Gawi

This South Korean thriller can't claim much originality in its basic story. A group of young adults are linked by a guilty secret from their college days. They start being haunted by visions of someone who was killed accidentally several years before, and begin dying violently themselves. The idea dates back to at least 1980 (PROM NIGHT), and more recently formed the basis for I SAW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. But writer-director An Byung-ki, evidently familiar with Italian gialli, maintains interest by giving the plot a quite convoluted structure plus several bizarre twists and turns as the film progresses. The influence of Dario Argento is specially noticeable. Mr. An also invests the story with enough ambiguity that, until the last scene, we're not sure whether the vengeful ghost seen by the characters is for real or simply a projection of their guilt.

The young cast generally furnish convincing and underplayed performances. Particularly noteworthy are Kim Kyu-ri as a psychology major and Ha Ji-won as the film's enigmatic nemesis. The picture's mood of unease is greatly enhanced by imaginative lighting, smoothly gliding camerawork, sharp editing, and a varied but never intrusive score. KAWEE successfully continues South Korea's recent emergence as a new force in the psychological horror film sub-genre.

Westerners can catch this movie on VCD or DVD under the titles NIGHTMARE and HORROR GAME MOVIE. It's highly recommended.

'Nightmare' is only the second Korean horror movie I have seen. The first was the overrated 'The Eye', which many people seem to love (I don't). Personally I enjoyed this less known supernatural thriller a lot more. It owes a huge debt to classic American slasher movies of the past, but they themselves were inspired by Italian giallo, so it doesn't really matter who did what first, as long as it entertains. And this very effective thriller does that. I can see certain superficial similarities between 'Nightmare' and the much hyped Japanese horror film 'Ringu', but the approach is quite different, and I think this is the better of the two movies. The story concerns a group of school friends hiding a secret from the past, which comes back to haunt them. Standard horror fare true, but 'Nightmare' makes this familiar material worth watching just the same. And having a few very cute Korean girls among the cast certainly does it no harm! Worth a look, it's better than you'd think.

"Gawi" (aka Nightmare/Scissors/Horror Game Movie) was Byeong-Ki Ahn's first horror film. It's a decent, if unoriginal attempt at horror, and is somewhat effective. Then again, this movie is chock-full of flaws.

First is the lack of coherent continuity. The movie confusingly switches from the past and present without warning, and has quite a few badly-placed flashback sequences. The next thing is the complete lack of originality. There is not one but TWO long-haired vengeful female ghosts, gory deaths reminiscent of every other slasher in the world, an ending clearly jacked from every other sequel-promising slasher. The last thing is how ineffective it is: yes, it is effective to a degree, but not as scary as it could have been. Having said all that, "Gawi" does have a few good twists along the way, and I must say, a fairly gripping mystery story going for it.

If you like slashers, or liked the director's later movie "Phone", this is recommended.

My rating: 6/10

I'm afraid that I didn't like this movie very much. Apart from a few saving graces, it's nothing to write home about.

J-horror has boomed for the last five-six years but the films themselves have on more than one account been repetitive and carbon copies of a previous success. This is one of them.

Basically this is a supernatural slasher movie. The beginning is promising with chilling scenes from a morgue where a dead girl has her eyes graphically sewn together, but soon after opens them. However, after that, it's quickly downhill for this flick.

To be kind I will start with the things I like about "Gawi". On the plus side, the visuals are gaudy and the movie looks great for it's type. For those who like their horror movies gory there are a few nicely executed (no pun intended) murder scenes. We also get a few good suspense sequences/set-pieces.

However, there are quite a few drawbacks also...

First of all, and my major complaint about this movie, is that the plot skips and jumps forwards and backwards in time with an alarming intensity. Usually that's not a problem for me, but here, where the students look exactly the same no matter what age they are, I was confused on more than one occasion.

The performances are okay I guess (a little hard to tell when you don't know the language), but seem a little stiff. And for a horror movie, I don't think it was scary enough. For a while I was quite bored actually.

Being a fan of giallo movies, I was expecting quite a lot from "Nightmare", but unfortunately I was quite disappointed.

The story premise isn't new: three years after a group of college friends drive a girl with Sadako-like powers to kill herself, they all start dying violent deaths. What's unclear until the final act is whether the spirit of the deceased girl has come back to wreak her revenge, or whether one of the group has cracked up and is committing the murders themselves.

Fans of Korean cinema may remember lead actress Gyu-ri Kim as the Jessica Alba lookalike in "Whispering Corridors" (aka Yeogo Goedam) and she turns in another fantastic performance here. All of the cast members do, in fact - with Ji-won Ha as the Sadako-like girl mentioned above particularly impressive in the flashback scenes. Director/Writer Byeong-ki Ahn, who went on to direct "Phone" in 2002, shows a competent hand at direction with a few excellent set pieces and some genuinely spine-tingling suspense. If you manage to avoid jumping at least three times during this film, you're a braver soul than I!

NIGHTMARE's shortcomings come in the plot department, with a few plot holes and convoluted story strands making it hard to follow at times. You're also not sure whether it's a slasher pic or a ghost story - but that's intentional, I suppose! Watch out for the final twist at the very end - it completely turns the rest of the film on its head - which, although out of the blue, at least leaves the viewer in no doubt as to what's happened.

Had this been a little easier to follow throughout, NIGHTMARE would be getting my highest recommendation of 5 stars. As it is, though, fans of Asian horror shouldn't be disappointed and - although it's no RINGU or THE EYE - there's plenty to keep the average horror fan entertained. ***.5 / *****