In our fast-lane modern society, owning a mobile phone and switching it on and off to receive and make calls is part of our daily habits. For the principal character of Handphone, the loss of this communication device turns into a horror trip of unthinkable proportions.

Oh Seung Min (Uhm Tae Woong) is a star manager who likes to live a carefree life with lots of enjoyable parties. One day his life takes a 360 degree turn when he loses his mobile phone (that contains an explicit video of a new rising star under his wing) and is blackmailed to do some very dubious errands by the guy who picked it up.

Handphone succeeds in keeping the viewers tied to their seats through its interesting exploration of how buried pressure and fear can accumulate to a degree that leads to short-circuit actions. Director Kim Han Min has made a good move by putting a strong focus on the life and environment surrounding both Oh and his oppressor Chung Lee Gyu (Park Yong Woo). One of the center attentions rests on Oh whose emotional state goes from bad to worse. Not only is his marriage life with his wife (Park Sol Mi) slowly derailing, but his career is threatened by the fact that very unpleasant information is in the hands of a stranger and waiting to be exposed any minute.

Chung, on the other hand, initially does not look or act very suspicious, especially in his working environment. The film's director was also clever enough not to make Chung fit into the frame of the incurable psycho who deserves to die, but has rather given him an understandable motivation for his strange behavior through the fact that his ill mother needs constant hospital treatment.

In some ways we are even made to sympathize with him as a victim of his customer service job which requires him to be patient and understanding at all times in spite of his unpleasant life circumstances. Oh, on the other hand, is portrayed as somebody whose superior status has gotten the better of him, often leading to arrogant and impatient behavior and brash, inconsiderate vocabulary. As the film moves on, the audience is led deeper and deeper into the complex world of Oh who has his own nasty ways of handling things, and Chung whose patience is tested by several nerve-wrecking customers. Bound to escalate in violence in the inescapable showdown, the final act turns into an extremely bloody and deadly affair for all parties involved. Offering a plausible yet striking conclusion with intense no-holds-barred scenes, Handphone invites you to a thrill ride with a lasting impact.