A small class reunion takes place in a countryside cottage where a group of students meet their teacher for the first time in 16 years. But the reunion soon turns into a nightmare as hidden truths and old grudges are revealed, and one by one the students are being brutally murdered by some mysterious killer.
To Sir, With Love is the kind of Korean horror movie that I've been waiting around for, and while I hadn't completely lost my interest in Korean horror, this movie sure proved that they can still impress the hell out of us on the horror front over there. I mean, lately or that is for the last couple of years we haven't really seen anything that fantastic and most horrors to have come out of the country, even if they have been all right on some level, have basically just been repeating themselves. I thought Red Shoes, Cello, Apartment, Arang and so on and so forth were all ok, but didn't really work wonders from a horror point of view. So I'm happy to say that To Sir, With Love really did work wonders, and brought something completely different to the scene than just the usual long-haired ghost kind of thing.
In fact, there are no ghosts with long black hair in To Sir, With Love and it surprised me in a really good way that the movie turned out to get away from that whole ghost concept and instead deliver a nasty and raw slasher, but that at the same time it had that unique Asian horror feel to it. When I say slasher I also mean slasher, but don't think a la Friday the 13th or anything like that. Sure, it has similarities with those kind of American slasher type flicks, but while they're usually entertaining but dumb, this was entertaining, scary, clever and is the rawest thing since Saw.
 
Story-wise it goes something like this: Some students get together at their old teachers countryside cottage to have a class reunion. Everything seems to go well at first and everyone feels sorry for their beloved teacher who has gotten quite old and really sick. As the movie moves forward, we learn that the teacher had a son that was disfigured and that she kept him in the basement of the house, away from other children. We also learn that she wasn't actually a nice person while she was teaching, and that all the students who has gathered for the reunion seems to suffer in different kind of ways for the way their teacher behaved. We get to know more and more about what the people really feel and learn a lot about what happened back in the day. And if that wasn't bad enough, there's someone going around and murdering the former students, one by one, in brutal kinds of ways.
What really surprised me with this new kick-ass flick wasn't just the fact that it had a slasher theme to it, but just how brutal it was. Some scenes were actually really hardcore which was great to see since when watching a slasher flick you pretty much watch it for one single reason, and that is to see people getting slashed. To Sir, With Love showed absolutely no mercy and had some truly raw moments to offer which made you think about flicks like Saw. But while most slasher flicks are entertaining but most of the time never that clever, this one also had a genuine horror feel to it along with a complicated twist. To be completely honest, everything didn't make perfect sense to me and I'm not sure I understood everything that happened, but it sure gave me something to think about as well as it truly gave me back my hopes for future Korean horrors.
You don't need to be a big Asian film buff to enjoy To Sir, With Love, since it basically had something to offer for all horror fans out there, whether you're into Asian or Western horror. It played out like a smart slasher type of flick but had way more to offer than just the old tired slasher concept. It also gets extra points for being really raw and intense at times, as well as it looked brilliant, was well acted and had an interesting story. Highly recommended, don't miss out.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Seu-seung-eui Eun-hye, To Sir With Love
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Im Dae-woong
WRITING CREDITS: Park Se-yeol
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Oh Mi-hee, Seo Yeong-hee, Yeo Hyeon-soo
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 93 min
RATING: 9/10
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