Bilgi :Another day, another Korean horror film set in an all-girls high school, involving kids with psychic abilities, long-dead former students who returns as ghosts minus the desire to comb their hair, an evil school bully clique, young and sympathetic, but very ineffectual, teachers, and finally, the old curmudgeon school officials hiding a deadly secret. "Bunshinsaba" (aka "Quija Board"), the latest from avowed horror filmmaker Byeong-ki Ahn (of "Phone" and "Nightmare" fame), is so devoted to the tropes of the genre that you almost have to wonder if Byeong-ki even bothered to write the script, or if he just grabbed one of the scripts from the "Whispering Corridors" franchise and changed the names.
Whatever the case, this is certainly a case of "been there, done that," although you do have to wonder about the Korean obsession with pretty teen girls in high school uniforms. Oh wait, nevermind.
Our familiar horror tale opens at night at the all-girls school, where a trio of bullied students, led by defiant transfer student Yu-jin (Se-eun Lee, "Bloody Beach"), calls upon the dead spirit of a former student name Kim In-suk (Yu-ri Lee), who died 30 years earlier under mysterious circumstances, to exact payback on the brutal clique that has been bullying them. The ghost does indeed appear, and soon two of the bullies are found dead, bags over their heads, and their faces burned to a crisp. Is the ghost of In-suk back from the grave for vengeance, determined to right the wrong that was done to her 30 years ago?
Well of course she is. They always are in these movies. Haven't you been paying attention?
"Bunshinsaba" is so unconcern with appearing original that you just have to tip your hat off to it. Or do you? From the plot synopsis and general film outline, it's obvious from frame one that this is a derivative film meant to cash in on the recent wave of Korean horror. There's nothing here that can even be mistaken for originality, and as such, the film plays out as you would expect it to, although it's curious to note that even after two of their own has ended up dead, the bullies really seem unconcern that they're going to be next. These girls are so clueless, in fact, that even after their attempt to kill Yu-jin fails, they still continually harass her. Apparently admittance into this particular school clique means destroying your brain cells. |
