Yu-jin moves with her mother from Seoul to a small Korean village. She starts school there and is, together with two other students, immediately bullied by a bunch of other girls in her class. One day, Yu-jin and her two bullied friends, uses an Ouija Board to put a curse on their bullies. She tells the other two girls that, while the ritual is taking place, never to open their eyes since if you do, the ghostly spirit can enter your body. Her two friends keep their eyes closed but Yu-jin does not follow her own advise and opens her eyes. Later on, their bullies starts to die one by one, all with a plastic bag over their head which they set on fire so it looks like they've commited suicide. But things take a different turn later on, and the spirit Yu-jin summoned was a girl that were killed by the villagers 30 years ago. And all of a sudden, the whole village is in danger.
Bunshinsaba was written and directed by the same man, Ahn Byeong-ki, who gave us the Korean chiller Phone which was a great movie. Unfortunately Bunshinsaba does not reach the same level of greatness, but it's still an interesting and scary Korean horror flick. If you've seen a lot of Asian horror, Bunshinsaba may not seem that scary or have very effective scares. But it still featured some quality horror scenes, that even people who have overdosed on Asian horror may find interesting.
Best thing about this movie though was the actual story, and the pace the movie had. The story managed to stay interesting all the way through, and the very story and backstory unfolds little by little as the movie goes. It never really slows down either, and is packed with scares and ghostly images from start till finish. Even though half of them or more may not be very effective, it still makes it seem more fast-paced as things happen all the time. So even if you won't get scared, at least you (probably) won't get bored watching Bunshinsaba.
 
The movie begins with the three builled girls who together summon a spirit to get rid of their bullies. When the first of their enemies dies the next day, the girls seem surprised that it actually worked. The spirit they summoned was a student named Kim In-sook who got killed 30 years ago. And as the movie moves forward, the viewer get to know more and more about Kim In-sook and what happened to her. There are also other characters that plays a great part of Bunshinsaba, except for the three girls. The viewer get to know all their stories, which made the movie seem more deep and was not just your typical straight-forward horror movie, but that had twists and turns as well.
First time I watched this, there were a lot of Asian horror flicks released during that same period of time, and I just expected it to be one out of many, that would all seem somewhat alike. It was quite ok the first time, but now, when later watched it again, it was less scary but more effective, and the story seemed more interesting. It has a story that is easy to get caught in, and strong character development as well which made it seem better. Story, character and acting-wise, Bunshinsaba is very good, but when it comes to scares, some work quite ok while most don't. But with me saying that most scares do not work is just my personal thought, and I think that for people who are still quite new to Asian horror, Bunshinsaba will prove to be both a good and scary movie.
It was easy to get caught in the story, as it unfolds and reveals things little by little which made it stay interesting all the way. The acting was totally ok, one could say that it was your standard Korean type of acting which always works. Not outstanding or great, but very good and always very far from being bad. Bunshinsaba featured a lot of scares, but personally I don't think most of them were very effective, but made things happen, and so the movie never felt like it was moving too slow. Story and character-wise it was quite cool, the directing was good, and the movie looks slick. May not work on a horror point of view for hardcore fans of Asian cinema, but that was still very good, and Ahn Byeong-ki is definitely an interesting name for the future.
Back to Asian Review Archive
|
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Ouija Board
Witch Board
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Ahn Byeong-ki
WRITING CREDITS: Ahn Byeong-ki
GENRE: Horror, Supernatural
CAST: Kim Gyoo-ri, Lee Se-eun, Lee Yoo-ri
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 7/10
Bunshinsaba Website/IMDB Click here
Bunshinsaba Trailer Click here
|
