Whispering Corridors

Starring:Yong Soo Park, Ji-hye Yun, Jin-hie Park, Gyu-ri Kim, Yu-seok Kim, Min-jung Kim, Roe-ha Kim, Yi Shin, Mi-yeon Lee, Kang-hie Choi, Yong-nyeo Lee
Director: Ki-Hyung Park
Studio: Tartan Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

Jookran High School is an ordinary high school with its pressures and requirements for the students to conform and pursue the better education. However, underneath its seemingly normal struggle between discipline and the resistance of the adolescence lie the school's dark and dirty secrets, and a terrifying fury, which is unleashed with the death of Mr. Park, a teacher of room 3-3, whose nickname was an "Old fox". The fear for the unrest in the school forces teaches to impose a "silent regime" on students who had seen the dead body of the Old fox hanging in the school's overpass. As if it had been expected, painting the scene of death by a senior classmate Ji-oh arouses a lot of abuse from a room 3-3's new teacher called Mad dog. Amid the strange rumors that spread throughout the school, Jung-sook, who always used to be compared with the Mad dog's favorite student So-young, commits suicide, and the Mad dog himself disappears with no traces left. Meanwhile, a former senior student from room 3-3, Eun-young who a literature teacher appointed to his alma mater is molested by the words left over his telephone by the Old fox the night before he died. Eun-young finally suspects that the horrific events happened in the school, had something to do with the death of her best friend nine years ago...

Customer Reviews:

Very Confusing Suspense Movie.......2007-06-06

I think this movie would do best with Korean audiences. For one thing, all the schoolgirls wear the same clothes. Second, they all seem to have hyphenated names that are unfamiliar to Americans. Third, to both my wife and to me, they all looked 'Korean' rather than as individuals. All three worked together to keep us constantly trying to figure out which character was which. Another aspect we found very confusing was that some was told in flashbacks and some in the present, and we found it very difficult to distinguish one from the other. Finally, it seems that one girl was a 'ghost,' but she didn't look or seem any different than any of the other girls, so we didn't know who the villain was until the very end. So, we both were working so hard to try to figure out what was what that we lost virtually all of any suspense that supposedly was there. Koreans, used to seeing the slight distinguishing characteristics of other Koreans, and used to what Americans would find to be strange-sounding names, and to girls all wearing the same school uniforms and having virtually the same hair styles would probably hardly notice these qualities as they became engrossed in the story.

Korean horror is great! I love this movie!.......2007-03-26

This was my first Asian horror film to see and it was great! I love both Korean and Japanese horror movies. The girls are awesome in this movie! My favorite one is Jin-joh. I love this movie!

A minor entry in the J-horror flood........2007-01-26

Whispering Corridors (Ki-Hyung Park, 1998)

"See the film that started the J-horror revolution!" trumpets the promotional materials for Whispering Corridors. Incorrectly, of course, as "the J-horror revolution" exploded ten years before Whispering Corridors was even a gleam in its daddy's eye with Hideshi Hino and his stable of extreme-horror lunatics. Hell, Ring beat this to the cinema by a month or so, if my memory for release dates is accurate. Shinya Tsukamoto was combining anime sensibility with live-action horror as early as 1991 (and getting press on this side of the pond before any of these guys with Tetsuo the Iron Man), and horror maestro Takashi Miike had been doing his thing in V-cinema, combining the yakuza film with the extreme horror movement, for years by 1998 (the second film in his world-famous Black Society Trilogy was released that year). So I was already a bit less than pleased by the time I actually sat down to watch the movie. While it's a serviceable little thriller, and it was undeniably on the upswing of Japanese New Horror with Ring and Kiyoshi Kurosawa and that lot, it still smacks of being a minor entry in the world of Japanese horror overall.

The story is pretty simple: A new teacher at an exclusive girls' school, Jae-yi Yoon (My Scary Girl's Kang-hie Choi in her film debut), has been hired to replace one who seemingly committed suicide (though we, through the omniscience of film, know that her death was anything but). Yoon, a former student at the school herself, has a hard time exerting authority over the girls, as she sees aspects of her own school years in a number of them. Meanwhile, whatever it is that killed the first teacher seems to have developed a taste for blood, and there are no shortage of folks with not-so-pleasant characters wandering the halls...

It's okay for what it is, but it's not great. I've seen roughly half of Wishing Stairs, the third film in the trilogy (had to return it due to technical difficulties with the disc), and I have to say based on what I've seen of it that it's much stronger in every aspect. If you're a completist (though the "trilogy" aspect of these three films, which have different directors, producers, and screenwriters, is something of a stretch), check it out; otherwise, see Wishing Stairs first and come back to this one. ** ½

Corridors ...of...terror! Yeah I know thats lame.......2007-01-25

Asian horror has recently become a passion of mine. In fact, if you read my other reviews, most of the positive ones are for asian ghost stories. There's something about a good ghost story that can scare me more than anything else and there's somehting about the asian art of storytelling that usually works its magic on me and makes things Ive seen before seem fresh and surprising. Whispering Corridors is an entry into this category that ranks with some of the best I've seen. It's not the scariest,it's not the most involving, but it certainly demands a level of respect and a place among my favorites.

The plot revolves around an all girls school in which a past tragedy is given new life when one of the older teachers apparently commits suicide(The discovery of her body is one of the more chilling scenes in the movie). Most of the faculty and the students though, are hesitant to accept that this was an open and shut case, especially since rumors have been floating around for some time that the school is haunted. A young, beautiful young teacher(and alumni) has started working at the school who has a tragic connection to the places' dark past and when another teacher(a particularly stalinesque one) doesn't show up for work, questions abound. Several characters have motive, and the movie quickly turns from ghost story into a whodunnit. The answers to the questions are all intriguing (if a bit confusing) and as the movie turns from a steadily-paced moment builder into a creepfest, all the characters back stories and inner secrets come to light.

Whispering Corridors is credited in it's preview with being the true beginning of the Asian horror boom that has taken precedence over even Japanimation in this country the last few years. While The Ring is really truly credited with bringing the full-fledged asian style onto our shores, this film is marked as a major influence and ,frankly, is a scarier movie then the original Ringu. The performances are beleivable across the board, but special attention has to be paid to Lee Mi-yeon who plays the former alumni. Her performance speaks volumes without saying a word. She is able to convey all the different facets of a character who is at once vulnerable, protective of the girls still attending the school and overcome with guilt for her participation in what became the most notorious event in the establishment's history. As her story unravels, Mrs Mi-Yeon has a gravitas which transcends typical damsel in distress fare. The movie itself plays on many diffrent levels and has a lot to say about conformity, the responsiblity of power and friendship. Another aspect of the film that I enjoyed was the fact that it is a ghost story,but the ghost story unravels like a murder mystery, but a warning should be issued:this isn't a mystery in the Ten Little Indians vane, it takes its time setting up the characters and the suspense moments so patience is required. My only complaints are that at times the payoff for that build-up isn't justified, and when everyones stories start to meld together at the climax, its a bit hard to tell who is who.

Overall though, the movie plays well, is multi-layered and has some really good creep-out moments. Watching it though I couldn't help wishing I had seen it before the wonderful asian horror films that have followed so that it would seem a little more fresh. There were moments I felt i had seen before, but the movies I had seen them in were almost definatly influenced by this one, so who's copying who? Either way, Its worth a look and I will be seeing the sequals.

A NOTABLE LANDMARK OF A MOVIE.......2006-08-29

"Whispering Corridors" could have become what "Ringu" became for us. Both movies were released the same year but for some reason Japanese picture grew into a cult one while "Corridors" stayed in the shade although they share a lot not only in narration but in style and mood.

After apparent school teacher suicide a Korean boarding school for girls turns into a somewhat strange place. Rumors about this death are being spread among students although teachers do not appreciate them, some say there's an old legend of a ghost that dwells in the school, a young newcomer teacher tries to figure everything out and we observe a developing friendship between two of the girls.

It's not hard to anticipate an unexpected and surprising ending a la many of the ghost films but generally it's not what matters here. "Whispering Corridors" is open to interpretation as most of Asian movies being utterly ambiguous and many-sided. The action takes place in a closed environment of the boarding school with its strict rules and sometimes almost sadistic teachers' attitude towards students, it creates this claustrophobic atmosphere of seclusion and doom. I guess some may even consider it a homage to Dario Argento's "Suspiria". Leastwise I've had this kind of a recollection while watching. Being a social commentary on today's society the film centers mostly on feminine friendship and in Korean usual thoughtful and slow-paced manner lets us discover many things about it we might not know.

"Whispering Corridors" is very complex, maybe difficult for comprehension, it makes you think all the way during the viewing and after. It definately requires the second and possibly multiple viewings to let the pieces of this puzzle fit in your head. The film has many subtexts, it's beautiful as almost all Korean movies are, it's poetic and lingering. Don't expect to find just entertainment here, "Whispering Corridors" are more suitable for a kind of meditative viewing albeit you'll certainly come across some horror elements as well.

The explanation why "Whispering Corridors" didn't make it as successful as mentioned in the beginning Japanese "Ringu" or "Ju-on" is probably not in its content but in its pattern. "Ringu" is much more simple and transparent while "Whispering Corridors" will obviously call for some intellectual strain. But that's a part of its charm and of the most of Korean pictures' charm. And it reminds of some love affair. Once you get into it don't expect it to be a one night stand. You'll have to spend much time together to know each other and to like each other. And you'll hardly ever part. I think I'll be with "Whispering Corridors" for a very long time.

Average customer rating:

Whispering Corridors
Starring: Lee Mi-Yun , Choi Sae-Yun , Kim Kyu-Li , Kim Yoo-Suk , and Lee Yong-Nyuh
Director: Park Ki-Yong
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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