Hayanbang

UNBORN BUT FORGOTTEN lacks originality to the nth degree. It is nothing more than a retread of every post-RINGU movie that's come out of Asia in the last 5 years or so. The film actually exchanges "videotape" with "website" and there you have it. Aside from the usual flattering South Korean aesthetics, there's nothing here for anyone looking for a good time. It is, in a nutshell, OLD.

3 out of 10

"Unborn But Forgotten" is essentially a Korean horror movie that on the surface seems to be nothing more than a rip off of the Japanese "Ringu" movies. But once you get further into the plot, it is revealed that the movie is more than just so. Think "Fear.com" mixed with "Ringu" and "The Unborn", then you have the end result that is "Unborn But Forgotten".

The story; women die approximately two weeks after they have logged into a mysterious web page that draws them in and lets the women have a scene of their own deaths. But just before dying the women becomes pregnant, even though they weren't pregnant prior to dying. Han Su-jin (played by Eun-ju Lee) moves into the apartment where a woman died, and cyber detective Lee Seok (played by Jun-ho Jeong) is on the case. What is the reason behind this mysterious, supernatural deaths?

For a horror movie, I found "Unborn But Forgotten" to be rather dull, there were the odd moments where the director tried to spook you with a shock scene, but it didn't really mount up to anything grand. I am not saying that it is a boring movie, far from it. It just wasn't scary. If anything, then it was intriguing and thought provoking.

The movie is nicely shot and well edited, and there is a great production value to it, which really helped the movie along. Plus the acting performances were really great. I can't recall having seen either Jun-ho Jeong or Eun-ju Lee prior to this movie though.

"Unborn But Forgotten" is not your average Korean ghost movie, because there is no lady in a white gown with black hair covering her face, so that was a nice breath of fresh air to the supernatural ghost genre for once. However, "Unborn But Forgotten" really didn't stand out, and there are many far better Korean horror movies available.

But if you are fed up with the ladies in white gowns and black hair covering their faces type of ghost movies from Asia, then give "Unborn But Forgotten" a chance, it might just be the type of supernatural thriller you are looking for.

A handful of pregnant ladies die on exactly the fifteenth day after they all visited the website of an uncanny abortion-clinic. Doesn't that concept sound familiar? Sure, it involved watching old-fashioned videotapes and dying in only seven days, but the basic idea of "Ringu" is shamelessly imitated here in this uninspired but still very competently made South-Korean chiller. To carry on with the plot description: all the victims claimed to have 'seen themselves dying online' and, when the corpses are found, the uterus's are immensely stretched as if they just gave birth to a baby. Investigating the case are a cyber-police officer and a female TV-reporter who – unfortunately for her – clicked on the site herself. The story of "Unborn but Unforgotten" offers absolutely no surprises, but it's still worth watching in case you're a fan of Asian horror cinema, if it were only to admire the director's style and the cinematography. The atmosphere is dark and often scary even though there's nothing going on, really. There surely are a lot of holes in the plot (big ones, too), but the film nevertheless holds your attention because the main characters are likable, especially the girl, and because multiple images are just plain creepy! The music and acting performances are top-notch as well, making it all the more regretful to see the actual plot is so dull and déjà-vu. Browsing through the IMDb, I just found out lead actress Eun-Ju Lee committed suicide at the tender age of 25. That's a damn shame, because her devoted performance is definitely one of the highlights of "Unborn but Unforgotten".

I am a huge fan of South Korean movies and find myself rooting for any movie coming from there. I am one of the few that feel South Korea has started to outpace Japan in making quality movies.

That being said, this movie was AWFUL. It made no sense, it wasn't scary, and doesn't even qualify as a cheap knockoff of"The Ring" which is what I believe they were shooting for. You are far better off with "Phone" "Koma" or the superb "Tale of Two Sisters" if you want a horror movie out of South Korea.

If you are looking for other movies out of Korea I would highly recommend "Brotherhood of War", "Joint Security Area", and the instant classic "Oldboy".

Television producer Han-Soo Jin is covering detective Choi,the main cop on a serial murder case whose victims are all women,with special interest.Choi follows the suspect through a nightclub filled with party goers,with producer Han following with her camera.Suddenly a woman on the dance floor falls to the ground.Han can't believe what she saw through the viewfinder,but during that time the woman has died.She thought she saw 'something' going inside the woman's body,causing it to swell.The investigating team are drawn deeper into the case by the discovery that all the victims had visited a mysterious website called 'White Room'."Unborn But Forgotten" clearly copied many ideas from Japanese horror hit "Ringu" and "FearDotCom".We've got another killer website which kills women,only this time it takes fifteen days for people to die instead of seven or two.Admittedly the film is well-made with all the high production values I expected from Korean cinema.There are some creepy moments and the soundtrack is wonderful.Unfortunately this is strictly routine stuff,but if you like Asian horror give it a look.7 out of 10.