WHISPERING CORRIDORS

Directed by Ki-Yung Park
Written by Jeong-Ok In & Ki-Hyung Park
Cinematography by Jeong-Min Suh
Music by Sung-Heon Moon
Cast: Mi-Yeon Lee, Kyu-Ree Kim & Se-Yeon Choi

1998/105 mins/Color/DTS
1.78:1 anamorphic/Korean/Korea/NTSC Region1

Review from the Tartan US DVD

Years ago, Eun Young (Mi-Yeon Lee) lost her best friend Jin-ju while they we're both attending high school. Today she is back at that school but as a teacher. The memory of her friend remains painful but she has to move on with her life. Strangely enough, teachers are found dead throughout the school and Eun Young suspect that the ghost of Jin-ju might be responsible for these terrible events.

WHISPERING CORRIDORS commits the biggest crime in cinema, to be boring. Nothing, and I mean nothing happens during the 105 minutes. What we get is a lame thriller for Korean school girl that tries to be like THE RING but fails. Nothing creepy, scary or atmospheric here. Beside the Eun Young story, we follow three school girls which seem to have the most pathetic lives ever. In the end, we simply don't care about any of the characters and what happens to them. The movie also features too much slow motion scenes and can someone tell me why does the image freeze and move strangely most of the time? What that supposed to be scary or something?! The only good element of the movie is that it show us one of the real aspect of the whole Korean school system... one that North American kids wouldn't be able to deal with.

Tartan US have just released this Ki-Yung Park flick on DVD. The movie is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and it is enhanced for 16x9 TVs. Like the Thai release that I own, the image isn't anything to be proud of. Surely it must be the fault of the source material. The picture has many defects and looks rather dull. There's a DTS and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio tracks, both aren't spectacular but does an ok job, you have to remember that its a rather quiet movie. There is optional English subtitles which are easy to read.

The only extra is a very short and useless still gallery which features pix from the movie and a bunch of trailers for other releases by Tartan US. The movie is separated in 12 chapters, it features animated menus with sounds, comes in a keep case and without a booklet or inlay card. WHISPERING CORRIDORS was the first movie in a trilogy all about teenage schoogirls... wow, how exciting!

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2005. ©

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