Analysis of Asian Horror Movies
The first movie I would like to analyze is a South Korean horror-thriller movie “Old Boy”, directed by Park Chan-Wook, that was first released in 2003. The storyline is based on a poorly-known Japanese manga of the same name, written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. This movie is a part of a trilogy called “Vengeance Trilogy” together with “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance”. “Old Boy” won the so called “Grand Prix”(the second award in order of importance) during the Cannes Film Festival, receiving also a special mention by Quentin Tarantino (president of the Jury).
The impact of the movie by Park Chan-Wook is astounding. The ability of the director to explore the rage of the characters allows developing a story that is far from being banal. The truth, which is sought by the main character for the duration of the entire movie, contains the mystery of fifteen years in prison without a precise reason.
There is a rational part, which is represented by the existence with the sole purpose to pay the dues of the past through vengeance. The dynamic change of events during the movie transforms the victim into a torturer. However, rationality is not the right approach to the grotesque and hyper-violent universe created by Chan-Wook. The Korean director manages to take the viewer away from the security of reality in order to submerge him/her into the world based on Chan-Wook’s personal vision. His perspective on violence shows the traits of the Tarantino’s “pulp style”, however it is significantly different from the viewpoint traditionally presented in similar Asian movies. In “Old Boy” the role of the director is also narrative, since it also incorporates the analysis of the story steps with amazing effectiveness.
There are many peculiar details in the movie that could confuse and shock the viewers. Thus, a giant ant inside a bus, the octopus eaten alive or the initial meeting with a suicidal man initially perplex the audience. However, these details are like pieces of a puzzle, which start making sense and come into life only in the end of the film.
Despite the gloominess of the ambient that surrounds the characters, the analysis of the darkness is not the final target of the director. There are thus several hilarious moments that confuse again the viewer (like the man hair stylist dressed up like a woman) creating grotesque situations. In this movie, nothing happens random.
The protagonist of the film is depicted as a virtuous man, whose name seems to represent his benevolence (Dae-Su Oh in Korean means “the one that is patient and calm with the men). Dae-Su Oh suddenly finds himself captive in a basement, where he remains for fifteen years. His only company during this bizarre imprisonment is an old television as the while his everyday meal consisted only of dumplings. Due to the solitude and the low-quality programs broadcasted on TV, the main character becomes wild and a bit rude. Suddenly, after fifteen years in prison Dae-Su finds himself free. Once he is out, he realizes that his family has been killed and he is wanted by the police because of a murder charge. After a while, Dae-Su understands that he has become a pawn in a game created by diabolic mind of a handsome, rich and egoistic man. Blinded by rage, the protagonist starts looking for vengeance.
The basic plot of the “Old Boy” strongly resembles the one of a poor Hollywood movie: an insane serial killer hurts and kills innocent people without any rational reason. However, the intentions of Park Chan-Wook are indeed different from those of the directors of typical Hollywood horror films. He aims to create a plot similar to the one used in Greek tragedies, where nothing looks like what it really is and where the truth is obscured.
The narrative wisely crosses the storylines of the four main characters using several flashbacks and time manipulations. The antagonist of Oh Dae-Su is Woo-Jin, who is called “Evergreen”. Moreover, the director introduces two female characters: Mido, the new girlfriend of Dae-Su, and Su-A, the dead sister of Woo-Jin.
The camerawork used in the movie is very complex. Park Chan-Wook uses numerous techniques and methods: steady cam, hand camera, dollies and several special effects in order to convey his ideas. Thus, for example, the frame starts with the first close up of the main character; the camera then dollies back passing through the chop sticks, which Dae-Su is using to hold a dumpling, and then changes the focus finally reaching the close up of the main character. Another notable dolly is the frame that starts from Dae-Su in “main frame” leaning against the elevator. The camera slowly goes up, passes through the ceiling of the elevator and continues to move vertically up without showing the cabin. There are many points of subjective shows, wide shots and bottom frame (which are often associated with the human feeling pressed by its own destiny). The long sequential layer, which depicts Dae-Su fighting with the gang that was guarding his jail. is extremely effective. The director uses a lateral dolly in order to show the fight without any manipulations.
It is worth to underline the use of “superimpose” technique by Park Chan-Wook. This effect emphasizes the hypnotic state of Mido: two images are mixed up and the details of Mido’s eyes and mouth are combined with the pendulum of the ring bell. Furthermore, a double image simultaneously shows the frame with Woo-Jin, who tells to Dae-Su about the way he was hypnotizing Dae-Su, and the frame with the flashback of Dae-Su at the restaurant. Moreover, Dae-Su is framed in “first close up”, while the image of Woo-Jin becomes bigger until it occupies the entire half of the screen. Finally, the use of the tridimensional effect gives the profundity to the bi-dimensional image of the Su-A’s old picture without a face, which was taken during the university period. In this way, the viewer is slowly introduced to all the classmates in the picture until reaching the head of Su-A, which finally fades-out into her real face during the moment when she kills herself jumping from the bridge.
The photography of Chung-Hoon-Chung is very sophisticated and symbolic. The colors used in the film help to create the atmosphere of the scene and give a profound symbolic meaning to the depicted events. Thus, the color palette becomes cold and blue when Mido dreams of a giant ant is in the metro; while turning sour and grey during the flashback of Mildo’s school life.
The editing of the movie is very sophisticate and dynamic with several solutions and techniques coming from the television practices. The film is a mix of new and old styles as well as complex editing methods. Besides the classic editing (analytical) there is also the analogical one. Moreover, it is possible to notice the jump cuts and several special effects, while the compositing technique is used in “Old Boy” in order to obtain particular results. The latter are used to increase the rhythm and to create sophisticated temporal ellipsis.
The first flashback is introduced by an analogy: a person, who wants to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of a skyscraper. When the man asks who Dae-Su is, the campers takes a close up and Dae-Su answers referring to the moment fifteen years before, when he was taken to the police department because of being drunk. In the police station scene, the audience cannot actually see the policemen, but the out-field voice helps to clarify the situation. The out of the screen Dae-Su’s voice does not only perform the story narration, but also expresses the thoughts of the protagonist. With a series of jump-cuts the director shows the passage of the time until the moment Dae-Su is released from the police station thanks to the help of his friend Chi-Juan. Similar effects are further used in some movie scenes, such as the one when Dae-Su is training to punch the wall or when he is fighting a gang in the street. After the police station Dae-Su finds himself in a telephone booth. Once he exits the booth a circular dolly starts: Dae-Su is not there anymore and the abduction can be only understood by the sound of a car that goes away. Other analogies used in the film can be found in the scene when Mi-Do rubs her face (in close up) while crying in the metro (she will repeat the same gesture in a different situation), or in the movements of Dae-Su eating dumplings in several restaurants, during his desperate attempts to find the exact restaurant that was cooking the dumplings brought to him while he was kidnapped.
The director of “Old Boy” uses alternate editing several times during the movie as well. For example, it is used in the scene when Mi-Do sings in the car together with Dae-Su or when “Evergreen” takes a shower, dresses up and has a medical check-up in his “house-empire”. A variation of the alternate editing is used in the scene, where Dae-Su confronts Leoo Woo-Jin and at the same time holds in his arms a crying Mi-Do. Mi-Do is asking to Dae-Su what she has to pray for: “Make like he will knee down in front of you today and beg for your pardon” (the roles will actually reverse and the opposite will happen). The director also uses cross fade-in to show how fast the time passes. Thus, in the scene where Dae-Su is writing in the diary the names of the persons, who might hate him, several layers of shooting mounted with the fade-in technique rapidly show the flow of time. The black fade-out suggests a broader time frame, which is not followed by the opening fade-in but by a clear hurdle.
The sounds are indeed very important for the main character, because they have become the only source of information during his years in captivity. Thus, the sound of the bell announced him the presence of the suffocating gas; a particular sound of the mobile phone points at the exact person, who is calling. The sound bridge is used in several instances but the most evident case of using the sound bridge is in the scene, where Mi-Do goes to the “clockwork lady” to ask for information. Meanwhile, a girl enters in the shop and hears the out-field voice of the clockwork lady speaking to Dae-Su. The soundtracks written by Uong-Wk Cho are powerful and effective because they follow the action and guide the feelings of the viewers. In particular, a classical music piece is used as a contrast to the violent scene, where Dae-Su finds Mido raped and tortured and gets ready to fight the gang, whose intent is to remove his teeth.
The flow of time is shown through several elements: the voice out-field of Dae-Su, his physical transformation (the long hair, the wrinkles) together with special effects and the wall calendars. Moreover, an electronic calendar that suddenly appears on the screen, underlines the last six days of the story. This element becomes a part of the frame, following the camera movements. Additionally, the picture-in-picture technique shows both the imprisoned main character on the left side of the screen and the sequence of events in the world during these years in a small frame on the right. The out-field voice of Dae-Su comments on the number of years passed, while the pompous music unites all the elements of the scene together.
The use of details is very valuable for the “Old Boy” . Thus, in the scene with an open luggage, the audience can see a small package inside the bag. During the confrontation between Dae-Su and Woo-Jin, viewers can notice that there are white feathers in this package. This frame implicitly suggests the resolution for Dae-Su’s dilemma, which presented right after. Again, a close frame is used to show the face of Mido, when she watches the white feathers in front of her (the director goes from one feather to another with a change of focus). Finally, the face of a terrified and astonished Dae-Su is shown after he looked through the family album given by Woo-Jin; he has found out something shocking. Suddenly, the viewers see a room, where Mido stands covered in white feathers, which resemble the wings of an angel. In this moment it becomes clear that Dae-Su is actually the father of Mido (she was given a different name and adopted by a Swedish family when Dae-Su was kidnapped). These wings were a gift he has given to his daughter for her fourth birthday.
Despite the tragedy depicted in this scene, the director does not focus on Dae-Su, but shows in the smallest details the legs of a hairdresser and a client. Later on, the viewers will understand that this detail makes Dae-Su remember that he witnessed the incest between Lee Woo-Jin and his sister Su-A during his university studies. This memory further reveals the theme of close family ties and consanguinity in this movie. This relationship has become the reason for the suicide of Su-A.
The rhythm, the complexity and the variety of styles used in the movie make “Old Boy” both incredible and shocking. It is indeed impressive that the massive use of violence and cruelty in the scenes was not censored in any way. However, the film manages to be very credible and realistic even if it follows the traditional Hollywood “invincible men” routine, depicting the main character killing hundreds of people with just a hammer.
The most apparent topic of the film is vengeance, which is further developed by Park Chan-Wook in the next two parts of the trilogy “Mister Vengeance” and “Lady Vengeance”. However, it is also possible to suggest that the main topic of “Old Boy” is actually the invincible power of real love. It is indeed a very unusual and yet an effective way to describe the supremacy of real love.
The concept of captivity also has a profound meaning in “Old Boy”. Although the main character was physically kept imprisoned, the prison is meant more than just the cage where Dae-Su is forced to live. The man is conscious about the existence of the cage when he sees the four walls around him, but he does not recognize he is a prisoner even outside the four walls. This thought is first conveyed by “Evergreen”, when he asks Dae-Su, who had just escaped his jail after fifteen year of detention, whether he feels “better in a bigger cage.”
The most disturbing aspect of the movie seems to be the relationship between the victim and the torturer. Thus, in the confrontation between Woo-Jin Lee and Dae-Su, the torturer is the ultimate victor. Woo-Jin Lee has obtained what he wanted, in particular, the ultimate humiliation of the person, who reminded him of his own guilt. At the end of the game that lasted more than fifteen years Woo-Jin Lee was freed from blame. Struck by the memory of his sister, Woo-Jin realizes that he has nothing left but to kill himself with gun. This shows the duality of the conflict: the sadist and the masochist don’t make an ideal couple and their relationship is not mirrored. The asymmetry of the relationship is explained by the blurred boundaries between the two. Thus, the torturer does not simply play the role of a sadist, but also shows a hidden inclination to masochism. The sadist does not simply want the masochist to accept the pain and to enjoy it, but he wants his victim to be terrified, to realize the horror of the situation. The terror of the victim can be satisfying for the sadist, and Woo-Jin is indeed enjoying the moment. His victory is symbolized by one last act, by prohibiting Dae-Su to open the gift for Mi-Do.
Like in the tale of “King Oedipus”, where the stubborn search for the truth by Oedipus will bring his lineage to crumble, in “Old Boy” the insisting question that the torturer seals inside the hearth of the victim (“Why did u get freed?”) will bring Dae-Su close to the madness. The pursuit of vengeance by Dae-Su cannot do anything else but enhance the joy and the satisfaction of the torturer. Dae-Su’s tormentor will only stop and disappear, when the victim humiliates himself and begs for pardon and mercy. In this way, Dae-su will expiate his sin and share a part of the burden.
The second movie that is going to be analyzed is “A tale of Two Sisters” (2004), a psychological horror by Kim Ji Woon that also originates from South Korea.
The film starts in a psychiatric hospital, where a doctor asks a young girl, who is his patient, about the details of some recent events in her life. She starts her story with the two sisters, Su-Mi and Su-Yeon, who are going back to the country house, where they have spent their childhood. They are awaited by Eun-Joo, the stepmother of the two girls, who cannot manage to bond with them. Eun-Joo married the father of the sisters and took the place of their mother, who killed herself some time before. The house seems to be haunted by ghosts, including the ghost of the dead mother. She often appears in front of the two girls. After several days, the relationship between the stepmother and the two girls deteriorates. The father of Su-Mi and Su-Yeon has to call their doctor because he cannot handle the situation himself. In reality, Su-mi has neither a sister nor a stepmother: she has a severe condition of schizophrenia; therefore she has to be put into a mental hospital again.
The plot of “A tale of Two Sisters” is not original. It is taken from an ancient Korean fairy tale “Janghwa Hongeryeon”, which talks about a good family relationship destroyed by a new family member. “A tale of Two Sisters” is a story of a childhood trauma, and the director chooses exactly the childhood, since it is the time when most of our fears develop. The unconscious state of mind of Su-Mi is trying to hide and delete the trauma of a family relationship, which is suddenly obliterated, and to abstain from the fact that another woman takes the place of her own mother. The new stepmother is described like an evil person, who wants to definitely destroy Su-Mi’s family. This situation develops in Su-Mi a progressing detachment from her mother and a compulsive disorder of the “female world” (the menstruations for instance are seen like a trauma). She needs to create for herself a sort of alter-ego, a new sister that can fight her fears. The choice of female characters as protagonists makes “A tale of Two Sisters” a truly Asian Horror Movie- The effect is achieved due to the fact that women are generally more energetic and act “on stage”, while men tend to become absents, passive, too worried for their working career and mentally too far from the private life of their kids.
The technical part of the movie is indeed amazing even if it is inferior compared to “Old Boy”. The director manages attract the audience with an effective use of photography. The description of the country house, where Su-Mi was living when she was a little child, is done in the traditions of French impressionist paintings. The director often uses slow dollies and long frames of internal ambient, which create a sense of a quiet that will be suddenly broken. The use of colors (especially red) and the movements of the camera aim to distract the audience from the intricate plot (like in the scene where Su-Mi hits the sack or when she realizes that she is also the stepmother), while the sound effects keep the viewers in a state of constant tension. Like in “Old Boy” there are several frames, which develop in a so-called “empty continuum” with the aim to destabilize the audience; they are often associated with several sound effects. Those sound effects become the main drivers of the narration and overcome the ambient structure.
The interpretation of the stepmother is maybe the most relevant piece for understanding this movie. She manages to disturb the quiet upper-class family and brings it close to a collapse.
The last movie to be analyzed is “One Missed Call” (2003) that was produced in Japan. The director of “One Missed Call” , Takashi Miike, is indeed the most popular of the directors of the two films discussed above. He is the creator of other popular Asian horror movies like “Visitor Q” and “Audition”. “One Missed Call” is a part of a popular theme that is developed in Asian Horror: the death that comes from the Phone. This idea started from the Japanese trilogy “Ringu” by Hideo Nakata, and was later rejuvenated in the Korean “Phone”. It is easy to think of “One Missed Call” as a superficial copy of the previous films, however the name of the director is a guarantee that this is not “another Asian phone Horror Movies”.
The plot is the most irrelevant part of the structure of the movie. It following a similar pattern as the two movies discussed above and by bringing the audience to a more psychological comprehension of the story rather than a material one. A calm and quiet college life is shattered by a series of tragic events, which are connected by the most used tools by young students: the mobile phone. An obsessive and scaring melody substitutes the usual ring tone and the display shows “one missed call” from the number of the phone owner. If one receives such a call on his or her phone, it means that the phone’s owner will die in a few days. Moreover, a voice message left by an unknown caller sounds like the voice of the owner recorded right before he/she is killed. Yumi Makamura, a friend of all victims, investigates the series of deaths. Together with Hiroshi Yashimita (the brother of the first girl killed), she seems to have managed to solve the puzzle and to understand what the ghost wants.
Takashi Miike manages to mix horror and grotesque elements (especially in the scene of “media cannibalism”), adding melodrama features (the love story between main characters). Sounds effects are a central feature of the movie. In particular, the entire movie is centered on the ringtone that is announcing death.
The Japanese director manages to find an effective equilibrium between his original style and the needs of the audience. In the first part of the movie, Miike manipulates all the frames according to his personal style but maintaining the main narrative elements. Thus, he often uses humor in order to give to the horror scene a flavor of grotesque and confusion. Sometimes it seems like Miike wants to laugh at himself and the “phone Asian Horror trend” by using features that strongly resemble both Ju-On of Shimizu and Ringu of Nakata.
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