The Essential Korean Horror Collection

Into The Mirror

Into the Mirror is a really well designed and involving film that has a wonderful central performance by Ji-tae Yu and intelligent writing and directing by Sung-ho Kim.  It isn't the finest horror film to emanate from Korea but is still a very good watch.
Sung-ho Kim's directorial debut is one of those films that turns an ordinary household object into something sinister, in this case mirrors. When a hostage situation went very badly and his partner was shot dead, Yeong-min quit the police force and got a job as head of security at a swanky new department store owned by his uncle.  He is still traumatised by the events of that day, unable to look at a mirror properly, and has a scar on his left hand as a permanent reminder, though he can't quite remember how it got there.  The store had burnt down a year earlier and preparations are well under way for the grand re-opening but it hits the news for the wrong reasons when an employee is found dead in a lift with some stolen property, including a pizza-cutter, which she used to slit her throat.
 
When someone else is found dead, after pushing a pen into their ear, Yeong-min thinks there is a supernatural element to the deaths but an old colleague, Ha Hyun-Su, believes a serial killer is responsible and arrests Lee Ji-hyun, whose twin sister died in the fire. Ji-hyun is convinced that the official version of events is wrong and her sister was murdered and is now in the mirrors, taking her revenge. Yeong-min believes her and starts investigating but finds his path blocked by his uncle and members of the police.
 
Into the Mirror is an odd murder mystery story as the audience knows that people are killed by their reflections but none of the characters do. The only questions we have are why and how? There is nothing intrinsically Korean or Asian about the film, which gives it universality so it's easier to access than films that are dependent on culture or language. I didn't want to go into a whole 'compare and contrast', but it's much more complex and interesting, and less reliant on CGI effects, than Mirrors, the Alexandre Aja-helmed remake.
 
Yeong-min is a sympathetic character and you don't pity him, realising he's doing his best in a bad situation and trying to right the wrongs of his past. The idea of a personality consisting of two different parts isn't new (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Ingmar Berman's Persona dealt with that) but combining it with mirrors and the idea that a reflection can behave independently works very well for some genuinely chilling and uncomfortable scenes, watching a man kill himself by forcing a pen right into his ear is horrific.
 
It's odd that Sung-ho Kim hasn't gone on to do much with his career as I really rate Into the Mirror and thought that, with his talents as a writer and director, Kim would go on to become a prolific filmmaker. The film is really interesting with some good sub-plots, well developed characters and a great twist at the end.
 
 

Acacia

Korean writer/director Ki-hyeong Park had made two films prior to this but thought that the script for Acacia lent itself to a straight genre film, something he had always wanted to do.  The film is a family based horror, with happly married couple Kim Do-il and Choi Mi-sook accepting that, now in their forties, Mi-sook is unlikely to bear children so adoption is the best way to make their family whole.  Choosing a six year old boy rather than a baby, they soon realise they have their work cut out when Jin-seong tries to keep his old family name and resists their attempts to make him part of the family.
 
Very much a loner, he spends a lot of time with the dead acacia tree in the back garden, sitting on a branch or drawing on the bark.  One day he meets Min-ji, the girl next door who has been watching him, and they strike up a friendship with Jin-seong taking Min-ji out on rides on his new bicycle.  When he hears that Mi-sook has unexpectedly become pregnant, he becomes sullen and even more introverted and his behaviour worsens when the baby is brought home, insisting that the tree is his mother.  During a thunderstorm he disappears and the assumption is that he has gone off on his bike and will be back soon, but he doesn't.  Unusually, Jin-seong's disappearance coincides with the acacia tree growing new leaves and blossoming.

As time passes and the child is nowhere to be found, odd things begin happening to Do-il, an obstetrician, who has real troubles at work, delivering dead babies and breaking down in the labour ward.  The couple become increasingly distant and tensions rise between them and Mi-sook's father, who lives with them.  As the family tears itself apart, another rainstorm brings a shocking revelation.
 
Some films are amazing experiences that are fantastic on the first viewing and leave you wanting more whereas others can leave you a little cold and you have to revisit them to fully appreciate the material.  Acacia is in the latter category as when I first saw it I wasn't that impressed and was perhaps a little confused by the oneiric style that frequently left me wondering whether certain scenes were real or imaginary.  Watching it again, however, I was much more impressed and involved as I was able to take in the visuals and appreciate the acting and script more than the first time.
 
Acacia is a slow burner of a film, creepy and shocking when it wants to be and a devastating family drama.  A very well crafted and executed film, it is a film you have to see more than once to fully appreciate and is helped by the four main actors putting in compelling performances and Ki-hyeong Park's accomplished direction.  As Asian horrors go, it is atypical but still fascinating, relying more on atmosphere than sudden jumps, though there are a few moments that will jolt you.
 
 

The Wig

Korean cinema can be sublime, drawing on the still unresolved conflict between North and South with such films as Brotherhood, R-point and JSA.  There are some superb horror films too, with A Tale of Two Sisters as the standard bearer so anything from that peninsular really has a high standard to live up to.  The Wig doesn't reach the hights of the best of Korean cinema but has its moments and shows that Shin-yeon Won knows how to create and develop an interesting project.
The premise of The Wig (Gabal, 2005) is a little like the Hell Toupee segment of The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror IX episode. There's nothing about an execution or a hair transplant but a prologue shows a wig being made and a sewing machine needle going through the machinist's finger, covering the hairpiece in blood.  At this point you already know it's not going to go well.
 
The story follows Su-Hyeon, a patient who is being discharged from hospital following lengthy cancer treatment, into the care of her sister, Ji-Hyeon.  As Su-Hyeon has lost all her hair due to the chemotherapy, her sister bought a wig to boost her self esteem enabling her to live as normal a life as possible.  Su-Hyeon becomes extremely attached to the wig, wearing it to go to sleep and going out to get photographs taken of her looking happy and healthy. Her doctor is amazed that she is so well but he doesn't know that she is not taking her medication, hiding her tablets under the bed and deceiving everyone.
 
When Su-Hyeon becomes more outgoing and even sexually aggressive, Ji-Hyeon begins to suspect that the wig is cursed and controlling her sister.
 
The film debut by Shin-yeon Won, who was also one of the writers, The Wig tries to be one of those films that starts off slowly and builds to an unforgettable climax, but there are so many possible explanations for Su-Hyeon's behaviour introduced at the end that it just muddies the water and spoils the end.  The film isn't as tense as I'd have liked but it is interspersed with some neatly constructed and fairly well executed jumps but they don't appear often enough or with enough purpose to keep you on edge.
 
There are loads of good horror films that have come from Korea, but this isn't one of them. There is some good stuff but The Wig can't get away from the shadow of Hell Toupee, which was more inventive, bloodier and scarier!
 

The Disc

 
Extra Features
This set only contains disc one of the Into the Mirror 2-Disc set so you miss out on the storyboards, deleted scenes, music video and featurettes but do still get the commentary by director Sung-ho Kim.  The whole commentary is delivered in Korean and so is subtitled in English but Kim talks about the themes and how the effects were done but quite often lapses into descriptive mode; despite this, it's still worth a 'read'.
 
The bonus features on Acacia look to be better than they are, containing several featurettes and two interviews but each is only a few minutes long and a couple have nothing to do with their given titles. 
 
The Wig is completely vanilla, without even so much as a trailer.
 

The Picture
All three films look very good, though Into the Mirror is a little soft.  The CG and visual effects are really well done across all three films though Into the Mirror is slightly more effects-driven than the other two.
 
The Sound
With the exception of The Wig, all three films have both DTS and Dolby Digital surround options as well as a DD 2.0 stereo track.  Both DTS and Dolby Digital have made excellent soundtracks with little to choose between them, with the DD 5.1 on The Wig impressing.
 
All three are atmospheric and the surrounds help to increase the tension for the jumps and more intense scenes and they are all well subtitled.
 
Final Thoughts
The set calls itself the 'Essential Collection' of Korean horror but, missing A Tale of Two Sisters and R-point, it blatantly isn't but this is probably due to rights and marketing decisions.  That said, it is a fine beginners set and I hadn't previously seen two of these as they are slightly more obscure titles so their inclusion is welcome.  The quality generally isn't that high and The Wig is the week point with Into the Mirror as the best film here so it's a shame you don't get both discs.