VIY: A Study in Scare Tactics (from Pusan 2008)

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Category: Reviews

So, my long-overdue post is finally here. Me being Ernest Woo, one of Sam's colleagues here at The Korea Society. You may recognize me from some of the photos in Sam's previous posts. As New Media Specialist at The Korea Society, I do a bunch of outward-facing things at the organization. In the past I've worked with the New York Asian American International Film Festival and the Chicago Asian American Showcase, and the last couple of years I've been with our New York Korean Film Festival, doing a bunch more of things that I won't bore you with. Certainly working on polishing my writing craft, this being one way, so I hope you bear with me and can still gain some insight.

More importantly, this post is about a film I caught at the Pusan International Film Festival this year (yup, that's about 2 months ago now, sorry). Invited to the "Korean Film Today: Vision" section at the festival, VIY (VIY: 마녀의 관 [translates to "The Witch's Coffin]) is the directorial debut of Park Jin-sung, writer for the excellent horror film Epitaph (기담), which played this summer at our NYKFF 2008.

VIY (sometimes cited as Evil Spirit: VIY in English) is a Korean indie feature film that forgoes a traditional narrative structure to shake up the genre of horror-film -- it is not overtly centered on being a scary movie (though there are some really frightening moments) but instead functions on a multitude of levels (and three intertwining "acts") to explore how a good intelligent scary movie "works." That's how I felt about the movie, anyway. Focusing on the technical and cinematic processes that create tension, uneasiness, disgust, (and of course, at times) pure shock, watching VIY felt like a learning experience -- one that didn't bore me and was able to keep my eyes glued to the screen.

Taking inspiration from Russian writer Nikolai Gogol's short story of the same name, VIY is composed of three acts that each reinterpret the source material in different way. I won't get into too much detail about the original short story, but for those unfamiliar with it, at VIY's center is the frightening proposition of a witch (or female ghost) seeking revenge on the male seminary student that wrongfully killed her.

The first act of the film is a movie-within-a-movie, as it begins with a director/writer (Jung Seung-gil) trying to convince the studio that reinterpreting Gogol's story will make a viable horror-flick in a tense boardroom showdown. I'll just say he does more than simply state his case, he acts out "what truly makes a scary movie work" to extreme effectiveness. When he finds himself strangely drawn to the newbie actress he's cast to play the witch (the strangely hypnotic Im Ji-young), the director decides he needs to "immerse" himself to make the best of his filmstock -- as his reality and work begins to blur together. This one works though a number of horror flick conventions, including shock/surprise effects and some gore/blood making for some disturbing imagery.

The second act is in the style of a filmed stageplay, as if we were seeing a college or off-Broadway production's interpretation of Gogol's story. Sticking close to the story's setting in the 19th(18th?) century, you first notice that the the stage-actors are the same ones from the first act expertly taking upon wholly different roles and strutting their acting range. Besides the acting style that becomes a little more visually flamboyant, with theatrical physical actions, you notice the clever use of stage props (or lack thereof, as they mime most of the action), the script as it distinguishes itself from the other two acts. This act turns out to be the most light-hearted one of the three, complete with jokes and breaking the "fourth wall" to address the audience directly. While it is the least "scariest" of the three acts for that very reason, it still managed to carry the tight script with the strong performances of the actors (incidentally, it turns out some of them actually are stage actors first).

The third act is the farthest departure from the source material, and at first it's hard to pinpoint how it is linked. Part of the reason a good scary movie works is because of the mystery of what will happen next, and not knowing how this act fits works to its advantage. A graying blind musician (Jung, once again) plays piano soundtrack for a puppet theater's production of VIY, where his seminal skills draw rounds of applause and brings joy to him, able to hear the audience's appreciation of his craft. He is also impromptu guitarist for drunken noraebang (karaoke room) patrons at times. The puppets themselves are artfully made, embodying much emotion and subtlety by the actors that wield them. Sharing a cheap motel room with a younger roommate in shifts, we see this blind man working here and there to scrape by. When the worried roommate decides to shadow the musician to the puppet theater to find out what he is up to in the later hours, things are revealed to be not as they should. (If you want to spoil the film, I've written what that entails at the bottom of this post.) Details culminate into a twist ending, one of the classic elements of a good thriller, and this act (along with the first, in a way) mainly functions on creating the buildup and anticipation of mystery to its final reveal. As the act wraps up, we find the notions of what brings us joy could very well be what brings us fear.

Reading this you might think the acts are separate, but in truth, none of them actually resolve then go to the next, but rather jump at certain points to resume the story of another act -- almost riffing on each other's mood or visuals. Though none of the acts have the fast-paced action of a modern-day slasher-flick, the film as a whole is a testament to what kind of tension and unease is possible without the obvious sight of a sharp or bloodied object to bring about the reaction of fear in a moviegoing audience. By the end of the film, I had a distinct appreciation for its very ability to show an intelligent take on the horror genre. The film's structure and method is something that would make a general wider release outside of festivals and art-house circuits a bit difficult, but it is a must-see for someone seeking a good scratching of their noggins or fans of the genre seeking another perspective on it. The fact that VIY is directed by the writer of Epitaph only reinforces my recommendation. 

By this point, I have definitely over-analyzed the otherwise excellent film. Let me just close by saying, if you have the chance to watch VIY, don't pass it up.

SPOILER: 

The musician had been bewitched, performing his "puppet theater music" in his own imagination/hallucination, when in actuality he's been visiting a rundown church/cathedral (not unlike the one from the Gogol's story) and playing on a broken, out-of-tune organ. However when the roommate exposes this disturbing fact to the musician, the blind man cannot bear to rip himself away from the illusion because it is still his biggest joy, the happiest moments in his mind.