Ogsuyeog gwisin

Trying to cover herself, a reporter tasked to come up with a new story after getting her magazine in trouble comes across the strange series of events surrounding a local train station, but the more she looks into it finds a powerful curse at play and band together to stop the events from spreading.

For the most part, there's a lot to like with this one. One of the more likable aspects here is the solid setup that brings about some rather intriguing elements. The opening here with the reporter getting into trouble for her report and must now find a new article to keep her job intact serves as a decent enough way to allow for the series of accidents at the specific train station to come into her life. Learning about the mysterious deaths involved at the station and the various supernatural means that get brought up as a result of the investigation causes a rather chilling sense of dread to emerge as the revelations give way to genuine supernatural beings and curses involved, making the setup here quite likable and intriguing. This interweaving storyline comes off rather well as the layers unearthed during the investigation are logically integrated with each other to provide a strong starting point. As a result, the film generates a solid series of ghostly action and encounters. The gradually unraveling mystery in the first half involving the accidents at the station, the generally unnerving repeating of unknown numbers by the afflicted workers, and the strange markings that are found on them just before their deaths offer a wholly engrossing means of integrating into the mystery to come. With the misshapen appearance resulting in deformed facial marks, glowing eyes, and a generally inhuman demeanor alerting to the fact that something is wrong with them. It gets even more obvious when this features a series of creepy and genuinely chilling encounters with the ghost children who live inside the well which offers up a fine selection of imagery to go along with the solid storyline that had been built-up. These are all enough to generate a lot of likable points here even if there are some factors with this one that drag it down. One of the main issues here is the rather messy ending that has some convoluted ideas at play that leave some gaping logic holes. The reveal of the one party involved in the conspiracy to keep the story of the ghost kids and the connection to the local orphanage a secret makes no sense when the whole film had been a chance to uncover everything from the very start. The relationships between everyone at this point in the film would've made it next to impossible to rationalize how the story gets out in the first place knowing what the end result is. Moreover, some of the reasoning makes little sense and the whole transfer of the curse is glossed over to the point of appearing to be a shock explanation for the sake of it. This is the main part of the film that's underwhelming and holds it down the most, and along with the familiar storyline and presentation to numerous other genre efforts are what generate the flaws here.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

The Ghost Station is a rather mediocre supernatural mystery from South Korea.

While, there's nothing wrong with the acting or production quality...the story itself leaves a little room to be desired.

We find ourselves following a young journalist, whose friend witnesses a brutal suicide, at a train station he works at.

During the ordeal he sees a young child on the tracks.

So, intrigued by the incident, the young journalist decides to investigate the matter.

What follows is a convoluted investigation that leads her to uncover a dark secret, buried deep, from the past.

One which has left that particular train station cursed.

Hence the series of deaths that surround it.

Thus, what starts off as an investigative report...turns into a chance to free the trapped spirits of these lost, and vengeful, souls.

By helping them appease their grudge.

The film is clearly inspired by Japanese ghost stories like The Ring and The Grudge.

And it's a fine homage to those type of films.

But it just doesn't seem to hit as hard as it should.

So it comes off as relatively average in the end.

5 out of 10.

A straight to VOD South Korean horror film with cheap-ish production quality and noticeable amateurism. Kim Bo Ra carried the whole movie (flaws and all) and I don't have many complaints about the cast, they all performed decently. Lots of Japanese horror influence from start to finish.

A straight to VOD South Korean horror film with cheap-ish production quality and noticeable amateurism. Kim Bo Ra carried the whole movie (flaws and all) and I don't have many complaints about the cast, they all performed decently. Lots of Japanese horror influence from start to finish.

A straight to VOD South Korean horror film with cheap-ish production quality and noticeable amateurism. Kim Bo Ra carried the whole movie (flaws and all) and I don't have many complaints about the cast, they all performed decently. Lots of Japanese horror influence from start to finish.

The plot, the horror, the soundtracks, the jump scares, the acting - everything in the quality of the movie is absolutely horrible. Even if everything was not absolutely horrible, there's still nothing good about this movie. This movie also looks like a super low-tier movie; you can feel it from the first scene of the movie. Goddamn.

But above all, the most absolutely terrible aspect is the jump scares. Like, goddamn. I'd understand if the other factors were terrible because of their budget or something. But the jump scare factor is the worst. There isn't a single creative or original idea in this movie. Even if you can't find an idea on how to be creative with a jump scare, at least try to add some twist to it.

I only watched this movie by coincidence because the movie I originally wanted to watch with my family had a corrupted file. I would not recommend this.

I had never heard about this 2022 South Korean horror mystery titled "Ogsuyeog Gwisin" (aka "The Ghost Station") prior to getting the chance to sit down and watch it here in 2023. And with my love of both the Asian cinema and horror cinema, of course it was a given that I had to watch this movie from director Yong-Ki Jeong.

However, my expectations and thrills for a possibly interesting horror movie were shot down not far into the movie. Writers Yong-ki Jeong and Soyoung Lee managed to put together a rather confusing heap of a dumpsterfire disguised as a horror movie. Yeah, the movie made very little sense and it was quite a struggle to sit through it. In fact, I gave up on the ordeal with just 30 minutes left to watch. But I have to admit that by then I was ready to claw my eyes out.

"Ogsuyeog Gwisin" was a swing and a miss, and for a South Korean horror movie it was sort of a farce. I assume because it was based on some Japanese material from Kôji Shiraishi and Hiroshi Takahashi, and the translation between the two cultures didn't really pan out all that well.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "Ogsuyeog Gwisin", but I have to admit that my interest in the narrative was so vague and gradually dissipating more and more with each passing minute the narrative trotted on. So I wasn't really impressed with what I saw, but I suppose that the acting performances were adequate, because none of them stood out as being amateurish or bad actually.

There were a couple of attempts at cheap jumpscares throughout the course of the 80 minutes that the ordeal lasted for. Not successful jumpscared, mind you, but at least director Yong-Ki Jeong tried.

If you enjoy South Korean horror movies, you might want to consider giving "Ogsuyeog Gwisin" a wide berth. Trust me, it is not worth the time, money or effort.

My rating of "Ogsuyeog Gwisin" lands on a generous three out of ten stars, and that is mostly because of the production value of the movie and the cinematography.