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Dir. Park Ki-Hyung
With horror, it is case of
comparing apples to oranges in terms of preferences. I appreciate my lurid
cinema, with (obviously) fake gore every ten minutes, and other times I prefer
a slow, methodically paced ghost story. Part of a five film series, individual
narratives but with the same theme of all-girl schools, Whispering Corridors is a very thoughtfully paced film. A teacher
is found hung on campus of an all girl's school, but as the viewer sees before
the characters, there is a clear supernatural prescience at the place, one
which openly targets teachers who practices cruel and strict behaviour on their
students. With an alumni returning back to investigate what has happened, the
film is far more a drama for most of its length. An hour or more passes before
the supernatural horror content of the movie reappears, the greater horror
within the film more the pressure and cruelty within the school. Bullying, especially
from the teachers, strict hierarchy and teaching methods, and the emotions felt
by the female students as young adults and teenagers. The film gained a lot of
controversy in its home country for its negative depiction of the schooling
system; while I have no real knowledge of the South Korean schooling system,
the fact this film even existed, becoming a box office hit, would automatically
suggest there are real problems with a country's education system, from some
individuals' perspectives, even if the depiction in this is not that common. Like
a few Japanese genre film, schooling appears to be depicted as harsh and unnecessarily
brutal at times in Asian cinema, more than in the West, where it chews up
teenagers rather than lead them to becoming adults of moral rigor, although it
is a universal problem that is translatable to any country. It can translate
from Another Brick In The Wall being
sung by Roger Waters to something
much more serious like this. |
| From http://www.craveonline.com/images/stories/2011/2012/December/Film/Terror% 20Cult/Korean%20Ghost%20Stories/Whispering_Corridors.jpg |
Most of Whispering Corridors is dramatic than horror based. It's superior as
a drama in that there isn't any pretention to it. No arch acting suggesting its
importance. No overburdening music. No attempt at being realistic or, even with
Whispering Corridors' real critique
of education, any attempt to see itself as vital and desiring to change social
norms, merely pointing it out in a narrative. None of the hysterics or self
importance that causes me to run far away from any dramatic film that has had
an Oscar, a Golden Globe, most film festival awards or high praise from film
critics. This film is well acted, emotionally engaging and sincere with its
message, whilst heavy handed occasionally, still a horror film and never
becoming preachy. As a horror film it thankfully follows the motto "less
is more" that films that try to be moody can fail miserably at; as some
films are better following the motto "more is better", it's only a
problem when a ghost story that is trying to be eerie descends into loud string
sounds in the score and quick editing. This film is slow paced, building up its
mood through the quiet dramatic scenes, and when there is a moment of violence,
it's not too over the top but is still considerably nasty. It can be taken
seriously without becoming pretentious.
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The director also has a knack for
using practical effects or using the tools for making films for the horror. Editing,
camera angles, even the use of jump cuts in succession after each other in one
moment, all of which add to an effective spookiness. The dramatic scenes of
school life have a darkened mood to them too, because of the issues being
tackled, the horror melding together with it seamlessly. The obvious plot point
is that the supernatural entity at the school is the result of the pressures
and educational bullying at the school. Again, the film does descend into
moments of heavy handedness - particularly with a male teacher who is a brute,
sadistic and a pervert - but it is for the most part balanced, where even a
single nasty comment is enough for the worse to happen, to the regret of the
person who said the comment themselves. Anything overly horror, supernatural,
within this never becomes jarring, not even a final moment, the bloodiest, if
not most spectacular, way to conclude a narrative, while not the exact end,
made better by the fact that everything in the film is clearly done practically
or in-camera. How quiet and methodically paced the film is gives Whispering Corridors it's best virtues;
the fact that it is for the most part a drama, which could have the horror
aspects removed from it, means that it is still engaging and never becomes a
prolonged series of scenes which contribute nothing but empty self importance. That
it is a horror film is good in that the material is both taken seriously and is
spine tingling when need be.
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| From https://www.asiatorrents.me/imgz/images/w13.png |
Abstract Rating
(High/Medium/Low/None): None
Nothing particularly 'abstract'.
It's moody and eerie, but it's a narrative film with a conventional structure
and tone. What's interesting is how it's told the narrative.
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| From http://s2.dmcdn.net/APzFh.jpg |
A Cinema of the Abstract movie?
As a film for the site's main
subject, no, but as the kind of film you'd hope to see, absolutely. What feels
like one of the more commercial films covered so far in this series didn't mean
that it would be typical, in its subject matter or how its told. It's amazing
to say that you don't get as many films this quiet and subdued in tone. The
other films I have seen, Wishing Stairs
(2003), while somewhat flawed, is just as interesting and good, using the
same virtues this film had to its advantage, and generally I'd like to see the
two other entries in this franchise whenever possible. These films didn't get
as much acclaimed in the West either
when it came to the growing interest in South Korean cinema, more interest held
for the more violent and action packed entries, a shame because something like
this in particular is just as interesting.
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