Another solid horror from South Korea, but surely the lesson here is don’t give your daughter a scary haircut like that girl from The Ring?…
Years after a severe car accident Mi-ju (Seong Hyeon-a, The Scarlet Letter, Lover) has put a promising career as a cello virtuoso behind her to become a part-time music teacher. She cannot, however, put the memories of the terrible crash behind her too. Threatening phone messages and strange things begin to happen.
It seems there’s more afoot than simply a mysterious mute housekeeper (in the tradition of Rebecca) or a disgruntled student who wants revenge for bad grades – an evil spirit seems to want to harm Mi-ju and her entire family. Can she work out why in time?
It’s an impressive first effort form writer/director Lee Woo-cheol, and proof of how well South Korea can compete with Japan in chilling horror movies. The vengeful spirit echoes Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge series. (Particularly in the creeping ‘black gas’.) Unlike Shimizu, however, Lee remembers that if you use your characters as fodder, it’s hard for your audience to relate to them, and therefore actually care what happens to them.
Lee gets great, warm performances out of his cast creating a real, live family unit you care about. (Apart from Mi-ju’s older daughter with learning disabilities, who unfortunately sports a haircut just like that girl from The Ring movies – a sure sign she’ll be acting strangely later on!) Then when he get ruthless with his characters – and he does – it’s much more effective.
As Mi-ju’s sanity gets brought into question, the film alludes to the sort of psychological drama found in Kim Ji-woon’s A Tale Of Two Sisters – but it’s just not as clever. Does Lee play his hand a little too heavily? It’s all a little too obvious and the conclusion is, without spoiling it for you, sadly a bit of a cop out. He also overplays the frights; subtlety would have more successful (and scarier!)
Cello is still a solid effort, and a worthy horror for a winters night. But please, take heed – don’t give your daughter a ‘scary Japanese girl’ cut, or you’ll regret it…
DVD details
Distributor: Tartan Asia Extreme (UK)
The UK release offers a fair few extras for a change, as it includes a directors commentary as well as a featurette. There's alos a chance to see the original trailer which, in many ways, is a whole lot better than the film!
