The Wig

If you'd know me by now, I take my pick of horror flicks depending on my mood. I'm game anytime for zombie films, might take a little persuasion with vampire flicks, ghosts and goblins I might like too. The Hollywood movies that is, heavily laden with effects, and most of the time compensated with gore. I haven't watched an Asian horror movie since The Ring, and now have taken my first plunge with The Wig.

Oh OK, it's all about the chicks again. Dark Water had Jennifer Connelly, Skeleton Key yesterday had Kate Hudson. In The Wig, we have two beautiful (actually in my opinion, one only) sisters Ji-hyeon (Yu Seon) and Su-hyeon (Chae Min-seo). Su-hyeon is suffering from leukemia, and isn't given too long to live. Her sister Ji-hyeon takes it upon herself to care for her until the end, which isn't expected to be too long. We see sisterly love abound after a cheesy start to the movie, and Ji-hyeon presents a wig for her sister to cover her bald head, the side effects of chemotherapy.

Of course, the wig's possessed by a spirit (hence the obvious title), and therefore takes over the life of Su-hyeon. She seemed to rapidly recover without the aid of drugs, and has a sudden lusting towards her sister's ex-boyfriend Ki-seok. Attitudes and habits change. You can experience the occasional standard horror fare like dream sequences, hallucinations, sudden appearances, pesky cats, dark corridors, creepy attics and the likes. Familiar territory for horror buffs.

So it's left to our heroine Ji-hyeon to quickly discover the whos, wheres, and whys, before it's too late to save her beloved sister from the devil. I suppose with most formulae, this discovery always ties down to the various characters in the movie, and their back-stories. It might interest you that Ji-hyeon didn't speak throughout the movie, as she was injured in an accident, so don't expect a lot of screams from her to raise your goosebumps.

But the main back-story, once revealed, is actually quite sad, especially the scenes after the revelation. It might be brief, and it might just bring out a tear or two from some sensitive audience. A slight twist at the end too when they tie up some of the subplots, which might raise some eyebrows, but only after a few cheap scares by the filmmakers.

And yes, I'll make it a point to peek under the toilet seat for the next few days. Gee, must every spirit from horror movies start to appear from everyday objects? Handphones next, anyone?

Like other critics here, I'll invoke the names of some Korean movies that, similar to Gabal, have a special "shine" to them: Bunshinsaba, Tale of Two Sisters, and especially 4 Inyong Shiktak (Uninvited). Like those flicks, Gabal (The Wig) has that special "it."

What do I mean? Well, the emphasis is on characters, characters the viewer cares about (I did my fair share of both weeping and recoiling while watching); there's a dreadfully heavy sadness draping the entire affair; there's a palpable feeling of helplessness, of futility. And you simply HATE to see these already world-weary characters wrapped in such a futile, and almost randomly violent, circumstance. This is not a movie about a possessed wig leaping off the floor and strangling people. If you're looking for silly Halloween fun, hit the road. In fact, the movie really isn't about a wig at all. It is about how our fragile bodies are susceptible to diseases, like leukemia, that no one deserves to suffer. It is about how our fragile minds are susceptible to false hopes, and about how manipulative, and downright evil, we can be when we are in relationship with other human beings.

The movie confronts forced silence (one of the characters cannot speak, and her voice, when she forces it, sounds like scraping metal or a painfully squeaky door hinge). It confronts death, not in a glamorized way, but a kind of death that is a "wasting away" in an antiseptic hospital bed. The lead character's struggle with leukemia and chemotherapy, and her consequent downward spiral into a supernatural nightmare as she wears a possessed wig to cover her baldness, reminded me, wistfully, of Mann, the main character in the first Pang brothers' movie, Eye (a franchise that has simply gone down the toilet).

As a somewhat jaded viewer of horror movies (I suffered through the remake of The Fog a few weeks ago—MEA CULPA!), I am so surprised and practically gleeful when I come across a serious-minded, carefully crafted, complex horror movie that has that special "it," that ineffable substance that is a mixture of artistically presented dread, sadness, loss, and threat--of course with a few jump scares thrown in for good measure! This movie speaks and lives its dread, perhaps not as loudly or as skillfully as 4 Inyong Shiktak (Uninvited), but it comes damn close.

At first I felt annoyed because finally they did a movie out of long black hairs, which was prevalent in a lot of Asian horror movies after "the ring" came out. Titles include The Dollmaster, The Phone, Ju-on or The Grudge, Tale of Two Sisters and so and so forth.

The story is about a young woman who has gone past chemotherapy and is currently trying to live the life she never had. Her elder sisters life was also affected not only because her sisters terminal illness but because she is the only left to take care of her younger sister and she cant go on with life and get married and start a family.

Chi-Hyon, the elder sister, decided to buy a wig for her younger sister, Suh-Hyon, who almost automatically improved overnight after wearing the wig. Then the trouble started.

The film was also a bit longer than I expected, all of which were enough to let the audiences feel empathy for Suh-Hyon (the cancer survivor) as well as get mesmerized by her long silky black hair, which of course has the lead role in the film. Chi-Hyon, her elder sister, was also portrayed as ever caring and slightly on a martyr level, leaving the audiences to feel annoyed and at the same time pity Suh-Hyon.

This movie is internationally called "The Wig".

The movie pamphlets, posters and TV commercials for ''The Wig" (Scary Hair), a horror film centered around a demonic hairpiece,'' do not do this psychological shock-horror movie justice.

Although there are underlying sexual politics at work in Director Won Shin-Yeon feature film debut, they did not warrant billing the film as just a common variety summer sex tease. Someone should have told the promotion team that shock-horror also sells, and ''The Wig'' delivers with several frightening instances. Though the deeper psychological elements were weakly executed by the novice director, he can be excused considering he had but one demonic wig to work with.

That demonic wig is not just scary-looking, it moves, too -- even flies. Some of the movie's more startling moments derive from the animated hairpiece leaping out at our moody heroines. The long dark coiffure goes from spooky, to haunting to, at length, murderous...

The wig is a gift that Chi-hyon (Yu Son), who later has her vocal chords ripped from the back of her throat in a automobile accident, gives to her younger sister Su-Hyon (Chae Min-So), who loses her hair via chemotherapy. The wig is possessed, fabricated from the hair of several dead women, the audience is only belatedly informed, that is why the wig revitalizes her cancer-ridden body, and soon takes over her mind.

The movie should do better than expected. Despite the anemic air-conditioning at a theater in downtown Jaffna on a sultry evening, the teenagers in the audience laughed and screamed with the characters on the screen, giving the impression that the film may overcome its bad marketing.

Won first received artistic recognition for his grand prize-winning film short ''Puppy for President.''

I had high hopes for The Wig, after-all, South Korean horror is often as entertaining as it is spooky. It is true, this particular feature does have a number of great jump scares, for we are rarely able to predict what we are soon to encounter, and though the title may influence viewers to suspect the malevolent presence is tied directly to a collection of hair, this isn't always the case. Seeing the wig moving on its own accord, though peculiar, offers a further layer of disturbance, the film's opening setting the tone for both the oddness of the film, and the spontaneity of the spooky moments. Though very character oriented, and despite the adept acting talents of the leads, what unfortunately forbids The Wig from being comparatively great to other genre films, is the narrative.

The lacking chronological order is not what nefariously affects the film so much, as it is the handling. Rarely is warning given when a precursor to the film's back-story is shown, and initially I experienced difficulty trying to ascertain where the past concluded and the present began. Moreover, on many an occasion, prior events occur in quick flashes that neither assist in developing or contextualizing characters and the plot, significantly more depth being needed to accentuate these pivotal explanations.

This aside, the audience is able to exhibit an emotional reaction towards the two female leads, who are equally sympathetic characters, themes of hardship, infidelity and betrayal heightening our feelings. Ji-Hyun (Yoo-Sun) is a young woman, who, after a traumatic accident, suffers considerably, her heartless former paramour Ki-Suk (Bang Joong-Hyun) regarding her with considerable disdain. Though emotionally fragile, and largely alone, Ji-Hyun dedicates much of her strength to helping her recently discharged sister, Soo-Hyun (Chae Min-Seo), who, despite chemotherapy, is inevitably on the verge of losing her battle with leukemia.

To help ensure her sister's final week is spent in happiness, Ji-Hyun purchases her a wig, the originally sickly Soo-Hyun immediately exhibiting a positive physical transformation, alongside the admittance she feels remarkably better. However, Soo-Hyun's initially sweet, familial personality begins to adversely change, the vindictive, possessive persona that begins manifesting itself being tied to the apparition, whose hair was used in the construction of the wig.

Though the ambiance throughout the feature efficaciously coincides with the genre, one of the film's scariest moments is when Ji-Hyun's search for answers leads her to the abandoned factory where the wig was made, the shadowy corners, body-less heads of mannequins, and large quantities of jet black hair, making for a genuinely unique and creepy environment. The unsettling atmosphere however is marred by plot-holes. Towards the end, without explanation, characters are miraculously transferred from one location to another, while the inclusion of repetitive scenarios takes away from the originality and entertainment. Though there are some violent images, a couple of which employing a significant amount of blood, the feature also possesses mature themes, including suicide and homosexuality, these potent social ideas being refused the generous screen-time they deserved.

Finally, the film's ending is guaranteed to shock, heightening the feature's capacity to emotionally draw viewer's into the story, though the still lacking answers from the remainder of the film, alongside unanswered questions instigated by the conclusion, will undoubtedly leave viewers with a desire for more.