Face

A killer is kidnapping, mutilating, and melting young women. The police are baffled. Forensic sculptor Hyeon-Min (Hyeon-Jun Shin) is expected to add a face to the skull of the latest victim.

The trouble is that Hyeon-Min has had enough. With his wife dead, and his daughter in the hospital, he just wants to retire. Unfortunately for him, his latest partner won't stop pushing him. Then, there's also the ghost that haunts Hyeon-Min, and the nightmares, and the strange sounds in his head!

FACE is another wonderfully creepy ghost story from South Korea. It's filled with mystery, suspense, and supernatural terror. Highly recommended...

Let's face it (no pun intended) the best and most influential horror films from the start of 21st century came from Asia, mostly Japan and more recently Korea. Of course the influences aren't just on our own domestic horror films but on other Asian films as well. Films like Korea's FACE for example, which is really a second tier film but still one worth seeing, especially given the large selection of crap that hovers dangerously nearby on the DVD shelves as a genre fan goes out to rent or more riskily buy a horror film to watch. Given those options, I'd say this is more of a rental.

I stay away from plot synopsis in reviews as much as possible, but the one on this box is perhaps typically of this distributor, Tartan, not really what the film is about. The focus here is on a forensic facial reconstruction worker whose daughter he, and we, quickly believe has been given a transplanted heart from a donor who is really a victim of a serial killer. This premise is an excuse to see the ghost crawling on a ceiling and peeking out through the now overly familiar long straight black hair with its overly familiar blood red eyes. One scene has the little girl open her closet and act afraid, it really looks like she has a THE GRUDGE poster in her closet, it's that much alike. For all the very professionally done and controlled style of the movie and the well timed scares, the scares themselves are now mostly been-there-done-that in other Asian films. And every scene in the first third of the movie is about some kind of scare or another.

Then the movie becomes more about the mystery of who is the killer and the scares mostly go away. The wrap up of the killer's identity is a typical and slightly confused rush job. There are too many early scenes that end in a jump and too few later on for the film's own good. The well acted and ultimately important romantic subplot is fine other than the fact that the set up for it is ridiculous, really a cliche, in this case from American films, of the good natured but not too bright female assistant/side kick who eventually charms our hero into caring for her despite the fact she has no reason to be there in the first place.

First time feature director Hyun has done numerous short films and says in his interview that he doesn't see this as being any different than those. Well, yes and no, he doesn't know how to pace a feature yet, though this one isn't overlong at 88 minutes.

For a film about the rarely used and slightly controversial procedure of basically sculpting a clay face over a skull in an attempt to identify the victim, it doesn't do enough with the procedure. Where is the scene with the clay face talking or bleeding or melting? Instead we cutaway to the always exciting (not) nearby computer monitors where the CG image of the head can spin around (you see it looks more 3D if it spins around) as it has skin magically morph onto it, etc. There were opportunities here to do more original and specific scares related to the premise, than the end result shows.

Director Hyun also reveals in a rather poorly shot interview (which ends abruptly) that his intentions with this film weren't to make a brutal ghost film but a more human one. He does succeed at this, he does not however, despite his claims in the same interview, succeed at fresh horror and ghost imagery. It almost seems like perhaps someone else "got to" the film after he did, as he speaks about imagery that is not in the finished film. A bit more of this imagery is seen in two trailers (one hidden as an Easter Egg) that might have helped overcome the GRUDGE/RING elements that pull this otherwise worthy film down a notch.

The image on the cover art is striking, more so than the actual appearance of the face in FACE. Tartan's DVD presentation is all pro (though for an Asian Extreme movie there isn't much in it gore wise or exploitation wise to call extreme) with moving menu pages and the always welcome DTS as a sound option. The three separate interviews with cast, crew, director may not be action packed but they are also mostly hype free and that alone is kind of refreshing and a nice inclusion.

The surround sound is used effectively if not perhaps as much as it could have been. The music score is effective if unmemorable the same can be said of the actors' performances. FACE is a real film, not a pandering festival of ineptitude like the last 5 horror rentals I've seen. There is one interesting ghost appearance involving a type of split screen effect that you can see works even better in the trailer. Again, I wonder who's responsible for some of the final edit choices in the film, I get the feeling it could have worked better than it does.

Then again, this is still much better than most of what's out there to choose from and better than many American remakes and films "inspired" by Asia's leadership in the field.

Face is a dramatic supernatural thriller from South Korea released by legendary Tartan Asia Extreme label.

The plot revolves around quiet forensic facial reconstructor Lee Hyun-min who had some sinister strokes of fate to endure. His wife died much too soon and his daughter had a complicated heart surgery from which she hasn't fully recovered. Lee Hyu-min decides to quit his job to spend more time with his daughter and he brings her to the countryside to stay with her grandmother in a secluded area. As he returns home to grab some things for his departure, Lee Hyu-min is met by Jung Sun-young who is a new researcher at the institute where Lee Hyun-min worked before. She asks for his help with facial reconstruction of the victim of a serial killer who melts the bodies of his victims with acid. Lee Hyu-min initially refuses to collaborate but Jung Sun-young insists and explains her desire to learn from him. He is further convinced to collaborate when he feels haunted by the spirit of the victim and starts to feel guilty for not helping investigations in an ongoing case against a brutal serial killer. Just as he decides to accept the case, his daughter's medical condition worsens once again. Lee Hyu-min asks Doctor Yoon to give him more information about the organ donor but the doctor refuses due to confidentiality issues. As the desperate Lee Hyun-min barely sleeps as he spends time by his daughter's side at the hospital and tries to complete the facial reconstruction, he starts to discover unexpected connections between the serial killer case and the organ donor issue. Lee Hyun-min starts to collaborate directly with the police and also grows fond of his resilient assistant Jung Sun-young. However, nothing is as it appears as Lee Hyu-min is about to uncover more than one surprising twist.

This dramatic supernatural thriller convinces on numerous levels. First of all, the plot is quite clever as every single scene in the movie is meaningful and leads to a whole something that is even greater than its different parts. Up next, Face oozes with atmosphere. Especially the scenes when Lee Hyun-min is haunted by the spirit of the murder victim or when the lair of the criminal is discovered are particularly memorable. The characters are also very intriguing as it's easy for viewers to empathize with the lead characters and his numerous challenges while his colleague is a fascinating, mysterious and unpredictable woman who has more than one secret to hide. The acting performances match the excellent characters and especially child actress Han Ye-rin leaves a stunning impression. The directing effort is also highly commendable as the light and sound effects increase the film's gripping atmosphere. These excellent elements will make you keep watching this film until its surprising ending.

At the end of the day, Face is a movie that should please fans of romantic dramas, supernatural thrillers and East Asian cinema of the early years of the new millennium. This release by Tartan Asia Extreme includes some interesting featurettes such as the one on facial modeling employed for this film. Fans of this legendary label should certainy try to get their hands on a copy of this underrated dramatic supernatural thriller.

The very well acted South Korean supernatural thriller tells the story of Hyun-min an expert in facial reconstruction. His expertise is used by the police to help give faces to murder victims who have long reverted to skeletons. He reluctantly helps with a case that seems to be the work of a serial killer but how and why does it tie into his daughter, who is sick after having a heart transplant? What is an apparition trying to steer him to? Can Hyun-min solve the murder and save his daughter…

A slick drama with supernatural overtones is at the heart of this thriller. A bit of a twist in the end too, which I must say I wasn't expecting when it came out of left field. Excellent acting and an interesting story are punctuated by a good sound design that helps to creep you out when the time is right.

Face a solid and engaging thriller with a few creepy moments. The overall atmosphere is a bit weak since the scares are a little bit sparse and far apart.

"Face" is a detective story/murder mystery with supernatural elements and a few of the images used in recent Japanese and Korean horror movies. The protagonist works with the police reconstruction the appearance of murder victims from fragmentary skeletal remains including a few recently that have had all the soft tissue burned away with acid.

His daughter is recovering very slowly from a heart transplant and we see (but the characters don't) that some of the hearts available for transplant into patients with complications may have been harvested by other than ethical means