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 nother day, another Korean horror film set in an
all-girls high school, involving kids with psychic abilities, long-dead
former students who returns as ghosts minus the desire to comb their hair,
an evil school bully clique, young and sympathetic, but very ineffectual,
teachers, and finally, the old curmudgeon school officials hiding a deadly
secret. "Bunshinsaba" (aka "Quija Board"), the latest
from avowed horror filmmaker Byeong-ki Ahn (of "Phone"
and "Nightmare"
fame), is so devoted to the tropes of the genre that you almost have to
wonder if Byeong-ki even bothered to write the script, or if he just grabbed
one of the scripts from the "Whispering Corridors" franchise and
changed the names.
Whatever the case, this is
certainly a case of "been there, done that," although you do have
to wonder about the Korean obsession with pretty teen girls in high school
uniforms. Oh wait, nevermind.
Our familiar horror tale opens at night at the
all-girls school, where a trio of bullied students, led by defiant
transfer student Yu-jin (Se-eun Lee, "Bloody
Beach"), calls upon the dead spirit of a former student name Kim
In-suk (Yu-ri Lee), who died 30 years earlier under mysterious
circumstances, to exact payback on the brutal clique that has been
bullying them. The ghost does indeed appear, and soon two of the bullies
are found dead, bags over their heads, and their faces burned to a crisp.
Is the ghost of In-suk back from the grave for vengeance, determined to
right the wrong that was done to her 30 years ago?
Well of course she is. They always are in these
movies. Haven't you been paying attention?
"Bunshinsaba" is so unconcern with
appearing original that you just have to tip your hat off to it. Or do
you? From the plot synopsis and general film outline, it's obvious from
frame one that this is a derivative film meant to cash in on the recent
wave of Korean horror. There's nothing here that can even be mistaken for originality, and as such, the film plays out as you would
expect it to, although it's curious to note that even after two of their
own has ended up dead, the bullies really seem unconcern that they're
going to be next. These girls are so clueless, in fact, that even after
their attempt to kill Yu-jin fails, they still continually harass her.
Apparently admittance into this particular school clique means destroying
your brain cells.
The saving grace of "Bunshinsaba" is Se-eun
Lee, with her big expressive eyes and soulful looks. Yu-jin's struggles
with the curse, and what she has -- or may have -- done without her
knowledge is what makes the film worth watching. The rest of the cast
belongs in a "How to Make a Korean Horror Movie Set in an All-Girls
High School Without Really Trying" manual. Everyone is an archetype
drawn up to perform their specific purpose, and no more. If it sounds as
if I have no respect for the movie's script, then I've done my job,
because it's hard to respect a script that is so unambitious as to be
condescending. When a filmmaker goes to such great lengths to not
try, one can't help but feel a little angry.
Rounding out the cast is Gyu-ri Kim as the new
teacher who immediately gets in trouble when, on her first day of roll
call, she reads out In-suk's name. Kim, who has been in the similarly
themed "Whispering
Corridors" and the director's "Nightmare", plays so
stringently to type that Byeong-ki could have cast a monkey and it
wouldn't have made a different. Actually, that's not true. The monkey
would have brought more enthusiasm to the role. Aside from Se-eun Lee,
Gyu-ri Kim, and Seong-min Choi as a sympathetic male teacher, the rest of
the schoolgirls flash by in a blur of schoolgirl uniforms and grunting
male school officials.
As with all Korean horror films,
"Bunshinsaba" excels in the visuals department, thanks to the
big-budget Hollywood gloss most Korean films can pull off without breaking
a sweat. The movie's best moment is a brief sequence on a barren highway
at night. But even this standout sequence is inspired by other Asian
horror movies where the ghost crawls out of various objects (a TV in
"Ring", a
puddle of water in "Dead
Friend" (aka "The Ghost"), and mirrors in "Into
the Mirror"). Alas, in a movie this lacking in surprise, this
minor thrilling moment only serves to remind the audience just how
by-the-numbers the rest of the movie is.
The American slasher films stopped being frightening
when the 1,000th maniac slasher appeared onscreen wearing dirty
overalls, waving some kind of killing instrument, and wearing a plastic
mask. Similarly, the Asian horror film ceased to be "new" when
it refused to innovate, and simply repeated the tropes of its genre ad
nauseam. The result is a movie like "Bunshinsaba", which has the
budget to make something good, but instead seems unconcern, or unwilling,
to even make an attempt. As such, you won't find an Asian film more
generic, derivative, and uninspired as "Bunshinsaba".
Hollywood gloss can only get you so far, as Hollywood
itself has come to learn after decades of making sloth for the general
masses. The Koreans are quickly learning that lesson now, as more and more
cinemagoers around the world become used to the conventions of the Asian
horror genre, and will eventually come to find them as stimulating as the
umpteenth "Friday the 13th" sequel. If the genre is
to survive, innovation is quickly needed. Alas, Byeong-ki Ahn and company
are not the harbingers of newness, if "Bunshinsaba" is any
indication.
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