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| Universe Laser (Hong Kong) All Regions, NTSC. 4:3. Korean DD 2.0, Korean DD 5.1, Korean DTS 5.1, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English Subtitles. 97 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Byeong-ki
Ahn
Starring: Gyu-ri Kim,
Ji-won Ha, Jeong-yun Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Jun-Sang
Yu, Jun Jeong Hye-yeong Jo
Screenplay: Byeong-ki
Ahn
Country: South Korea
AKA: Gawi; Horror Game
Movie |
What the hell is up with these Asians? They make
cool films then give 'em the stupidest titles
imaginable. I've decided that the entire Asian
cinematic community should hire me to help with
their English names. That way, if they come up to
me with Nightmare, I'll be
like, 'No, you fucking retard! People
will think it's that crappy Emillio Estevez
movie! I think you should call it Scary, Dead, Asian
Girl Haunting Her Friends.' Now that's
a title!
Scary, Dead, Asian Girl Haunting Her
Friends opens with a spooky scene of
a man in a morgue sewing up a corpse's eyes.
Took me about two seconds to really get into this
film. After the intro, it's story time.
There's this group of old school friends
that named themselves A Few Good Men, or A Few
Good Man if you believe the title of one of their
self-made video tapes. I'm not sure if they're
fans of the Marines or Tom Cruise, but that's
still a dumb thing to call yourselves…see,
these Asians need me. It's been two years
since one of their group committed suicide, and
now she is haunting the surviving members. Yeah,
I know, ground breaking plot development. But
augmenting this extremely banal ghost revenge
story is excellent direction and a damn effective
ghost.
While Scary, Dead, Asian Girl Haunting
Her Friends is not visually extreme like Volcano High or even Memento
Mori, it is never boring to look at.
Tautly directed and scripted by Byeong-ki Ahn,
Scary, Dead, Asian Girl Haunting Her Friends is brimming with that eerie quality that most
Asian films only have fleeting moments of. The
ghost looks creepy even at long exposure, which
is indeed a rarity in a film from any country.
On second viewing I began to think she looked
a little silly sometimes, like a less busty, serious
Elvira, but the first time through I thought she
was great.
While the ghost is cool, Scary, Dead,
Asian Girl Haunting Her Friends is also
made extremely engrossing by some wonderfully
unsettling scenes. There's a great doll/ghost
attack set in a library, featuring the best pencil
to the hand since Willy Ragsdale stabbed Chris
'Humperdink' Sarandon in Fright
Night. There's also an effective
as hell bus crash, with the lone survivor eerily
walking though the wreckage. On occasion, elements
of these scenes are a little overdrawn, such as
slow-mo running and close ups of the survivor's
bloodied face, but nothing is ever overdone to
the point of being actually bad. Except the CGI.
There's one very Ringu,
or rather Ringu 2, inspired scene
with a terrible CG hand emitting from a video
screen. Other than that one small bit, this is
a great film. |
| Video |
| The disc presents the film at a cropped 1.33:1.
The film is fairly new, so the print is in nice
shape, but there is minor print speckling. The image
is pretty sharp, but unfortunately, there are some
image trails on the disc, especially in darker scenes. |
| Audio |
| The audio is Korean, and available in DTS, Dolby
Digital, and Dolby Digital 5.1. The sound is nice
and clear. Subs are available in traditional or
simplified Chinese and English. The subs can get
a bit blurry, but are fine. The typos and grammar
are never excessive enough to become too distracting. |
| Extra Features |
| The DVD comes with the film's trailer, which
is in 1.85:1. |
| The Verdict |
Nightmare is a very good film,
and one of the better ones to come out during the
new Korean wave of horror. Due to the trailing and
cropped image, I'd say get the disc cheap,
but definitely get it.
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