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| Whispering Corridors #5: the new one |
Looks like one of them is not gonna make it.
Scheduled for release in South Korea on June 18, the fifth instalment of the (mostly) excellent horror film series, Whispering Corridors, 동반자살, “Suicide Pact” or “Blood Pledge” is getting some buzz here and there., at a rather awkward juncture, if I may add, considering the piling number of suicides in the good Republic of Korea. To go back to film stuff, it's odd but, but... that title vaguely reminds me of Sion Sono's horror film called... Suicide Club?
Here's the official synopsis at any rate: (Something tells me we missed konglish by a hair's breadth.)
Unlike your typical, interminable American horror flick franchise (Saw being a rather spectacular instance of this utterly cynical and exploitative phenomenon, but hey, cinema is about making money too, I suppose), Whispering Corridors doesn't involve a continuing plot (or gimmick, one might say) or overlapping character - and therefore doesn't feature recurring cast members. Instead, the series
takes its name after its context, in this case the “Girls' High
School” (which is the literal translation of (Yeogo goedam, 여고괴담) in which all the bloody fun is taking place.
Part 1, as is customary for the inaugural film of a franchise, was a strong, well-written horror film that found a twisted way of inserting some scathing criticism of the Korean educational system. It pretty much set the tone and a template for the rest of the series, in the sense that they were all, one way or another, about something more than just creepy girls with long black hair. Part 2 (Memento Mori) got praised to the high heavens, a little excessively, I think. I didn't really buy the lesbian subtext/storyline, but visually, it's certainly the most interesting. I missed Part 3 (Wishing Stairs), so no comments. As for Part 4 (Ghost Voice), I liked it... as far as I can remember: it's been slowly fading from my fallible memory.
Other than that The Whispering Corridors series has been a major launching platform for new
actresses.
Part 1 featured the debuts of Park Jin-hee and Choi Kang-hie in
supporting roles, Part 2 the debut of Kong Hyo-jin Kong, Kim Min-sun, and
Park Yeh-jin. Part 3, the debut of Song Ji-hyo and Park Han-byeol. Lastly, Part
4 featured the debuts of Ye-ryeon Cha & Kim Ok-bin. Let's hope the best (and assume the worst?) for the new "batch".
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