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| From https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KYKc486otUY/Vxu2PJDaY7I/ AAAAAAAALww/xvNI7S-8pgMpl9ZBLzpXJAL2kxdSzzzJQCLcB/s1600/DEM005.jpg |
aka. A Devilish Homicide; Salinma
Director: Lee Yong-min
Screenplay: Lee Yong-min
Cast: Lee Ye-chun (as Lee Shi-mak); Do Kum-bong (as Ae-ja); Jeong
Ae-ran; Lee Bin-hwa; Namgoong Won; Ju Seok-yang
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #2
Thanks of an immeasurable kind have to made to the Korean Film Archive who, in lieu to few
older Korean films being available on DVD in the West, have restored the filmic
heritage of South Korea and placed them for free, with bilingual subtitle
options, on YouTube in their best
quality. That the choice is both art driven but with an eye for genre is also
applaudable in the diversity it shows up, A
Bloodthirsty Killer a melodramatic ghost story in rich monochrome and rich
in style in general. At first the film reminded me of a Japanese genre film of
the period in artistic quality - the mood and eerie tone similar to many
sixties Japanese cinema - but the film soon after is very much its own unique
case when the plot gets under way.
Immediately it starts off without
build-up towards the first eerie prescience, a middle aged business man
entering a gallery only for the exhibit to be closed already and only a
portrait of a woman to be left on the wall. The film from this first scene
onwards immediately ditches any sense of doubt for the protagonist about a
supernatural force being after him, and for the viewer immediately the world
set up is beset by ghostly acts taking place in the background or directly in the
character's eyesight. Soon the businessman witnesses the murderer of a painter,
a woman of ghostly origin being the real killer, and his family being
terrorised by this same figure, a woman out of revenge on those who murdered
her. How this haunting is done is as unpredictable as you can get, from
paintings melting in a person's hand to a doctor finding himself in the
perplexing position of finding a woman's corpse that's been dead for a while on
the coroner's slab but is completely spotless from rigor mortis or decay. As the
businessman's family is haunted, the film goes into further directions as well
as the oldest daughter is taken away in a supernatural void and the grandmother
starts acting in strange ways, the family unit falling apart as the truth the
ghost's death is revealed; as this happens the best thing about The Bloodthirsty Killer is that from an
older generation of horror cinema there are no cheap jump scares but plenty of
creepy and strange images witnessed allowed to be felt slowly, the techniques
available at the time adding to the ghostliness of the sights even in their
datedness.
The film feels like a stylish art
movie from the decade in its sense of interior and exterior space, floral
wallpaper rooms and woodlands all having a sense of depth to them because of
the monochrome look. Rather than let constant exposition kill the mood created
by this, the greater acceptance of spirituality and the supernatural within
Asian countries, alongside a passion for dramatic storytelling shared between
countries like South Korea and Japan, allows this mood to be greater. The music
feels like it's from a fifties US sci-fi b-movie and when the ghost woman's
revenge is justified it takes on a further air of a Douglas Sirk melodrama, a type of film style not seen today but for
the better in context of this film's plot, refreshing in how ghoulish it is
without losing its elegance.
The film also has moments which
stick out for how creepy they still are in a film about a family becoming
undermined by the guilt of the past, particularly when the grandmother
possessed by the ghost woman's beloved cat starts acting sinisterly and licking
the remaining children's' cheeks and necks as they sleep. The tone could've
easily become silly but the heightened style of the movie in emotions and
visual content makes sure this type of content works perfectly. What caused the
vengeful ghost to exist is as bleak and damming of humanity as the kind of back
stories found in a lot of modern horror films but significantly this never becomes
pretentious or sluggish in presenting the story; instead, with a willingness to
become exaggerated in the melodrama as with its aesthetic style, it feels as
much a story that could be found in an old folktale as it is a modern story. Even
with a happy ending the film feels timeless and could've easily been transposed
to a medieval Korean setting without none of the jealously, betrayal and weird
poisons feeling out of place.
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| From http://fims.kofic.or.kr/common/mast/movie/2015/ 09/839622ed87ef48f588eab4773a3d09ed.JPG |
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