Director: Ahn Byeong-ki
Year: 2004
Country: South Korea
Alternate Titles: Ouija Board
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Arriving at a new boardingschool in Seoul, a schoolgirl becomes fed up with the bullying inflicted upon her by a group of classmates and plays with a spirit board hoping for revenge only to unleash the ravenous spirit of a long-dead student upon them and must save them before it's too late.
Review:
This was an exceptionally enjoyable effort that really has a lot going for it. One of it's best features is the fact that it manages to contain plenty of strong and somewhat chilling ghostly encounters throughout here. From the opening boardgame where they play with the board in the brightly-lit red light where the ghost is released to the numerous scenes of the ghost appearing around the school to the tormentors resulting in not only the fantastic scene of the ghost encouraging the one victim to commit suicide in front of the rest of the school but also getting to see the various flashbacks to the past that show how the original girl was tormented and killed the bullies seeking revenge. That is the rather fun part of this one as the various scenes showing the girl carrying out not only her revenge on the classmates as well as the several flashbacks that feature how the actions of the village affected the outcome of the future and set the curse into motion. With some brutal and enjoyable elements popping up in the finale to exact this retribution, it has a lot to like with the ghost here.
Likewise, alongside the fantastic ghost action is the exceptionally chilling atmosphere that's nearly better than the ghost itself. The idea of the boardgame causing the curse itself isn't all too original but the fact that there's plenty of stellar sequences here showing the atmosphere around the classroom which is handled rather nicely. Not only does the events in the film's current time shown to interact with the events of the school-bound ghost legend from the past but the reaction of the students which furthers that connection quite nicely. Even the scenes of her being bullied and tormented by the gang both in their one-on-one confrontations as well as their attempt to kill her in the classroom which is one of the finer scenes in the film as a whole and all ties together to give this one the feeling of the curse coming together with the other storylines. There's a rather fun time to be had here with the way that allows the film to move from ghost slasher to possession and eventual retribution which manages to make this quite fun and enjoyable while reveling in it's brutality.
The cast here is another big plus for the film. Lee Se-un is quite enjoyable as Lee Yoo-jin, the girl who arrives at the village and is soon exactign revenge for the ghost. Basically a doormat at the beginning of the film before being a little more lively and vivacious as the possession takes hold, it's a solid turn generating sympathy as she becomes increasingly distraught over her connection to the killings and you generally want her to emerge unscathed. That also befalls Kim Gyu-ri who plays Lee Eun-ju, the arts teacher also caught up in the curse. Initially taken aback by the concept of the curse and what's going to happen to her, the plight she has to help free both the ghost and the student is a solid turn and makes her quite enjoyable to play out. The other big role, Choi Seong-min as the teacher Mr. Han, is a serviceable if not exceptional male lead. Resorting to going around with a sullen look on his face trying to get around the secrets and dead-ends in his search for justice doesn't amount to much and his desire to see the curse lifted doesn't mean he's a solid character even though the sympathetic turn to the affected girl is a nice touch to help him along. Otherwise, there isn't much else wrong here.
Among the few problems to be had here is the fact that the film really makes it quite hard to invest itself in this story based on the languid and unnecessarily slow pacing. Although it makes out the cause of the problem early on and gets in some great ghostly activity in the first half, this one still takes quite a while to reveal it's true purpose with the initial feeling of this one taking the route of a released entity preying on the classmates after their turn with the boardgame. It's not until late in the film that the full extent of the ghosts' actions are revealed which is due to the second minor issue here with the film relying more on flashbacks to fullfill the story more than anything. It's sometimes hard to keep track of everything because it's all revealed there rather than mentioned to everyone and then expanding on it in the flashback and the film is slightly disjointed in terms of pacing due to that. It's other flaw is the rather convoluted manner in which it plays out, as it ranges from several possible storylines that could've worked separately without being forced into a singular film so it's a bit of an issue here with this scattershot approach. As these aren't that detrimental, overall the work is quite enjoyable.
Overview: ****/5
Frankly, this is a solid and highly enjoyable ghost-based slasher film that has a few minor issues about it but overall there's enough to like here to make this quite a bit of fun. Give this a chance if you're at all interested in these types of Asian ghost films or looking for a mostly enjoyable Asian horror beyond the expected titles, while those looking for more straightforward efforts should heed caution.
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