Director: Oh In-chun Year: 2017 Country: South Korea Alternate Titles: N/A Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Agreeing to take an odd assignment, a videographer joins a group to document a journey to the tomb of a woman whose story was adapted into a classic horror film, but they soon realize something unearthly is in the woods with them and must find a way to get out of the situation alive.
Review:
Considering the impact and influence of the original in the genre, it's quite pleasing this one goes into depth on the story. Exploring the character of Wolhyang, a student in South Korea that entered into kisaeng, or what's known as a Korean geisha girl, that became the wife of a bourgeois man. When his mother and her servant grow tired of her, they falsely accuse her of a crime and have the innocent girl sentenced to death. Soon thereafter, the ghost of the girl came back and sought revenge. Having this knowledge of the film 'A Public Cemetery of Wol-ha' explained throughout here, manages to serve this film with a great grounding that makes viewers not familiar with the original get caught up and not be confused at all. This helps to add to the already-strong storyline crafted by writers Oh In-chun and Park Ji-young, where it blends the fictional with the realistic. Portraying the original movie as a document of what really happened and then adapting the new movie from these events has quite a unique slant.
For the most part, the rest of the movie is pretty entertaining. Being one of the few found-footage films in the country's history, this makes fine use of the medium. Utilizing the documentary-style approach for their setup, the manner in which this sets up the fundamental rule about the genre is clearly at hand with the need to document the journey. As a fundamental rule, found-footage films must answer two questions: Why are the characters initially recording everything, and why are the characters recording everything when their lives are in jeopardy? That documentary approach settles the first part accordingly, and the second somewhat clumsily. Being lost in the countryside and needing the light is a fine enough if cliche reason, yet the tactic still works here. The manner of recording the atmosphere of the wilderness as they get further away from their target is a solid resource, and makes the woods that much creepier. As a large part of the film revolves them wandering around the woods lost, the atmosphere created through that process is quite impressive.
Helping this along is the nice action in the later half. Exploiting the weirdness of his behavior, this one features the lost and frustrated group wandering around before they eventually stumblĪµ onto the tomb by accident. As they start to devolve into bloodlust over being around the grave, the film really picks up the intensity and the action. Adding some graphic gore to the mix, the supernatural actions that are featured here are quite chilling with everyone coming upon not only the deranged figure but also the possessed individuals give this some rather nice thrills. Containing the main action of the movie, it really drives up the stakes from the rest of the film as there was a nice atmosphere developed but not much else. As well, the rather bizarre behavior of the guide manages to help ease the pacing of the first half. From casually drinking poison, carrying a human-hair wig around in a napsack and bursting into made-up songs from an inconsequential piece of dialog, these add to the watchability of the film.
The acting here is really hit-or-miss. As the videographer Yang Jung-il, he doesn't show up on camera much and isn't important when he is, as it tends to feature him as another part of the body count. As the two main leads, Kang Chun-sik and Park Han-su are both manageable, Kang is a more level-headed and calm individual being in charge of the expedition. Park delves into hysterics quite early, being unfamiliar with the wilderness, and tends to yell and panic quite easily. He manages one memorable freakout happening partway through that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Masami the resentful assistant is essentially nonexistent and utterly unimportant, being so quiet and shy you forget she's there at all. Truthfully, it's Lee Jun-seop the guide who steals the show here. His loud, outgoing personality is at such odds with their quiet demeanor that the contrast is infectious and makes him worth watching. The odd behavior and generally off-kilter approach just adds to the weirdness of the situation.
This one does suffer from a few minor flaws. The main issue with this one is the bland pacing featured throughout here. Since the film has the group lost and just wandering around the forest, there are long stretches with nothing much going on. There's only so much suspense that gets generated from having a camera zoom into the shrubbery before it dawns that nothing is happening otherwise. There are quite a few stretches of time like that where it has very little going on with the group wandering through the bushes, sitting in the car or just complaining about the bizarreness of how Jun-seop's behaving. They drain the energy from the first half as it settles into the storyline. The other big issue here is the problems associated with the horror elements. Since found-footage film-making relies on the stability of the individual shooting it, the footage becomes wild and frantic during the worst parts to do so. The final attack here is lowered by the inability to focus on the attacker or what's going on, and it's only when the camera is knocked down that it focuses on the action.
Overview: *** 1/2/5
There's a lot to really like in this one, and it has plenty of worthwhile moments for aficionados of found-footage films. This proves South Korea has some future in the field if they were to continue making these kinds of efforts, even with some minor flaws, so definitely give this a look if your fans of the style or enjoy the classic ghost stories like the original.
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