Hwa-i-teu: Jeo-woo-eui mel-lo-di

Well I will say that I been getting more into Asian horror over the past few years. This film is by far different that most Asian Horror Films that I seen, Different in terms of the main focus of the film, which they focus around a struggling Korean Pop Band who steals a song that happens to be cursed and they become popular. You would think an idea like that would fail for a horror film right? Wrong.......... the plot for this film is well paced and horror in the film just builds up as the film goes on.

The things I really enjoyed about this film were the actresses. The Cast for this film is really attractive and good looking and fit the appearance of a K-Pop band. Plus this is probably one of the few films I saw where things weren't predictable in the plot in the horror. Also I loved the horror scenes they were really terrifying and scary, non of that cheesy Jump Scare stuff. If you jump in this film your most likely jumping out of your cloths into a shell.

Overall this film was great and of course with the main focus of the horror being a Asian Ghost Girl with long hair looking for revenge is what knocks this rating down. This movie is very recent and came out last year so I'd say give it time before it becomes more popular and perhaps gathers a "Cult" following.

"White" or "White: The Melody of Curse" has a fairly familiar premise: a failing pop idol group finds an old, uncredited song, and use it to rise to the top. However this tale of fame and fortune becomes mixed in with the paranormal: the song is cursed, fueled by the wrath of a vengeful ghost.

The comparisons with Ringu/The Ring are obvious, from the ghost itself down to the fact the song is discovered on a videotape. The movie does give a respectable effort in ratcheting up suspense, and to be fair there are a couple of effective scares.

However the real strength of this film lies in two areas. First, the story is pretty well done. While the paranormal stuff is prominent, there's also a strong focus on the characters, who are as much affected by their shifting fortunes as they are any bumps in the night. You would think once the ghostly stuff showed up, it would take center stage. Instead it runs parallel to the sudden pressures, ego trips, and bouts of jealousy of their new found fame, meshing together very well and creating a greater emotional and psychological depth than one might expect from such a premise. The film is even fairly touching and somewhat sad at points, aided by pretty good performances.

The second main area is the visuals. There is a certain flare here. It's not Argento or Fulci by any stretch, but the film does look really good. Whether it's a dark room/hallway or the flashiness of the dance stage, the cinematography and imagery are strong. Even without caring for the plot and characters, one could sit back and appreciate the look.

Is the movie a masterpiece? No, I wouldn't go that far, but it is very enjoyable, and if you're a horror movie fan with nothing to do on some afternoon, you could do a lot worse than this.

We all know the band or group that's been kicking round for a while than suddenly has that one song that throws them into the limelight, the one song that everyone buys, the radio always plays and the video views on youtube are already in the millions, well what if that song was haunted.

K-pop girl group "Pink Dolls" are a pretty second rate bunch in a very competitive field and really need an edge it doesn't matter the song, dance routine or audience they just can't seem to make a breakthrough. Then, one day, one member of the group Eun-Ju discovers a song that could turn everything around "White". The group learn the song, get some dance moves down and suddenly their fortunes change for the better and they are thrust into the spotlight that they've desired for so long. Of course as it's a horror movie they won't be living happy ever after and soon the group begins to unravel as the curse begins to take them out one by one.

the scars are sometimes pretty effective and the acting is a cut above some other Asian horror that is out there, the cinematography and editing are well crafted and the soundtrack only adds to the atmosphere.

I happened to stumble upon the 2011 South Korean horror movie "White: The Melody of the Curse" (aka "Hwa-i-teu: Jeo-woo-eui mel-lo-di"), and being an avid horror fan and a fan of the Asian cinema, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch this movie from writers and directors Gok Kim and Sun Kim.

I will say that the movie is nicely produced and definitely has a good presentation to it. However, for a horror movie it fell short of being particularly outstanding or memorable. While the movie definitely is watchable, it was hardly a gem in the South Korean horror genre. In fact, the storyline was so mundane that I doubt that I will ever be returning to watching it a second time.

The acting in the movie was good, despite the actresses had next to very little to work with in terms of a proper script and storyline, and also having to struggle with characters that weren't fully written or given much of any discernible personalities or traits.

The movie was quite generic in terms of how it was build up and executed, so you shouldn't go expecting any grand surprises or plot twists here, you will just end up sorely disappointed.

There were aspects to the movie that definitely showed potential, but it just felt underplayed as if the writers and directors weren't really following through with the ideas that they had mustered to come up with. It was a shame, because the movie never managed to raise itself from being nothing more than generic and mediocre.

"White: The Melody of the Curse" was frightfully devoid of anything overly scary, especially for a seasoned horror veteran as myself. Perhaps if you are Asian you might find some scares here and there, but trust me, don't get your hopes up.

I am rating "White: The Melody of the Curse" a very mediocre five out of ten stars.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one therefore I have to recommend it to all of you horror fans out there, looking for something nice. Here are some reasons why "White: Melody of the curse" manages to stand tall at its end:

I had my share of Asian horrors, not too many I must say but enough for an opinion to be formed. While they bring something new from your typical Hollywood scares they also kinda always circle around the same pattern, a female ghost, long hair, usually crawling in a scary way or walking on a ceiling, nonetheless you can say: you've seen one, you've seen them all. Well not really, this movie takes you outside the box a little, characters have solid builds, it shows the cruel reality of bands struggling to succeed and you get a inside look in the music industry.

Also, as many Asian Horrors accustomed us, this one also has a twist and quite impossible to figure it out, therefore if you're watching it alone or with friends, you'll get a blast trying to figure out who is behind all of it.

I guess there are more things to be said but I find it best to let you discover them for yourself, just have a little faith and patience, quite hard to be disappointed by it.