Horror movie that's not really scary with a good ending
This film is good but hella confusing.I love the story and the message that the movie wants to portray about friendship using a horror film as a medium however there were few things that were lacking in this film as well. The story wasn't presented smoothly and the story keeps going back and forth on different characters causing it to have lack of continuity. Once you finished the movie though, you'd be able to piece everything together and understand what happened.
The characters are too bland and the acting was a bit unnatural but it was understandable since it's an old film. It wasn't as organized as what new films have nowadays.
For horror seekers, this wasn't scary at all. It was all the sounds making it creepy but that's all. Not really the kind of film I recommend but it's at least worth a try.
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I just want to say this is the only film so far (other than etsy) that had scared me silly. I have yet to see others to scare me in such a way. Man did this film give me the creeps. I learned a valuable lesson in this film: never abandon your real friends, even if a teacher tells you so....and never pick on the students. Otherwise you can end up suffering fatal consequences. The acting was really good and the music was well put. This is a film that I would definitely recommend and overall I enjoyed it very much. Just remember....never mess with the quiet ones. Especially ones that seem to be perfect and shy. A great film to watch. 5/5
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‘Whispering Corridors’? More Like Talking Corridors…
In retrospect ‘ Whispering Corridors’ is an oddly anomaly of a film. Released the same year as its more critically-successful and spine-tingling Japanese counterpart ‘Ringu’( 1998) , Screenwriter and director Park Ki-Hyung had been pushing the idea of the movie for numerous years beforehand in order to compete with the rising success of Japanese horror “Yurei “ ( ghost) movies in the Asian-film industry. However ironically whilst ‘ Whispering Corridors’ was a domestic box-office hit the film was neither truly a “terrifying” or well-executed due to a consequence of its patchwork and baffling narrative.
The premise of the film revolves around a teacher at an all-girls school who after stumbling upon the bizarre death of a pupil at the school several years ago is mysteriously found dead the next morning in a seeming act of suicide. Gossip soon begins to spread around the school towards the building being haunted by a vengeful spirit which new intern Eun-young (Lee Mi-yeon) who is, in fact, an ex-pupil and friend of Jin-ju, takes it upon herself to investigate, and comes up not only against a murderous spirit, but more importantly against the corrupt practices of the school authorities.
The acting front of the film is admittedly satisfactory to say the least- its not bad per say and certainly decent enough to watch through scenes, but poorly-paced dialogue deliverances and delayed expression reaction rarely added vivid realism to these moments either.
The horror elements of ‘ Whispering Corridors’ often felt as though there were reluctantly added by Park Ki-Hyung. Of course they exist in theory throughout the film from the presence of the ghost and the urban legends but rarely did they lack two quintessential elements for a horror film; fear and suspense due to lacking build-up or connected points in the storyline . Consequently the overture of ‘ Whispering Corridors’ felt as though it was a parody of the horror genre; over-the-top screams, dark camera angles and the classic “ blood on the wall” lacking anything but dread as further “horror” scenes also seemed to suffer from a farcical existence in the movie also.
Instead ‘ Whispering Corridors’ often felt as though it was supposed to be a social critique - a message which was surprisingly highlighted substantially in the movie. Park Ki-Hung seemed to provide an inherently strong anti-authoritarian streak; openly speaking out against corporal punishment, the impossible strive for perfection and exam results as well as notable taboos in South-Korean popular culture such as lesbianism, assault and corruption.
However sadly rather than these more profound themes helping to tie down the loose ends of ‘ Whispering Corridors’ this instead spiralled a patchwork narrative to take root frontal stage of the film with sporadic-jumps between subplots, heavy dialogues and poor-editing resulting in the film’s pacing feeling tedious. The ending did little to serve a sense of completion or spine-tingling chills for viewers with the outcome feeling more anti-climatic than satiable.
Ki-Hyung’s hand at cinematography was admittedly dated in places through low-budget camera shots and egregious editing at times, but it is praiseworthy to note that Hyung did experiment a lot with early day filming - techniques into Korean cinema such as long shots, pan shots as well as fade sequences throughout the duration of the film ( which are all still widely used today in the South-Korean film industry.)
Overall Park Ki Hyung’s ‘ Whispering Corridors’ is the movie which would’ve arguably done better as a standalone social-commentary movie, than a marketed “horror-flick”. Whilst the movie did admittedly inspire future filmmakers through its box-office success and experiment with the early days of Korean horror in the film industry, the evident comparison between the poorly-paced and mind-numbing narrative with an absent scare factor against its more spine-tingling and suspenseful Japanese counterpart cannot help but come into effect afterwards
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Taking away the supernatural elements, this could have been quite a strong social commentary. Focused more on the psychological thriller genre, I would say it's disturbing, but interesting. Yet, with the ghost showing up randomly here and there, and the plot being said in a messy, non-linear manner, I just couldn't get into whatever was currently happening on the screen.
Depending on the character, we get completely different movies. Most teachers get the typical ghost flick as they die, the students get psychological drama full of abuse and injustice, and the main female teacher gets a melodrama about her past regrets. And it all just does not fit well with each other.
It's a 90' movie and it feels like one: from the directing, editing, up till style of acting. It's not for everyone. Some would say the acting was not the best, but I would argue it was quite strong. The style is just vastly different from new productions.
Overall... It was neither good horror, nor a compelling and complex psychological thriller. It was kind of there, trying to give a bitter-sweet ending and a set up for sequels. It wasn't boring, but I wasn't that excited while watching it either. The only thing I felt was rage because of all the abuse I was witnessing.
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