Réunion sanglante

When it comes to horror, it is my opinion that Asian cinema knows how to go for the jugular. Possibly due to the fact that they have less restrictions than North America - what with the MPAA able to make or break you depending on their rating and all. Asian cinema has no boundaries and if you want scares, blood and those scenes which have you turning your head away just to catch your breath, South Korea and Japan are two of the trendsetters in the industry.

So when the copy of Bloody Reunion was placed in my mail slot for viewing, I was expecting a slaughter of cringe inducing deaths. Instead, what I got was a relatively routine film about revenge that was watchable but did not provide me with scenes that I wanted to run to the water-cooler at work the next day to try and explain.

Bloody Reunion is about a bunch of students who go back to visit their dying teacher who, as we find out in flashbacks, was as insensitive a mentor as Don Rickles would be at a celebrity roast. The class reunion takes place some sixteen years after they all left the school and each of the former students have a moment of screen time to explain to us why they are so angry (then why did they go back?).

As we would hope, once everyone is settled, the killing begins and like most horror films, anyone who leaves the pack and goes somewhere on their own is pretty much done for.

The killing in the film is a mixed bag. Someone is forced to eat razor blades which is somewhat cool and original. Yet another gets an office desk utensil applied to their eyeball and the third gets his tortured by ants running into in through his ears. I couldn't help but think of the ceramic 'Hear no Evil. See no Evil. Speak no Evil" monkey's that I have sitting on my end table upstairs as each of the three victims were paraded out in gruesome form.

The whole movie is actually a flashback with a detective trying to piece together what happened to the poor young visitors to the cottage. All signs lead to a deformed child that was the property of the teacher back when they were all children. Looking like the son of the monster from The Goonies, this poor kid wore a paper rabbit's mask to hide his hideousness. As the story is described to the detective, the killer also donned a rabbit's mask. Hmmmmmmmmm.

I wanted to enjoy Bloody Reunion and with quotes such as "The best Korean Horror film in years" and "The best slasher pic to come along in a while.", I was more than expecting the ho-hum response that it solicited out of me.

To note, it wasn't a complete disaster. The killings were more original than anything produced for the North American mass audiences and the ending is somewhat interesting even if it is unnecessary.

On a whole though, I can't give the film a recommendation. There are just too many better Korean horror films on the market and this one failed to make its mark.

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Tartan's new release, Bloody Reunion (a.k.a. To Sir, With Love) is not a remake of the 1964 classic starring Sidney Poitier. It is a grimy, sadistic, South Korean foray into the slasher flick genre. In ways it is very reminiscent of early 80's Horror flicks like Jason or Sleepaway Camp. And just as those films are considered cinematic trash, Blood Reunion might also fit the same description. Fortunately for my viewing pleasure, I love Asian Trash Cinema! Bloody Reunion tells the story of a group of elementary students who return years later to visit their former teacher-who has recently took ill-in the countryside. Once the group arrives, the film briefly jumps back and forth between the past and present, showing us that this sweet teacher (Mrs. Park) had a cruel side to her. In fact as the film progresses we find out that most of her former students have murderous intentions towards the teacher. And their not the only ones with murderous intentions, as we soon find out. Someone in the group is systematically bumping off the students one by one in the most gruesome fashion possible.

That's pretty much the story, as the film's narrative kinda sputters out after the first 30 minutes and then degenerates into a slasher flick (literally). The film than takes you through a series of murders each more horrid than the next. This goes on for awhile, and if the film was just this,I would have probably liked it less. But just when you thought you've figured it out, the film twists into a way that you don't expect. And is pleasantly surprising.

The film has a lot of faults and loose ends. For one, the sub plot about Mrs. Park's deformed child never really pays off. The acting is substandard (but does anyone really expect good acting in a slasher flick?). And as I mentioned before the story kinda just stops and the viewer is left with a lot of unanswered questions. I guess it all depends on what your frame of mind when you watch it. Don't go into this with high expectations and you just might come out liking it. Also, if gore and violence aren't your thing, STAY AWAY from this film.

All in All, a decent horror flick with some genuine creepiness. Not as good as I had hoped, but it's nice to see a director depart from the long-haired ghost girl movies that Asian Cinema seems to puts out over and over

A group of adults arrive at the home of their dying elementary school teacher for a reunion. Things take a tragic turn as each recalls their true feelings for their former instructor. There are raw nerves, trauma, and grisly vengeance seething just beneath the cordial surface. What began as a happy occasion devolves into an orgy of insanity and murder!

Another classic from South Korea, BLOODY REUNION lives up to its title!...

Dae-wung Lim's 'Seuseung-ui Eunhye' is pretty much another East Asian slasher flick made in the traditional fashion. It starts off slow and drags on. For a slasher flick, there isn't that much slashing which isn't necessarily a bad thing provided that the story's good enough. But, once the slashing starts, it goes on until almost the end. The torture scenes are quite creative and well executed. Unlike the Hollywood slasher flicks, the story here has layers and at least some of the twists make sense. Yet, it's not without its share of flaws. Plot holes are abundant and the pacing is poor. The dialogues do ramble on at some point. The performances, especially those of Seong-won Jang and Mi-hee Oh are better than what one usually expects from such movies. This certainly isn't the best of East Asian horror and slasher but it's not a bad suggestion for those who enjoy this kind of stuff.

Woah. Like seriously, wow. I bought this movie at Borders Books a couple weeks ago because the cover looked cool and it's been shitting on my shelf since then building up a good weeks worth of dust before I decided to put this into my DVD player tonight and by god, I wasn't expecting to be hit this hard by this film.

This movie, no, masterpiece managed to hit me at every level possible. It was gripping, it was scary, it was gory, it was disgusting, it was suspenseful, it was daring. I haven't felt this amount of uncomfortable edgyness while watching a movie in a long time. It really scared me. The strange part about this? All it simply is is a slasher movie. At it's core, that's what the movie tries to be... But it manages to be so much more than simply your cut and dry slasher movie.

It manages to defy slasher movie convention at every turn. Instead of a bunch of assholes who you could never care about at all, this movie is casted with characters that each manage to go through their own ups and downs throughout the film and each manage to come together to form a cohesive whole of a character. They aren't cut and dry jocks or cheerleaders like you'd find in a modern, every day slasher. No, no, no. These are people, people with problems, people with lives, people who are tortured by their own lives. I managed to be gripped with each of their stories as they were told, including that of the most despicable of them.

Then the ending occurs, and really manages to surprise me. I wasn't expecting it. I thought it had already gone through it's "twist" by then, but that twist turned out to be a red herring. I'm being vague simply because, well, I don't want to spoil it for anyone else who decides to pick up this brilliant slasher masterpiece. I'd say it's the best slasher I've seen since Halloween, my personal favorite horror movie and one of my two favorite movies ever made. It's that damn good. I'm definitely adding it to my top 10 horror movie list. I recommend you all pick this up, it was one of the best damn blind buys I've ever had.