Captivating movie !

Absolutely Fantastic

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Yun-hui travels from Korea to Vietnam to learn about the legend of a painting of a woman named Muoi. Seo-yeon meets her there, and guides her regarding the legend. The two women have some sort of past but have not seen one another for three years.Seo-yeon explains the Muoi story in brief while walking in the places where it happened. Muoi was born of low parentage, but managed to attract an artist who took time to paint her portrait. Unfortunately, he was engaged to a rich, vindictive woman, and had to return to her. Muoi's rival came to her while he was gone, and had Muoi's legs broken; she also threw a pint or so of acid on Muoi's face. When the artist tried to see Muoi, she would not see him because of her damaged face, and subsequently hung herself over the loss. The story goes that she became a grudge ghost because of the unresolved anger and desire for vengeance.Yun-hui takes this in. With more details and embellishments, she hopes to write a bestselling book. Seo-yeon hands her a batch of old papers, photographs, and notes that she had collected for Yun-hui. Yun-hui starts through the stack; Seo-yeon starts a large painting.Through some machinations, they get to see a copy of a painting of Muoi. Just after this, Yun-hui tells Seo-yeon that she had already seen a painting of Muoi. When she tries to show the photo to Seo-yeon, the camera had only a blank. Seo-yeon tells Yun-hui that there was no painting there; it had to have been that Muoi's ghost. Yun-hui dreams about Seo-yeon confronting her about how she had libeled Seo-yeon in her last book.Oi, this films seems to be much more about Yun-hui's guilt about writing ill of Seo-yeon in her previous book than anything else. The two women have a confrontation about the book, and Yun-hui decides to return to Korea. Before she goes, Seo-yeon tells her of how a woman had commissioned three men to rape her while her boyfriend filmed it. This was why Seo-yeon left Korea, never to return. Yun-hui did not know about this.The two make nice. Seo-yeon has some sort of problem overnight, and Yun-hui goes to a temple to find out more about the case. The temple seems to have a lot of Muoi artifacts.This is the point where the film really gets creepy. It proceeds quickly to a grim and thorough conclusion.-------Scores--------Cinematography: 10/10 Fine.Sound: 10/10 No problems.Acting: 7/10 A little uneven but mostly good.Screenplay: 9/10 Comes to a reasonable conclusion given the build up.Special Effects: 7/10 Reasonable.

"full of clichés" is the first verdict. but beyond it , it is a story. not very original but seductive. and the admirable work of director to create a good scene for the story of Muoi using the old instruments and effects of genre. it is a ghost tale, an Oriental horror, travel of past events in present. but it is beautiful. not only for the collaboration between Vietnamese and Coreean cinematography, not for moral, end and wonderful images.but for emotion far from words. it is a moral story and delicate pledge for basic values. it is not a disappointment exercise . only a kind of fairy tale and fruit of a travel in the heart of Gothic story. so, nothing new. and nothing bad. only an artistic exercise.

This is one of the first times Korea has worked directly with Vietnamese producers and actors to create a feature length film. This is important to note because it is a joint production between a rich and developed industry (Korea) versus a very small and poor one (Vietnam). Although the film is thoroughly Korean in style and direction, the Vietnamese setting and supporting characters add a very nice touch.The teaser trailer released actually has little to do with this film. It was almost like a separate 'fake' trailer. I find the premise of that more interesting than the story of the film.The story has a lot of twists and is rather hard to comprehend. The best parts were definitely the Vietnamese 'flashbacks' presented a few times throughout the film. I wish there could have been more spoken dialogue in Vietnamese, however. The film has a unique setting but it uses way too many East-Asian horror clichés. It almost becomes annoying and boring. Using 'cliches' is almost unavoidable in horror but depending on how talented the director is, he/she can present it in a new way. Muoi tries to find its place within Korean horror but ultimately fails to bring anything worthy to the genre.I recommend this film mainly in support of Vietnam.

When I saw the trailer I knew I had to watch this movie! Because the ending of that trailer really creeped me out! Sadly "Muoi" never comes close to that scene! As a matter of fact that particular scene (involving a little girl) is nowhere to be seen in the movie! That doesn't mean that "Muoi" isn't creepy! It sure is! You will hear a lot of strange noises and there seems to be a lot happening in the dark!For the most time I couldn't make out what it was! Judging by the sound and music it supposed to be scary! But that is all! It never really gets scary! A lot of events are implied which means that too much is left to our imagination! (I thought that this was done to create windows for other possibility's than the usual supernatural elements! Believe me if i say that matters presented aren't that complex). The story is actually very simple and ordinary for a ghost movie like this! The way it is constructed and told though is too abstract for my taste! I only wished that more would have been done with the premise! Since the legend of Muoi is quite interesting and could have been the start of a new horror icon! The problem is that the mystery that has to be solved is pretty obvious! Only one time I really got surprised! I hate to say it but "Muoi" lacks an important amount of suspense and gore that could have compensated for all the shortcomings!