Release date: May 31, 2012 Running time: 93 minutes Director: Kim Tae-Kyung
Main Cast:
Park Bo-Young as Se-Hee
Kang Byul as Jung-Mi
Joo Won as Joon-Hyuk
It's truly been ages since I last did a movie review and am certainly out of practice, apologize if it's not up to standards. Actually should apologize if it is up to my usual way of writing! Have done so many drama recaps lately, guess if I continue with how they're done it should turn out to be okay. There's about five more films I want to recap, two more from Korea and the rest from Japan but thinking about it the total could be way higher than five. Hope you checked out the above post which has pics from a screening but also an English subbed trailer.
It been being Halloween(when I viewed it) figured a horror movie watch(es) was needed. Almost viewed "Gomennasai" which is a Hello Project film and is also a horror flick, may have that coming up next. Still enjoying dramas but getting a bit burnt out with recapping them, watching a film was a nice break and this turned out to be a fine movie. Halloween is known for being a scary day but it's known worldwide there is one thing scarier.... that's reading a review that Nao wrote!!!! π
If you get bored reading this there's always the screenshots, can't believe how many I took and it may be easier to follow the story by viewing all.... one hundred of them! At the top is the main cast and that's not a typo for a change on my part, there really are only three main characters in the film. The 'Ring' films and others were such huge hits 15-20 years ago but there haven't been many movies that involve videos like 'Ring' did since then, if you're into films like those this would be one you'd enjoy.
On to the three main characters and the first one we met was Jung-Mi, in the screenshots her name is written as Jeung-Mi but the credits at film sites have her name without the U so will use the shorter version. She's an eighteen year old high school senior, in the top screenshot that's her in the middle. She's really a wizard at making videos and uploading them to the internet. Jung-Mi says she makes a good amount of cash from them and her latest hit is wearing a belly dancer outfit.
Jung-Mi lives with her older sister Se-Hee, unsure of her age but seems to me she's about 22. Se-Hee has dropped out of college and at present works at a handbag store in a mall. Not for long as she quits the job ten minutes into the film, she's upset at the amount of cameras the store has everywhere. There's even one in the ladies dressing room which Se-Hee says is against the law and think she's right, she stormed out of the store in disgust. The girls have no mother as she died many years ago and they don't remember her too well. Their father lives in America and appears to be successful at his job as the pair live in a very nice house with every imaginable comfort.
The final main character is Joon-Hyuk who is a 22 year old college student doing an internship with the police department's Cyber Terrorist Unit. When it comes to computers no one can top Joon-Hyuk, his supervisors at the station absolutely love him and they wish they could hire him on the spot. He used to go out with Se-Hee but she discovered him at dinner once with another gal, she broke up with him right then. Joon-Hyuk been trying to get back with her which hasn't come close to working out, he's remained friends with her sister Jung-Mi and asks her to help him win her heart back.
Jung-Mi will help him under one condition, she needs help to get into a mysterious video website that is now off limits. She knows Joon-Hyuk has access to the site working at the Cyber Unit, if he can get her onto the forbidden site she'll get Joon-Hyuk back in good graces with her sister. He was a bit leery about stealing info from the department but to get Se-Hee back Joon-Hyuk he agreed to the deal. Even though a supervisor was just a few feet away Joon-Hyuk was able to transfer the file to a USB drive.
At first he had a problem, it wouldn't copy over which left him confused, for a split second
Joon-Hyuk had looked away. In that moment the USB drive flashed on and off like it was alive, as it turns out it really is. After that brief second the file somehow copied over to the USB drive,
Joon-Hyuk had no idea what had happened but he had the file for Jung-Mi and gave it to her a bit later. The events may seem slow but it was an interesting beginning and there is a lot of action that does come up.
That was kind of a highlight above, it's not that kind of film but both gals are very attractive and at least you can use your imagination. Now Jung-Mi finally has her coveted USB drive, after the 'bonding bath' with Se-Hee she rushes off to see what's on the file and why it was banned from the internet. She was disappointed as the file only contained one video clip, it was listed as 1/108 so that may mean there's 107 of them still out there which does turn out to be the case.
You need to watch the first one before the second one will appear, then it's named 2/108 and so on. Jung-Mi viewed the video and like the "Ring" movie it was such an odd and disturbing watch. On it there was a doll that was getting cut up with a knife and a person stuck their hand in it to remove their insides. Jung-Mi referred to it as Incantation which is a series of words for a magic spell or chant though there was no audio in the video.
Took a hundred screenshots so you'll be seeing all of them, they are useful to me too as even though I do take notes viewing them helps jog my memory about certain events. The video ended with the doll all cut up and somehow bleeding, it was then put in a chest that had water in it and the lid was closed. Jung-Mi didn't know what to think of the video, was there a message in it? She didn't know but contacted her friend who was referred to as 'Adorable Girl' as that was her user name on the internet, will use AG for her but she's only in one other scene.
AG also uploads videos to You Tube and makes even more money than Jung-Mi, AG will also pay to see interesting videos. Jung-Mi told her about the odd video she just viewed, she sent it to AG hoping she would pay her for it which she eventually did. After sending AG the video the USB file now has a second video, it's 2/108, she watches it with her sister Se-Hee who had just come into Jung-Mi's room. This second one wasn't that odd as it showed a man sitting next to a drunk woman at a subway station and he appeared to be sexually harassing her, Se-Hee was disgusted by it and left the room.
Han Byul plays Jung-Mi, have liked her for a long time so it was a nice bonus that she was in the film. She doesn't mind showing off some skin and she does in this film as after Se-Hee left the room Jung-Mi decided to do a striptease type of dance. She kept her undergarments on and started to dance around the room is such a sexy manner. Unknown to Jung-Mi her computer was filming the entire event and it uploaded the video to the internet.
As mentioned that USB drive seems to be alive, there's the first proof that it is and it won't be the last time it does something like that. The following day at school every student is staring at Jung-Mi and making comments about her, she's clueless about what's going on. She's sent to the teacher's office, there the video of Jung-Mi dancing half naked was shown to her and at the moment it's close to being the most watched video in the world. Having others see her dance like that didn't faze Jung-Mi but what's left her angry and perplexed is how was someone able to videotape her?
Watching the two videos, especially the first one, has done something to Jung-Mi's mind. She's seeing some strange events such as hair growing out her shirt which led to a breakdown in class. Jung-Mi has also become overly paranoid, she thinks everyone is filming her which leads to a confrontation on the subway, her fears though wacky aren't that far off from the truth. Jung-Mi has come to the conclusion that her computer is now alive, it somehow taped her striptease dance and uploaded it to the internet.
Jung-Mi is correct as her computer is alive via the USB drive, when she tells her sister Se-Hee what's going on she's labeled as a lunatic which Jung-Mi is also starting to become. The videos on her computer are now also increasing, as mentioned every time one is viewed another gets added so from the one that was originally there the number has increased to over ten. Bit more on how videos get added as the post goes on, seems like the details for it came out in drips throughout the film. And with each watch Jung-Mi is starting to become even more deranged and Se-Hee is at a loss of what to do. Had taken a long break and started again with this part, your thoughts don't run as smoothly after a breather....
Out of desperation Se-Hee contacts her ex-boyfriend Joon-Hyuk pleading for advice, up until now she hadn't seen him once and we're past the halfway mark. Joon-Hyuk rushes to her house and listens to the stories Se-Hee has of Jung-Mi activities and he knows what's going on. Joon-Hyuk though not intentionally, is the person who sprang the USB drive to life when he copied the original file over from the police department's computer. Somehow he realizes Jung-Mi's computer has come to life and she may not be as off the wall as everyone around her thinks.
Joon-Hyuk installs cameras all around the sister's house to tape the bizarre activities but the place where one is needed the most is Jung-Mi's bedroom which they don't have access to. Joon-Hyuk installs a cellphone camera into a stuffed bear, the phone also has a GPS which will come in handy later on. Joon-Hyuk gives the bear to Jung-Mi, if she keeps it in her room Se-Hee will be able to watch her sister her sister is really experiencing. While in the bedroom Joon-Hyuk is seduced by Jung-Mi as Se-Hee is watching via the camera, Se-Hee is so adorable but Jung-Mi is quite a vampy gal. Somehow Joon-Hyuk was able to turn down her advances and think Jung-Mi had an inkling there was a camera in the stuffed bear which is why she came on to him like that.
There are just the three main characters, on occasion we've seen a few others whose parts aren't too big nor do they add much to the story. Except for AG who we met briefly near the beginning. She viewed the original video that Jung-Mi had sent her, since then her mind has also started to go haywire as she's seeing things and is beginning to lose touch with reality.
AG had viewed the video at an internet parlor, she could no longer stay there as the demons she was seeing were driving her out of her mind. AG heads back home, she lives on the 12th floor of an apartment building. She takes the elevator to the floor but when AG gets off it's somehow a parking garage. Odd things are happening all around AG so she quickly rushes back to the elevator to head down to the first floor. However it was no longer there so AG falls down the shaft but instead of it being about a hundred feet it was only ten.
That good fortune only lasted a second as when AG glanced up she saw the elevator well above her. There was no exit for her to escape and AG naturally begins to panic. But that panic really sets in a few seconds later as she hears the elevator spring to life, it's picking up speed as it's falling towards her. And sure you know what event happens next as the elevator reaches full velocity and ends up mashing AG into a pancake, the first death from the video has taken place.
At the police station Joon-Hyuk learns some key details about the second video on the file where it appears a man is sexually harassing a drunk woman. He wasn't doing anything perverse, the older man was actually helping the woman out as she had passed out next to him and her skirt rose up quite a bit. The man then put his newspaper in front of her, if someone didn't view the whole video then the man's actions could be seen as perverted.
A pair of teen girls had taped what he did, they deleted the opening and closing scenes of the video and uploaded their version to the internet. It became a widely viewed video and the man quickly became so hated because of his actions. He was actually a good guy but the way the video was edited made him look the opposite. Eventually he couldn't take the accusations any more and killed himself. Shortly after his wife was so distraught about the events that she had a heart attack and died.
That left one person living in the family who was the couple's teenage daughter. She knew her father was innocent and somehow created the tape to get back at all of the people who shamed him, after the tape was made the daughter ended up killing herself which ended up on the video. Key point which we and Joon-Hyuk discovered here was that your getting killed creates a new video which gets added to the ones on the USB drive. They appear once you're no longer living, didn't think any of the movie was confusing though that part of your death appearing as a new video slightly was. Also the video that Jung-Mi wanted so desperately was the one the man's daughter had created.
Jung-Mi was able to work out the mystery about the videos and how new ones appear when someone gets killed. Through watching the new videos and especially paying attention to the ones involving the teenage girl Jung-Mi was able to figure out where the death took place. It's at a house in Kaesang and she heads there carrying her stuffed bear, Jung-Mi knew that a camera was hidden in it and perhaps she brought it so her sister could follow her via the camera.
Which is what Se-Hee was able to do and followed her sister to the house in Kaesang thanks to the GPS in the near, that house hasn't been occupied since the death of the family and is in poor shape. Se-Hee has contacted Joon-Hyuk and he's also rushing to the house but he and Se-Hee aren't sure why any of them need to be at the house.
In the very beginning after Jung-Mi watched the video for the first time she was wondering if there was supposed to be a message. There was but it didn't appear until you've watched many more of the videos which she had done, now she knew what actions must be taken.
That's the doll from the first video, Jung-Mi had found it in a small trunk filled with water just as she had viewed in the video. To remove the curse she felt that it needed to be burned, perhaps to 'free it' like in the 'Ring' movie when Sadako was found at the bottom of a well. Hmmm, then again that didn't lift the curse in the 'Ring' movie and it may not here either. As you can see above Jung Mi has been joined by her sister and Joon-Hyuk, she lit the doll on fire and thinks this should be the end of the nightmares.
Jung-Min had also thrown the USB drive into the fire and that should be the final act to lift the curse and also the end of the film. But not quite as there's still about ten minutes to go in the film. What I liked about the ending was that it wasn't a happy one as the thrills became even more intense. First off we saw Joon-Hyuk arrive back at his residence, we didn't see him there for long as all of a sudden videos started appearing on his walls. He also had watched the original video and the ones following it, for people like him the curse wasn't lifted as he quickly met his demise.
The last third of the movie many of the scenes were so dark it was difficult to tell what was going on like the above scene when Joon-Hyuk was killed. He's not the only one to bite the bullet as soon that number will be increased by one and that takes place at the house of the two sisters. Shortly after arriving back home events quickly get out of hand, while Se-Hee is outside the house Jung-Mi is trapped inside. She can't escape through a window as steel bars have suddenly appeared on them, Jung-Mi did everything she thought was right but somehow the curse of the video is still alive.
Living isn't a term that's needed to describe Jung-Mi as a rope that was alive(!) threw itself around her neck and she's whisked up to the ceiling. Se-Hee eventually rushes into the house but it's too late, Jung-Mi is hanging there as the noose has extinguished her life. The following day the carnage is discovered and Se-Hee is being hauled away in an ambulance. But seeing all of the cameras taping her sends Se-Hee into a frenzy as seemingly nothing has changed as the film ends on that note...
Whew, thanks if you made it all the way through as it may have been the one of longest reviews I've ever written up and it probably wasn't too exciting of a read. The film was exciting though and I really did enjoy it, horror is a genre which I'm into but the films from Korea and Japan the last few years pale to the ones from 1995 to 2005. None have been bad as I have watched many but guess we were all spoiled by so many superb ones in a short amount of time.
On second thought this was the longest review I've ever done, for a ninety minute film there were so many events happenings along with too many little details to count but feel as though every major point was mentioned. Taking screenshots does take a bit away from the viewing pleasure so watched the last 1/3 of the film twice, second time took zero screenshots which made it more enjoyable. Hopefully this will be the start of a nice roll of movie watching as there's many more on my 'to watch' list, seems the first sets a trend and if it's a bad watch then the following ones are too.
This was a better than expected film, lot of creepy and eerie happenings so if you a horror fan then would give this a slight recommendation. My rating will be a 8.2/10, to me that's a sold rating and it's one I would watch again which could happen as I really like the two female leads. Plenty of screenshots were sprinkled in but here are so many more of them for you to view and they really do help with following the story.
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