Bunhongsin

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.

'Bunhongshin' (Pink Shoes) is a fine example of the growing Korean film industry. While still lacking enough refinements for universal appeal, it still is an entertaining yarn and a fine scary movie.

A pair of bright pink shoes keep popping up on a subway line. For inexplicable reasons, any girl who sees them becomes violently attached to the shoes (to the point of beating anyone who might touch them), that is until someone/thing comes along and severs the girls feet as a penance for wearing the garment.

Visually top-notch, with nice color and camera usage. Most notable are the scare scenes; the imagery in these scenes is creepy and effective in conveying dread. Some limited optical effects and CG round out the package.

Performance wise, it's a mixed bag and where the film takes the biggest hit. Acting is suffice, but nothing special. The story just doesn't work; it is not only disjointed and uninvolved, it's also just plain difficult to understand what the hell happened in the end. As is the norm for many Korean film, the pacing is all kinds of wrong; taking way too long to make a point and dragging on way too many scenes needlessly.

For the spot-on horror imagery, 'Bunhongshin' is one to look out for, just try to ignore the scripting and pacing issues.

7/10

This is a decent adaptation of this particular fairy tale. It is about having something offered to you that you shouldn't take, aren't forced to take but by overwhelming compulsion, you take it anyway. This leads to disastrous problems because once you indulge, the item has literally become a part of you that you simply cannot get rid of easily.

I liked this for the most part. I thought the acting. costuming and effects were done well. There were some scenes that were a bit dark and that sorta bugged me. I just felt like I couldn't see enough. Nice little horror movie.

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.

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.