girl says Young Sook’s mother helped her escape her father, but why did we never go into detail about it? I guess because these are small points compared to the bigger picture, it got overlooked and forgotten. Sigh.
The Ending Was Kind of Confusing
Did anyone else find the ending confusing? If Young Sook survived to 2019, that means everything in the past led to her survival. So why did she need to warn her younger self? Seo Yeon was able to call because she saw news articles — but if Young Sook made it to 2019, what triggered her to call the past?
And don’t forget: the call to her younger self happened before Seo Yeon was caught and made the original phone call to her mother. It felt like an extra twist thrown in for shock value, but it doesn’t hold up when you think about it for more than five seconds.
Young Sook Would Never Have Gotten Away With It
Young Sook getting away with killing dozens of people by 2019? Yeah right. She was reckless, impulsive, and had rage issues. She wasn’t doing background checks to make sure her victims wouldn’t be missed. You’re telling me people were vanishing in a small town and no one connected it to her? No witnesses? No missing persons reports? For 20 years? Get out of my face with that.
She literally kills a cop in 2000 but somehow stays out of jail until 2019? Even if she managed to kill Seo Yeon’s mom and Seo Yeon, the cop’s death alone would’ve brought investigators straight to her doorstep. She had nothing but bodies in her basement, and yet none of them had families, jobs, or friends who would’ve noticed they were gone? I get that the story needed to flow, but this was too much plot convenience to ignore.
What I Would Do
Change the Epilogue
You can probably tell I didn’t have a ton I’d change hence this one flimsy fix, but still. I’d change the ending where Young Sook wins. If you made it to 2019 untouched, you’re not calling your past self. You already won. The fact that you exist in the present means everything worked out. Why risk it? And honestly, how was she even able to call her younger self when the movie made it seem like only the past could make the call? But whatever.
The Domino Effect of Logic
To be clear, it’s not that I don’t have things I’d change — I do. But I realized that changing one thing would trigger a domino effect. Like, if Seo Yeon had lied about how Young Sook gets caught, then I’d have to figure out how Young Sook avoids getting caught, how the timeline resets, or how the final confrontation plays out.
Basically, Seo Yeon had to lack common sense for the plot to move forward. And while it’s frustrating, I get it. If she had made smarter choices, we wouldn’t have had a movie or at least not one with this level of chaos.
Final Thoughts
In the end, I actually really enjoyed this movie. It had me on my toes the whole time and honestly ranks up there with Forgotten (Check that review here!). Most of my complaints were just ranting points because if Seo Yeon had used a little more common sense, the entire ending would’ve unraveled. So I’ve accepted that it’s better to keep my complaints as complaints and let the chaos live.
Could this have been better with a few tweaks? Absolutely. Did those flaws ruin the film? Not really. Sometimes annoying things have to happen for the plot to move forward, and this was one of those times. There’s still no way Young Sook would’ve gotten away with it for all those years, but maybe the police really were that clueless.
Or maybe she just killed everyone in town and was the last one alive — eating chicken and leaving body parts all over the place.
And that’s another wrap! I think this is probably the shortest review I’ve ever done! It’s crazy how just two weeks ago I was posting my longest one and here I am now posting my shortest one. I think the reason is simply because movies are only 2 hours if that and so it’s easier to write less. I guess this gives you a break from my super long ones loll!
I’m not sure what I’m gonna do next week so no spoilers today! I’m close to finishing a newer release so I might just finish it and write a review on that. We’ll see!
See You next week!💕
Main Cast
Park Shin Hye as Kim Seo Yeon
Jeon Jong Seo as Oh Young Sook
Kim Sung Ryung as Seo Yeon’s Mother
Lee El as Yeong Sook’s Step-mother
Themes/ Genres
Fate and Causality, The butterfly effect, Trauma and obsession, Power and manipulation, Time loops and alternate realities, The fragility of memory and identity
Psychological Thriller, Sci-fi, Horror, Mystery
Comments (1)
Korean Movie 'The Call' Review-only: A Time-Bending Thriller That’ll Make You Yell “Just Lie!” – Aya's K-drama Corner
October 30, 2025 at 2:57 pm
[…] *Want a more detailed description? Click here!* […]