Cinderella

No, this is nothing about that fairy tale with the pumpkin coach, fairy godmother and the glass slippers, but if I were to elaborate, I would have to spoil it for you, which I won't. But don't let curiosity get the better of you, as this movie is not fantastic. It's one of those movies that start off promisingly, before betraying its audience with cheap scare tactics and an incoherent storyline. And that's real horror.

Yoon-hee (To Ji-Won) and Hyun-soo (Shin Se-kyeong) are your ideal mother and daughter. One's a successful plastic surgeon, while the other your dutiful, obedient, and beautiful teenage daughter. Their relationship is like hand in glove, so close you'd think of them more as siblings rather than parent-child. But things start to go wrong (don't they always) when Hyun-soo's friends, whom Yoon-hee has operated on, start to go berserk.

Perhaps it's a warning to audiences, and for those Koreans ladies who don't bat an eyelid when going under the knife, if news reports are to be believed. The only truly scary moments are those scenes in plastic surgery, though somehow, I thought Kim Ki-duk's Time actually had more gore when featuring and describing what goes on during the surgery itself.

It's a tale of two halves, the fist being an attempt to shock audiences with standard scare tactics, which, I admit, did get to me now and then. However, the second half degenerated the movie into mindless mumbo-jumbo melodramatics, and was quite contrived into its forcing its ideas down your throat. Some things begin not to make sense, and while attempts are always presented to explain, you probably won't buy it, not that horror movies are logical to begin with.

The leads are all beautiful, and there is a distinct lack of male presence besides the negligible cop role. But hey, I'm not complaining, though the storyline could have been improved tremendously. I'd recommend you to watch this, only if you're a fan of mediocre Korean horror, on VCD. Watch out for those face off-ish moments!

To start, I want to mention something: I have a list of "Top Ten Scariest Asian Movies". This may have been the weakest in my original list (though the 'weakest' still made the list for almost a year as a Top Ten scary-as-Hell Asian horror flick). Since I created the list, I saw the blood-curdling, cleverly-scripted 'Coming Soon' and decided it had earned a place over 'Cinderella'. I removed it, but that doesn't mean I don't want to give this creepy Korean thriller its props here.

First of all, if you love K-Horror, this deserves a look. Yes, it has one or two elements that appear in other Asian horror. I should point out that except in some extreme cases, I actually like the formula and the common images (black hair covering a face, usually with one ghostly dead eye peeking out, and the horrifying, creepy reveals of what is almost always referred to in the movie's promo materials/synopsis as 'the Dark Secret behind it all'. Usually in the last act, the 'horrifying buried past' is usually so brutal and disturbing you have sympathy for the 'Onyro' (lf you're familiar with Asian horror enough to have done a little research, you know the meaning--if not, this is a great time you to look it up) along with the fear. When handled right, the true back-story is so horrible that you kinda decide the ghost/Onryo out for revenge has every reason to come back and try to cause serious damage.

I gave Cinderella seven stars rather than the 9-10 I give to perfect, close-to-soiling- yourself in utter terror Asian horror such as Shutter and Ju-on. I took three stars off based mainly on my opinion that some parts, especially the first act, are slower than I thought they needed to be, dragging down the film and viewer a bit. The movie could have stand to lose 10-15 minutes for a tighter edit. HOWEVER… get ready for the last act of Cinderella--it pounces right at you out of the dark.

This is one of those last acts, and with a back story that stuck with me. There's a couple hints, but it turns out to be way uglier (no pun intended-if you've seen the movie you'll get the pun) than anyone imagined. I also actually started talking back to the flat screen TV a couple times (if I'd seen it in a theater and said the same things at that volume, I would have been asked by an usher to calm down) and at least once hearing myself urgently and loudly giving a character advice ("oh no, no, NO, don't, DO NOT go in there, Oh God, RUN!"). I do that frequently during really addictive, well-made, fun TV shows (True Blood, Breaking Bad, and Spartacus for example), but it's rare when I watch a movie. Yet another movie on this list where a movie-watching exception was made. Funny thing, it's usually Korean chillers like "Cinderella" or Korean crime-revenge "I Saw the Devil" and "Memories of Murder" that get me so hooked in that (more than once) almost blew off a deadline because I HAD to know what happened.

I saw that many reviewers cited the movie for being 'too melodramatic' and 'more like some soap opera'. I can see a base argument for 'melodramatic' ; fair enough,I suppose (though I personally don't agree). However, a SOAP? Jesus, really? If so, I'd like to ask what the hell kind of fu(ked-up soaps have YOU been watching? The only thing on TV right now that is a 'horror-drama' and would even come close to this claim is American Horror Story. Note: if you're a big fan of the show AHS --like I am--you'll probably enjoy this movie.

Yeah, Cinderella is no Shutter or Two Sisters (then again, nothing put on film is) but if you're looking for some Oynro-genre scares and a twist or two you didn't see coming, watch it now. There's much worse ways (and MUCH worse Asian horror movies to watch, trust me) to spend 100 minutes. As long as you weren't really planning on sleeping that night anyway….

I have heard many bad reviews about this film. I wonder why. I thought this movie was made very well. Everything was explained clearly, the storyline was very original and just great. Even the idea used in this movie was fantastic. Not all horror movies need to be scary, they just need to be entertaining. This movie, in terms of the storyline, might have even been more effective than A tale of two sisters, because the storyline is extremely clear. You know what is going on throughout the whole film. Even the ending was quite unexpected. Even this film might get extremely dramatic towards the end of the movie, there are tons of emotion of the characters very well used in this movie. This movie has a tremendously strong character development, which I personally find it being much more effective than shows such as Noriko's dinner table. I cannot understand why this film is so lowly rated. I hardly find any flaws in this film. The first half of this film was tremendously scary, especially the scene where the girl looks into the mirror and saw blood covered over her face. That scene was much more effective than even shows such as wishing stairs. The scenes during the first half of the movie are tremendously scary, though the second half was very dramatic. Hence, the building up of tension and fear was done very badly in this movie. It does not matter. This film succeeds in both being very terrifying and very touching to me. This film is very original as well. Highly recommended. Score:9/10

This 2006 South Korean horror movie is more than just your average Asian ghost movie. It also offers a nice jab at the shallow and self-indulgent phenomena of beauty ideals and plastic surgery. I enjoyed this jab at the hollow plastic surgery culture that we live in today, because it is so pathetic that people undergo plastic surgery in a vague attempt to live up to the beauty ideals set by an equally hollow fashion industry fueled by the almighty dollar.

"Cinderella" (aka "Sin-de-rel-la") is not a scary movie, not by a long shot, and definitely not by South Korean standards - if you compare it to other South Korean horror movies. But what it lacks in scares it sort of make up for in the story, and definitely do so in the acting.

If you enjoy the traditional Asian style ghost and horror genre, then "Cinderella" might be a bit out of your liking. It is not a traditional genre movie. But if you like to see something that breaks out of the pattern and brings something new to the genre, by all means spend about an hour and a half on watching "Cinderella".

Director Man-Dae Bong managed to put together an interesting movie. And although it is slow paced, it does build up the story quite nicely. "Cinderella" is a horror movie driven by a proper storyline and not by scares, ghosts and special effects.

I found "Cinderella" to be a good alternative in the South Korean horror cinema, where many other movies tend to follow a step by step instruction manual of how to piece together a horror movie.

Mommy's little girl Hyeon Su is a normal 17-year old student,beautiful enough to disregard her friends latest obsession:plastic surgery.Or maybe the lack of interest is due to the fact her gentle mother Yong Hee is a plastic surgeon.When one of her friends decides to go under the knife for a little skin revision,Yong Hee gives her more than a pretty new face.The result is blood all over the place.Seeing so many of her friends die,Hyeon Su finds comfort in her friend Seung Eun,but then she discovers a creepy secret of her mother...Some reviewers compared this film to masterful "A Tale of Two Sisters",but it's clearly not as good and memorable.In fact it's pretty dull and offers almost zero scares."Cinderella" looks slick,the acting is fine and Korean girls are jaw-droppingly beautiful,unfortunately the action moves at the snail's pace.Skip this one.5 out of 10.