Spellbound

Somehow Ye-jin Son's movies had impressed me earlier and this one followed; maybe its her innocent acting or attraction or charisma which binds and hooks me to keep watching. However, saying so, that does not mean the storyline and acting are not good. I mean look at her movies like A moment to remember, the classic or April Snow, all were good.

Coming back to this movie, it was a different way to represent romance refraining it getting into cliche. What also i found amusing were horror aspects plugged in which were scary in places and made hillarious in the later point of movie, like the small kids story, or her friends death etc.

I had a notion of it being another Pee Mak but its not. Instead it's different and yet entertaining. One time watch definitely.

Sorry to be trite, but I maintain: if you, with a date, are emotionally blackmailed into watching a chickflick, this is the one. It's likely that you'll both enjoy it. It's chock-full of sentimental elements, colored by the less glamourous aspects of relationships/humankind; the characters are deep with believable pathos and flaws, while the storyline somehow remains buoyant and laugh-out-loud funny. It's never really crass (a prevalent comic element of Korean cinema), and stomps all over the standard senseless romcom tropes.

Essentially, if you took "the Ring" and turned it into a romcom, you'd wind up at this sort of confusing & beautiful genre.

Maybe I was expecting too much from Spellbound, as most of the reviews and comments about this movie were possitive. However, even though it was a decent movie, it lacked some intensity for me. Plus, the romance happened kind of fast, but the progress of it was good. I also enjoyed the performances, especially from the couple, who had chemistry. The ending was good too and the scary scenes were mild, so even I, who's a scary cat, had no problem watching this one. So, six out of ten.

"Spellbound" ("O-ssak-han Yeon-ae") aka "My Girlfriend Can See Ghosts" is another one of those sure win Korean movies. There is just something fantastic about so many of the movies that come from Korean cinema, and "Spellbound" is well worthy addition to the collection if you enjoy Asian movies.

The movie is about Kang Yeo-Ri (played by Ye-jin Son) who is a gloomy and mysterious woman who, by sheer luck and chance, ends up working with Ma Jo-Goo (played by Min-ki Lee) in his Horror Illusion magic show. Ma Jo-Goo soon finds out that perhaps he gotten a bit more than he bargained for when he starts to find out the haunting secrets that surrounds the enigmatic Kang Yeo-Ri.

"Spellbound" combines three genres of movies quite nicely; being romance, comedy and horror. And the end result is a very enjoyable movie with a story that sinks into you and sticks with you. Especially because the director, In-ho Hwang, did a really good job with this movie and delivered right on the money.

The characters in the movie are well-detailed and stand out as very believable characters, and this is, of course, helped quite well along the way by the talents of the people on the cast list, who all contributed quite nicely to the movie, especially the two leads who really had great on-screen chemistry, but also great charisma on their own.

The effects are quite nice in the movie, although this is not a movie that rides high on special effects. But those put to use are really spectacular and serves their purpose quite well; be it the magic tricks, the make-up, or the ghost.

The odd mixture of romance, comedy and horror does make for a very peculiar mixture, but it worked out quite nicely, and I am very happy that I sat down to see this movie, and can strongly recommend it to any fans of Asian or Korean cinema in particular.

"Spellbound" gets a definite 8 out of 10 stars from me. Thumbs up for this movie, way, way up...

This movie will amuse you in unexpected ways. While the soapiness will no doubt bother Western viewers to some degree, it is hard to deny the charm of this film and that it tries new things. Mixing horror and romantic comedy and featuring strong acting, this film is well written, fresh, and worth a watch.I was entertained.