Sick Product of a Sick System

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Whispering Corridors spawned no less than four sequels. It seems fairly unknown outside Asia, though, which is a shame on the one hand but on the other hand good for those of us who enjoy searching for gems among movies not so known in the West. Although the stories of the Whispering Corridor movies are independent of another, they all take place in girl schools where the students suffer from high pressure, competition - and from hauntings. It's not all horror, though. In fact, the drama aspect is very strong.Perhaps Whispering Corridors could be scarier. But it has a heart. It makes you care about the characters and the tragedies they're involved in. I've been impressed by the young actresses' performances and the cinematography. Even though the whole movie takes place at a school, it never gets dull to look at. All this makes watching it an experience so much more rewarding than watching an ordinary teen slasher film.

I'm only writing this review on account of a personal project of mine. I decided a few months back to write reviews about all Horror films I'd watch, in order to have sort of a library of reviews and remember my experiences with each film. Unfortunately, I am unable to be objective nor subjective about Whispering Corridors.While watching, I was unintentionally and uncontrollably hindered by two things. The first - I'm not sure if I found a bad translation, or if the Korean language is really as such. I'm afraid it was the first option, as I have no idea how 3 sentences could be summarized in 5 words. Half the time of most dialogues the screen was empty of text. As a translator, a poet and a former teacher - I know that no translation ever captures 100% of the original meaning, but in this case I couldn't help but feeling that I wasn't being exposed to lots of information, however redundant. And the second problem I experienced was my inability to differentiate the Korean female students. I am not at all racist, but they all seemed too much alike, and their names sounded too much alike... I guess I haven't seen enough Asian films and/or Asian people in my life, and I realize this is a shortcoming of myself and my life, and not the film.Taking all the aforementioned into account, I was completely robbed the film's twist, as I could barely understand. I was only able to interpret the music (which was excellent, by the way) and the event, but not completely experience the twist as someone who'd been successful in following and keeping up with the entire film would have. Therefore, I feel I cannot with a clear conscience rate this film. I can say good music and interesting dramatic shooting and cinematography, but that's all. And without being able to have an opinion of the acting,and most importantly the story - one cannot rate. So I can't recommend the film, and I can't criticize it. It did, however, feel to me like I missed out.

Asian horror movies love to set ghost stories in all-girl schools, since that gives the movie lots of eye candy for gore junkies who also like to ogle hot teens in school uniforms. Unusually, the setting was more sharply drawn than is typical, with the harsh discipline, regimentation and repression of individuality so common throughout the educational world of the Far East playing a major functional and contextual role in the film. The high school setting provided a world of gossip, frustration, rivalry and threat in which the presence of ghosts was simply one other unpleasant aspect. The characters were drawn with an equally sharp pen, giving the movie more dramatic depth and impact than one usually sees as well. Normally, once the undead start knocking off the living in movies of this type, the horror is blunted by the fact that weak, uninteresting characters are being slaughtered, so who really cares? Here, good use of the setting and characterization made me interested in the goings on. Watchable and recommended.

The malevolent ghost of a teenage suicide victim haunts the corridors of a Korean school, murderously attacking members of staff. New teacher Eun-young Hur (Mi-yeon Lee) investigates, eventually discovering the shocking truth behind one pupil's mysterious past.Spooky Korean ghost story Whispering Corridors was released the same year as Hideo Nakata's Ringu, but unlike its Japanese counterpart, it failed to become an international hit and never received the dubious honour of a Hollywood remake. To be honest, I find it easy to understand why: it's extremely slow moving and not very scary.That's not to say that there is nothing to like about the film: there's loads of lovely cinematography, quality acting, a haunting soundtrack, a nice array of easy-on-the-eye Korean cuties, and the story explores several interesting themes, including loss of friendship, coping with loneliness, and abuse of power. But with very little to set the spine a-tingling, I still cannot not help but feel a little disappointed—after all, this is supposed to be a horror film, isn't it?5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.