Ryeong (2004)

Director:

Tae-kyeong Kim

Writer:

Tae-kyeong Kim (writer)

Release Date:

18 June 2004 (South Korea)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Don't remember... Take it to your grave.

Plot:

A teenage girl suffering from amnesia discovers that she is somehow connected to a group of people who are being killed off one by one by a vengeful ghost.

Plot Keywords:

Amnesia | Ghost | Jealousy | Spiritual Possession

Cast

Ha-Neul Kim	...	Min Ji-won
Sang-mi Nam	...	Su-in
Bin	...	Eun-seo
Yi Shin	...	Mi-kyeong
Hie-ju Jeon	...	Yu-jeong
Yun-ji Lee	...	Eun-jeong
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ran Choi	...	Su-in's mum
Ju-bong Gi	...	Detective
Hae-suk Kim	...	Ji-won's mum
Grina Park
Jin Ryu	...	Park Jun-ho

Also Known As:

Dead Friend (International: English title)
The Ghost (International: English title) (Singapore: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:98 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | South Korea:12 | Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M | UK:15

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Popcorn Films

It's all been done before.

Tartan's new release of Ryeong, A.k.a. The Ghost is not one of their better releases. In fact, I found The Ghost to be one of the worst Asian ghost stories I've seen in awhile. This is not to say that Ghost is necessarily a bad film, it just doesn't offer anything new to jaded horror viewers, and seems like a hodge-podge of several prior successful Asian horror films, Chiefly, The Ring, Ju-On, Shutter, and Dark Water.

The Ghost tells the story of Ji-Won, a young student who is afflicted with amnesia. She is completely unaware of her prior life, including an incident which sets up the haunting of Ji-Won by a long-haired ghost girl. As her friends start to die off, she decides to investigate the event that led to the deaths of her friends. Peeling back the layers of her subconscious, she slowly unravels clues to her past, which inevitably lead to a giant plot-twist, which I saw coming at about 20 minutes into the film.

If it sounds like something you've seen before, that's because it is. The Ghost adds nothing new to the K-Horror genre and heavily borrows (Or steals) from past K and J-Horror successes. In fact, even some of the score was lifted from The Shutter (not to mention the plot)! The sad thing is that the film isn't all that bad. The Ghost is somewhat creepy, there are some decent scares, the pacing is good, and the story is decent. But to those of us familiar with Asia Horror, it's just more of the same. If The Ghost had been made before such films as The Ring or Dark Water, it would probably be regarded as a great entry into the K-Horror genre. Alas, it was made after, and offers nothing new, but retreads of familiar territory.

If your a fan of K-Horror and are looking for something to pass time until the next great Horror flick comes out, or if you like to collect K-Horror than check it out. If your the occasional Asian horror flick viewer, save your time. You've seen it all before.

My Rating 4.5 out of 10. The Ghost delivers nothing that I hadn't seen before. It's predictable, and forgettable.