Cinderella (2005) by Bong Man-dae

Director: Bong Man-dae

Year: 2005

Country: South Korea

Alternate Titles: Sin-de-rel-la

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

When her friends start mysteriously dying, a young woman finds a disturbing secret for their strange behavior when she learns the incidents occur following an operation each one received from her mother and races to stop her friends from killing themselves before more of her friends are injured.

Review:

There was some good stuff to this one from time to time. One of the best features is that when it starts to get going there are some great plays on the nature of beauty. With each of the girls shown to be vain about their appearance in order to fit into accepted society going through the unnecessary surgery, this one enhances the idea that those who decide to get surgery are the ones who get attacked in several good scenes. One of the best here is the rather fun and entertaining birthday party scenes, which have some creepy images once it utilizes them, from the lit birthday cake moving through the darkened room to the rather bizarre freak-outs when the power goes out which is a pretty entertaining scene. Coupled with the different visions in the mirrors featuring the distorted face, either with severe scalpel marks or burn wounds is an overall great scene. Another really fun scene is the fantastic scene in art class, which starts with the hand appearing in the paint before dragging the victim head-first into it, only when returning to it later on showing no signs of anything having happened. With that comes the enjoyable film-long plus here in the kills, which are pretty graphic and brutal. Several faces are sliced up with knives, a burnt victim, a stabbing in the arm, and more, which while it doesn't sound like a lot definitely has its moments.

Moreover, once it becomes quite clear what’s happening, this one picks up considerably. The backstory to this is quite important to that as it helps to identify the causes of what’s going on with there being two great parts that come from it. Firstly is the awesome twist that's revealed, which isn't seen coming and is definitely something that comes as a shock but also highlights her obsession with plastic surgery towards her daughters’ friends as well as being a rather inventive way of finding out about it. The need for hiding the secret from others through the work she does is a fine way of showing the obsession needed to carry it off while also showing off the grisly underside of the desire for physical perfection. As this ties nicely into the fun attack scenes where the victims are tortured based on the surgery performed, placing the theme of their misguided quest for beauty squarely at the forefront for a rather interesting storyline. These here are what works for the film.

There were a couple of problems with this one that hold it down somewhat. One of the film's biggest flaws is that this makes utterly no sense at all. From the revelation angle that's done at the very end that’s just so confusingly done that nothing here is given anything close to a definitive answer to the film's incessant problem of skipping around in time so much that there's hardly any way of knowing where anyone is at in a certain point in time, this one becomes all the more frustrating without giving clear answers as it goes on. The film gradually gets irritating since it goes from the present time to the flashback that explains everything to see what happened with the friends without any change to explain that it's skipping around in time. It all looks the same, from the wardrobe to the outfits and appearance as well, and this just ends up not really doing the film any favors in clarifying issues at all. The fact that the movie just sort of ends without really doing anything else is a big part of that. This one doesn't have a real clear-cut way of ending, just featuring scenes that make it impossible to tell what's going on, and it's a very problematic issue. The last flaw is that there's not a whole lot in the middle that is really enjoyable, which manages to come across as so dull they rarely match up with any kind of excitement or momentum. All in all, these all take this one down.

Overview: **.5/5

While the film isn’t that bad overall, there are enough good points and bad ones to make this film an even washout with an overall mediocre feel. It’s pretty much only there for the hardcore Asian fanatics or those who might find this story interesting, while those who are put off by the film's problems should heed caution.

This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.