Starring: Lee Ye-chun, Do Kum-bong, Jeong Ae-ran, Lee Bin-hwa, Won Nam-kung, Chu Seok-yang, Mun Kang, Jo Seok-geun, Na Jeong-ok
Director: Lee Yong-min
Classic vintage South Korean horror is actually very effective in that genre despite its age. A lot of that goes back to the film's breathless pace that kicks off with "mysterious goings-on" and goes full horror without letting up for an entire hour. I mean, the hauntings and scares (by 60s standards) just keep coming and coming. Then the film sets itself apart in the unconventional third act that will surely divide its viewers.
The movie opens with mining mogul Lee Si-mok (Lee Ye-chun, of The Man With Two Faces) going into an art exhibition, only to find the place completely empty. Was he set up? Was he late? He hears a female laugh and finds but a single painting, that of a woman named Ae-ja (Do Kum-bong, of The Noble Thief Iljimae), whom Si-mok recognizes. He picks up the painting and it starts melting in his hands. Spooked, Si-mok takes a cab out of the place, but the driver takes him out into the countryside and deposits him at a mysterious house. There he meets a mysterious artist who gives him another portrait of the woman and begs for him to leave. But then she appears and the artist tries to sexually assault the woman, who stabs him to death. Si-mok, hiding under the bed, sees the woman float out of the house.
Si-mok is chased out of the house by the cab driver, who thinks he murdered the artist. After a lengthy chase, Si-mok finds himself in a basement of an abandoned building, where the same woman who murdered the artist appears. It is Ae-ja, whom Si-mok seems to have known and thought was dead. He ends up taking her to a family friend, Doctor Park (Won Nam-kung), who also is surprised to see Ae-ja in such good condition, considering that she apparently had died more than a decade earlier. After a series of spooky phenomena at the doctor's office, Ae-jae returns to life and kills Doctor Park. Si-mok flees and returns home to his wife, Hye-suk (Lee Bin-hwa, of The Gates of Hell), his mother (Jeong Ae-ran, of The Public Cemetery Under the Moon), and children. But soon Ae-ja shows up at the house and starts haunting them, too. Just what is going on and why does this supposedly deceased Ae-ja have it in for Si-mok and his family?
Like I said, the film starts off unsettling and goes full throttle on the haunting and supernatural phenomena for an entire hour without letting up. It is only in the third act that the movie takes its breath, with an extended flashback that takes up most of the final half hour giving us the bizarre and twisted soap opera that explains Ae-ja's relationship to the other characters and why she is so vengeful. It is an unconventional approach, but it weakens the narrative by allowing the true climax to have taken place well before the narrative reaches its end. Instead of a final showdown, we get a Deus ex Machina resolution to one of the film's creepier moments.
I also thought that the metaphysics of the ghosts and spirit possession are a bit murky; one of the characters is murdered and returns as a cat demon. Given what we learn later, it is unclear whether we have two cat demons who can assume their respective human forms, or one cat demon who can assume multiple forms. I wish the script had been more explicit in that regard. There are two religious figures that show up, a female shaman (shamanism has long been a big part of Korean culture) and some mysterious woman (Kang Mun, of The Three Swordsmen of Iljimae) who randomly shows up claiming to be the family housekeeper. We find out who she is at the end and my response is...uh...huh. How convenient.
A Bloodthirsty Killer is two-thirds of a horror classic. The lost momentum of the third act and "easy" denouement hamper what is otherwise a highly entertaining horror-mystery about vengeance from beyond the grave.
A Public Cemetery of Wol-ha (1967)
aka The Public Cemetery Under the Moon
Starring: Park Nou-sik, Do Kum-Bong, Kang Mi-ae, Hwang Hae Hwang, Jeong Ae-ran
Director: Kwon Cheol-hwi
I wonder if this was the first South Korean horror film shot in color. Taking a glimpse at the IMDB's Advanced Search, it may very well be, especially if you don't count Yongary, Monster from the Deep as "Horror". Much like A Bloodthirsty Killer, this is a revenge flick from BEYOND THE GRAVE revolving around the supernatural doings of a wronged first wife. Unlike that film, this film's scares bookmark both ends of the film, while the middle hour is one long flashback explaining how we got to where we're at.
The film is set during the Japanese occupation of South Korea, although I'm not really sure when. A pair of student activists named Kim Han-sul (Park Nou-sik, of Quit Your Life and Descendants of Cain) and [something or other] are thrown in jail by the Japanese police because of their pro-freedom stance. The latter's sister, Seong-meon (Kang Mi-ae), becomes a courtesan named Wol-ha in order to raise money to secure their release. Han-sul is released first and, at his friend's request, marries Wol-ha. Han-sul gets rich through a mining business (not unlike Lee Si-mok of A Bloodthirsty Killer) and life seems idyllic for him and Wol-ha. They even have a child together. Things are looking on the up and up.
Being a horror movie, the happiness is not permanent. Things get bad when the family receives word that Wol-ha's brother's sentence has been extended to "life in prison" after several failed escape attempts. This does a number to Wol-ha's immunity and soon she's stricken with consumption. This is a window of opportunity for Nan-ju (Do Kum-Bong, playing the opposite role she played in A Bloodthirsty Killer), a kitchen servant at the Kim household. She lusts after the Kim family fortune and realizes that to get it, she needs to get into Han-sul's trousers first. So, she pays the corrupt Dr. Park to replace Wol-ha's medicine with a slow-acting poison. Since Wol-ha is taking "too long" to get better, Han-sul's "pipes" are getting a bit backed, so Nan-ju steps in get them flowing again.
Wol-ha finds out about her husband's dalliance and stops talking to him. The wicked Nan-ju uses that distance to her advantage and arranges for the "family butler" to sneak about Wol-ha's room, arousing suspicion in her husband. The husband finally approaches her and denounces her as a whore (although the subtitles read "courtesan," which doesn't carry the same impact), leading Wol-ha to kill herself. Nan-ju is able to become the second Mrs. Kim, but doesn't stop there. When Nan-ju sets her sights on her predecessor's son, Wol-ha rises from the grave for...VENGEANCE!!!
When I reviewed A Bloodthirsty Killer, my complaint was that the last third deflated the momentum built up by the first hour, compounded by the realization that the climax came a good 30 minutes before the film's end. This film avoids that, but commits a larger sin by making the flashback take up most of the film's running time. The supernatural elements take up the first and last 15 minutes of the movie, with everything in between being one long soap opera. It has some demented elements to it, but is nowhere near as twisted as the backstory in A Bloodthirsty Killer. It would have been better to have told the story in a standard linear fashion, so that the supernatural elements would have taken on a genuine crescendo of fright.
When the final haunting begins in earnest, it mainly consists of a character seeing Wol-ha's ghost (who looks almost like a vampire, what with lots of blood dripping out of her mouth), screaming, turning to the side, seeing another apparition of the ghost, screaming, turning to the other side, seeing...etc. etc. etc. The most shocking thing that happens is when one character accidentally runs into a tree and gets their eye poked out by a tree branch. The scare scenes are kinda fun on a 1940s horror level, especially after so much soap opera and scheming. It is also very open about the characters' attempts to commit infanticide, which some may find disturbing. But overall, A Bloodthirsty Killer was a much better movie.
aka The Public Cemetery Under the Moon
Starring: Park Nou-sik, Do Kum-Bong, Kang Mi-ae, Hwang Hae Hwang, Jeong Ae-ran
Director: Kwon Cheol-hwi
I wonder if this was the first South Korean horror film shot in color. Taking a glimpse at the IMDB's Advanced Search, it may very well be, especially if you don't count Yongary, Monster from the Deep as "Horror". Much like A Bloodthirsty Killer, this is a revenge flick from BEYOND THE GRAVE revolving around the supernatural doings of a wronged first wife. Unlike that film, this film's scares bookmark both ends of the film, while the middle hour is one long flashback explaining how we got to where we're at.
The film is set during the Japanese occupation of South Korea, although I'm not really sure when. A pair of student activists named Kim Han-sul (Park Nou-sik, of Quit Your Life and Descendants of Cain) and [something or other] are thrown in jail by the Japanese police because of their pro-freedom stance. The latter's sister, Seong-meon (Kang Mi-ae), becomes a courtesan named Wol-ha in order to raise money to secure their release. Han-sul is released first and, at his friend's request, marries Wol-ha. Han-sul gets rich through a mining business (not unlike Lee Si-mok of A Bloodthirsty Killer) and life seems idyllic for him and Wol-ha. They even have a child together. Things are looking on the up and up.
Being a horror movie, the happiness is not permanent. Things get bad when the family receives word that Wol-ha's brother's sentence has been extended to "life in prison" after several failed escape attempts. This does a number to Wol-ha's immunity and soon she's stricken with consumption. This is a window of opportunity for Nan-ju (Do Kum-Bong, playing the opposite role she played in A Bloodthirsty Killer), a kitchen servant at the Kim household. She lusts after the Kim family fortune and realizes that to get it, she needs to get into Han-sul's trousers first. So, she pays the corrupt Dr. Park to replace Wol-ha's medicine with a slow-acting poison. Since Wol-ha is taking "too long" to get better, Han-sul's "pipes" are getting a bit backed, so Nan-ju steps in get them flowing again.
Wol-ha finds out about her husband's dalliance and stops talking to him. The wicked Nan-ju uses that distance to her advantage and arranges for the "family butler" to sneak about Wol-ha's room, arousing suspicion in her husband. The husband finally approaches her and denounces her as a whore (although the subtitles read "courtesan," which doesn't carry the same impact), leading Wol-ha to kill herself. Nan-ju is able to become the second Mrs. Kim, but doesn't stop there. When Nan-ju sets her sights on her predecessor's son, Wol-ha rises from the grave for...VENGEANCE!!!
When I reviewed A Bloodthirsty Killer, my complaint was that the last third deflated the momentum built up by the first hour, compounded by the realization that the climax came a good 30 minutes before the film's end. This film avoids that, but commits a larger sin by making the flashback take up most of the film's running time. The supernatural elements take up the first and last 15 minutes of the movie, with everything in between being one long soap opera. It has some demented elements to it, but is nowhere near as twisted as the backstory in A Bloodthirsty Killer. It would have been better to have told the story in a standard linear fashion, so that the supernatural elements would have taken on a genuine crescendo of fright.
When the final haunting begins in earnest, it mainly consists of a character seeing Wol-ha's ghost (who looks almost like a vampire, what with lots of blood dripping out of her mouth), screaming, turning to the side, seeing another apparition of the ghost, screaming, turning to the other side, seeing...etc. etc. etc. The most shocking thing that happens is when one character accidentally runs into a tree and gets their eye poked out by a tree branch. The scare scenes are kinda fun on a 1940s horror level, especially after so much soap opera and scheming. It is also very open about the characters' attempts to commit infanticide, which some may find disturbing. But overall, A Bloodthirsty Killer was a much better movie.
Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (1978)
Starring: Kim Ja-ok, Kim Jeong-cheol, Kim Man, Won Nam-kung
Director: Kim Ki-young
Strange film is marketed as a horror film is an occasionally surreal journey of one man as he deals with various entities after a near-death experience. Lowly biology student Kim Young-gul is miserable. He lives alone in a slum. He eats ramen every day. He goes to bed hungry. One day, he is on an outing with some friends when he goes butterfly hunting. He meets a woman who offers him some juice. It turns out that she has poisoned the both of them, as she intends to die and wants someone to accompany her into the afterlife. Kim survives the poisoning and is cleared of her murder.
After that, Kim becomes obsessed with death, even contemplating suicide at several points. He is visited byThe Ghost of Christmas Past an old book salesman who explains to him that if your will is strong enough, you can cheat death. The two get in an argument and Kim stabs the old nutcase who...believe it or not...keeps on talking despite being stabbed to death. Even when maggots are pouring out of the man's wounds, he keeps on tacking. Some time later, Kim goes spelunking with a friend of his, who is currently working for a famous anthropologist. While hanging out in a cavern, they find a 2000-year-old skeleton of a young woman. They smuggle it out with the intent to sell it the anthropologist. While Kim is reassembling the skeleton in his house, it comes back to life in the form of a beautiful young woman from the Silla Kingdom. She informs him that she will love and cherish him, but in order for her to keep on living, she must eat a human liver...
The above summary covers about the first 40 minutes of the 117-minute film, which moves at a very slow pace. For a certain portion of the film, especially the first hour or so, it almost feels like you could cut the film into 15-minute pieces and you would have a completely different-looking movie for each piece. The second half settles into a more focused narrative involving Kim, the aforementioned anthropologist, and his kooky daughter. The story does have a few interesting turns, but it is all ruined by the ending.
The film is a meditation on life and death, and how people often obsess with either of the two. At least three people that Kim meets are obsessed with immortality, using differing means to achieve it. And then he meets people who are obsessed with death, which is interesting, since once Death comes a-knocking, they become deathly (heh) afraid of it. I think the general message, which is driven home to some extent in the last quarter during the camping segment, is that the best approach is to live life to its fullest and accept Death when it comes.
Some of the symbolism feels arbitrary, like the bit with the pastry machine. Kim and the resurrected girl make love on top of a mountain of pastries as the machine is indiscriminately shooting them all over the room. I think it is some commentary on how modernity can surround us with disposable food, but it cannot produce what we really need to nurture our bodies--see the fact that Kim subsists entirely on ramen noodles. But that theme is brought up in that moment, but it isn't really revisited, unless you consider Kim stuffing his face with all sorts of food once he starts working with the anthropologist. I don't know.
Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death deserves some thought and pondering. It has some interesting food (heh) for thought, and the fake ending would have been deliciously ironic. But the film is not for everyone: it is long and slow and some of the imagery that might've been scary, but comes across as cheesy instead.
Starring: Kim Ja-ok, Kim Jeong-cheol, Kim Man, Won Nam-kung
Director: Kim Ki-young
Strange film is marketed as a horror film is an occasionally surreal journey of one man as he deals with various entities after a near-death experience. Lowly biology student Kim Young-gul is miserable. He lives alone in a slum. He eats ramen every day. He goes to bed hungry. One day, he is on an outing with some friends when he goes butterfly hunting. He meets a woman who offers him some juice. It turns out that she has poisoned the both of them, as she intends to die and wants someone to accompany her into the afterlife. Kim survives the poisoning and is cleared of her murder.
After that, Kim becomes obsessed with death, even contemplating suicide at several points. He is visited by
The above summary covers about the first 40 minutes of the 117-minute film, which moves at a very slow pace. For a certain portion of the film, especially the first hour or so, it almost feels like you could cut the film into 15-minute pieces and you would have a completely different-looking movie for each piece. The second half settles into a more focused narrative involving Kim, the aforementioned anthropologist, and his kooky daughter. The story does have a few interesting turns, but it is all ruined by the ending.
The film is a meditation on life and death, and how people often obsess with either of the two. At least three people that Kim meets are obsessed with immortality, using differing means to achieve it. And then he meets people who are obsessed with death, which is interesting, since once Death comes a-knocking, they become deathly (heh) afraid of it. I think the general message, which is driven home to some extent in the last quarter during the camping segment, is that the best approach is to live life to its fullest and accept Death when it comes.
Some of the symbolism feels arbitrary, like the bit with the pastry machine. Kim and the resurrected girl make love on top of a mountain of pastries as the machine is indiscriminately shooting them all over the room. I think it is some commentary on how modernity can surround us with disposable food, but it cannot produce what we really need to nurture our bodies--see the fact that Kim subsists entirely on ramen noodles. But that theme is brought up in that moment, but it isn't really revisited, unless you consider Kim stuffing his face with all sorts of food once he starts working with the anthropologist. I don't know.
Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death deserves some thought and pondering. It has some interesting food (heh) for thought, and the fake ending would have been deliciously ironic. But the film is not for everyone: it is long and slow and some of the imagery that might've been scary, but comes across as cheesy instead.
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