The Red Shoes

First of all I must say that I am puzzled about the statement on the DVD cover; 'genuinely creepy' and 'ghostly disturbing, violent and bloody' The Red Shoes is one of the year's must-see horror films'. I just wonder if I actually watched the same movie as whomever had written that.

The story is about a pair of haunted red shoes - yeah, exactly. Enough said! The storyline was a tad too silly for me and the entire movie was just lacking a proper red line throughout the entire storyline.

The movie wasn't spooky or scary, and it managed to stay afloat and pass as semi-watchable because of the acting performances put on by the cast. But the performances couldn't really manage to lift up the movie because the story was lacking the all-important spice. And as such, this movie was a below average experience.

South Korea do manage to put some really great horror movies out there, but "The Red Shoes" (aka "Bunhongsin") just wasn't one such occurrence.

I'm in a quandary over this film. Like many other reviewers have amply illustrated here, this film is like a Korean Klone in lots of ways. It borrows moves from the Ringu play-book, the Dark Water play-book, the Ju-On play-book, The Eye play-book...please stop me. It's got a daughter and mother all alone in the world facing supernatural evil. It's got hunched-over, black-haired teens with bad attitudes and osteoporosis floating around upside-down and showing up in elevators. It's got the cheating hubby, the young love interest, the entrepreneurial "young Asian professional female" slowly losing her mind. Most importantly, it's got the requisite cursed artifact (not a wig, not a videotape, not a pair of transplanted corneas, but a swanky set of pink stilettos that a particular ghost doesn't want any mortal wearing).

BUT GOSH DARN IT, I LIKED THIS FILM! I guess it says something if I feel compelled to excuse myself for this fact, but I really did care for the characters and the serious situation they are hopelessly trapped in. Indeed, I was hooked by the grue--people getting their feet forcibly removed gets my attention. The cinematography is colorful, and artful, and top notch--as we have come to expect from Korean directors. (Did you catch those cool on-purpose-out-of-focus shots? Fuzzy weirdness...) The music is actually pretty unique--the low-key guitar ditty that recurs off and on is melodic, and personal, and not overwrought. Yes, the plot "twists and turns" in terribly predictable ways: Could our protagonist really be the guilty one? Is it possible that we might find the answer to the horrible mystery by rifling through old newspaper copy in the library? Even though we've "properly buried" the red shoes with their owner, is it possible the evil will return nevertheless to wreak ultimate revenge? When we get to the end, will the decidedly downbeat narrative actually make very little sense? Yes, you've seen--and come to expect--it all.

But, darn it, this flick is done with such panache in a very gutsy way. The characters are carefully drawn, the direction is solid. And when you get right down to it, America simply does not make films like this. I don't think America ever will again. We used to make great, sad, horror films, but not anymore. We real horror fans have got to rely on films like "Bunhongsin" to get our fix. In fact, that's precisely why I give this film the benefit of the doubt.

Sun-jae is a woman who leads a happy life: her daughter Tae-soo is learning ballet, her husband is kind and loving, she has a decent job, etc. That's all shattered once she finds her husband with another woman... Sun-jae splits, along with her daughter, and they move into a decrepit, old apartment complex. They try to live life normally, but their new "home" gets in the way, and the crazy old hag living around the building isn't helping much. One night, while riding the subway, Sun-jae finds a pair of red (okay, *pink*) shoes. She brings them home, but she doesn't realize that along with the shoes comes greed, obsession, murder, and a terrible curse bound to destroy Sun-jae's life.

I was immensely surprised by "The Red Shoes". The first thing I noticed was it's appearance: as with many South Korean horror films, the photography and visuals are incredibly breathtaking, and the music is equally great. The acting is also very high quality: Hye-soo Kim plays her character very well, showing how Sun-jae's mind is quickly deteriorating and becoming obsessed; Yeon-ah Park as the adorable Tae-soo is especially impressive, you can really tell she put in an amazing effort. All the other actors did a great job also.

Now to -in my opinion- the film's only flaw: it lacks originality. The scares are effective, there's a great Gothic creepy atmosphere, but it doesn't have many original scares. Haven't we seen the long-haired-ghost-with-back-problem too many times? What about the loud noises as jumps? We've seen a lot of it before, the only real originality in the scares is in the creative death scenes.

But, if you're not tired of the long-haired ghost story yet (like me), you'll love this.

My rating: 8/10.

Recently, there is much criticism aimed at a seemingly stagnant Asian Horror market, with increasing remarks that the genre has run out of ideas with more and more modern releases stealing blatantly from other, more successful films such as The Ring, Ju-On and Dark Water.

Whilst The Red Shoes isn't exactly an exercise in originality, 'borrowing' ideas is not the problem here. Yes, there are similarities with other movies mentioned above; we indeed have a single mother and young daughter relationship at the film's core, yes, they have a penchant for renting a dirty, run down apartment and yes, we have a cursed inanimate object - or objects - (the eponymous shoes) that reek havoc on those who encounter them.

We also have atmospheric, claustrophobic cinematography; (although epileptics should be aware that there are more flashing neons here than in an 80's themed disco). We also have decent acting, but much of this is style over substance. The film takes itself deadly seriously, but the concept of haunted footwear just plain isn't frightening.

With The Ring, the curse spread through various copies of the video-tape, but in order for the curse to spread here, we have to endure scenes of histrionic screaming women and girls trying to steal the shoes from each other at various times of the day/night - the whole thing just seems so unlikely. Not content to lend the shoes an air of supernatural mystery, the film-makers also 'treat' us to some pretty looking, but ultimately distracting and too frequent flash-backs where the shoes supposedly tragic (but ultimately dull) history is revealed.

Finally, The Red Shoes also falls very short in the scares. I watched it twice, alone, and not one of the film's attempts to chill/shock or scare me worked. All in all, The Red Shoes will prove a bitter (and expensive at £20.00) disappointment to fans of horror, who like me, expect - if not originality, then at least to be frightened.

South Korean supernatural horror (supposedly very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the same name).

Sun-jae is in an unhappy marriage. After catching her husband having sex with another woman she moves out with her young daughter, Tae-su, into a rundown apartment block. One day she spots a pair of high-heeled shoes apparently abandoned in a subway car and takes them home. Immediately she becomes obsessed with them. Back at her apartment, daughter Tae-su tries to take them from her, becoming just as obsessed. When Sun-jae's best friend, Kim Mi-hee, visits she *also* becomes obsessed with them, going so far as to steal them for herself. However, as she's walking home she's killed by an unseen force, When her body is found the stolen shoes are missing, somehow soon returned to Sun-jae. It seems that every female who comes into contact with the shoes becomes overcome with a compulsion to own them and a willingness to do anything to achieve that. Sun-jae eventually finds a link between the shoes and a Japanese dancer in 1940s Japan-occupied Korea, named Keiko; the shoes were central to a tragic series of events - which seem to have left behind a malign influence and a desire for retribution.

Actress Kim Hye-soo is very good as Sun-jae, and Park Yeon-ah is terrific as Tae-su, spending the whole movie running scared, sad, or very angry (I can't find a date of birth for her, but she looks to be about eight years old). The basic idea is promising. But the storyline is shown in such a confusing way, the film feels about 15 minutes too long, and it's unbelievably 'J-horror generic' (I realise it's South Korean). I'm happy to watch a ton of Asian horror movies about cursed objects, past wrongs, and revenge-obsessed, long-haired ghost girls - so long as they're *good*. This feels as though director Yong-gyun Kim watched all the Ring and Grudge movies, and - especially - Dark Water, and then just mixed and matched parts he liked. There's a very strong, atmospheric opening inside a deserted subway station that really raises the expectations; it's a shame the rest of the film doesn't live up to it. 5.5/10.