Seuseung-ui eunhye (2006)

Director:

Dae-wung Lim

Writer:

Se-yeol Park (writer)

Release Date:

3 August 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Dream Sequence | Breaking Through Door | Woods | Embarrassment | Medication

Cast

Seong-won Jang	...	Jung-won
Eung-su Kim	...	Detective
Dong-kyu Lee	...	Myung-ho
Ji-hyeon Lee	...	Sun-hee
Mi-hee Oh	...	Miss Park
Hyo-jun Park	...	Dal-bong
Yeong-hie Seo	...	Nam Mi-ja
Hyeon-Soo Yeo	...	Se-ho
Seol-ah Yu	...	Eun-young

Also Known As:

Bloody Reunion (USA) (DVD title)
To Sir with Love (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:93 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Singapore:R21 | Malaysia:18SG | Australia:R | Mexico:C | Singapore:M18 (edited version) | Germany:18 (cut)

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Fineworks

Movie Connections:

References "Tetsuwan atomu" (1963)

A horror film that just doesn't grab ya'

When it comes to horror, it is my opinion that Asian cinema knows how to go for the jugular. Possibly due to the fact that they have less restrictions than North America - what with the MPAA able to make or break you depending on their rating and all. Asian cinema has no boundaries and if you want scares, blood and those scenes which have you turning your head away just to catch your breath, South Korea and Japan are two of the trendsetters in the industry.

So when the copy of Bloody Reunion was placed in my mail slot for viewing, I was expecting a slaughter of cringe inducing deaths. Instead, what I got was a relatively routine film about revenge that was watchable but did not provide me with scenes that I wanted to run to the water-cooler at work the next day to try and explain.

Bloody Reunion is about a bunch of students who go back to visit their dying teacher who, as we find out in flashbacks, was as insensitive a mentor as Don Rickles would be at a celebrity roast. The class reunion takes place some sixteen years after they all left the school and each of the former students have a moment of screen time to explain to us why they are so angry (then why did they go back?).

As we would hope, once everyone is settled, the killing begins and like most horror films, anyone who leaves the pack and goes somewhere on their own is pretty much done for.

The killing in the film is a mixed bag. Someone is forced to eat razor blades which is somewhat cool and original. Yet another gets an office desk utensil applied to their eyeball and the third gets his tortured by ants running into in through his ears. I couldn't help but think of the ceramic 'Hear no Evil. See no Evil. Speak no Evil" monkey's that I have sitting on my end table upstairs as each of the three victims were paraded out in gruesome form.

The whole movie is actually a flashback with a detective trying to piece together what happened to the poor young visitors to the cottage. All signs lead to a deformed child that was the property of the teacher back when they were all children. Looking like the son of the monster from The Goonies, this poor kid wore a paper rabbit's mask to hide his hideousness. As the story is described to the detective, the killer also donned a rabbit's mask. Hmmmmmmmmm.

I wanted to enjoy Bloody Reunion and with quotes such as "The best Korean Horror film in years" and "The best slasher pic to come along in a while.", I was more than expecting the ho-hum response that it solicited out of me.

To note, it wasn't a complete disaster. The killings were more original than anything produced for the North American mass audiences and the ending is somewhat interesting even if it is unnecessary.

On a whole though, I can't give the film a recommendation. There are just too many better Korean horror films on the market and this one failed to make its mark.

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