Voice
Director: Choi Ik-hwan.
Year: 2005
Production Company: Cine2000
Running Time: 104 minutes
Voice is the fourth in a series of all-girl
high school horror ghost films – the others being “Whispering Corridors
(1998), “Memento Mori” (1999) and “Wishing Stairs (2003) – let’s face it,
horror and girls in school uniforms has long been a selling point. Besides
the short skirts, locating these stories in a girl’s high school has also
allowed the filmmakers to explore other issues – the academic need of performing
well, peer pressure, the cruelty of the young, teacher abuse, being an
outsider and friendship. The deep friendship between two girls is always
at the core of these films and how it is tested by the world around them.
This is certainly the case with “Voice”.
“Voice” doesn’t really set out to derive scares
and there are really none to be had in the film. It is instead a very melancholy
film that explores the bonds of friendship – even after death. Think of
this as more of a murder mystery – two friends trying to solve a crime
– in this case the murder of one of them. Yeong-eon (Kim Ok-Bin) and Sun-min
(Seo Ji-Hye) have been nearly inseparable friends ever since Yeong-eon’s
mother committed suicide a few years ago. One evening though Yeong-eon
stays behind at school to practice her immense singing talent – later she
tells Sun-min “I should have gone with you” – because that night she feels
an evil presence around her and collapses after a music sheet is projected
into her throat. When she wakes up the next day though she feels fine and
wonders if it was just a bad dream – then the real horror begins – no one
can see her or hear her – and she begins to realize with abject sadness
that she is dead and stuck in some high school limbo world. She keeps telling
herself to please wake up, but there is no waking up or sleeping. Just
infinite loneliness.
She discovers one link to the living world – Sun-min
is still able to hear her because of their strong connection and this is
all Yeong-eon has. The two of them decide to find out what happened and
who is responsible – the body of Yeong-eon hasn’t even been discovered
and there is hope that somehow she is still alive and this is just her
projection. One of the other students, the morbid Cho-ah (Cha Ye-Ryeon)
has psychic powers and can also sense Yeong-eon and tells Sun-min that
“If forgotten the ghost loses its voice. It will become unseen and unheard”
and vanish. They discover that it all seems to be connected to another
girl who committed suicide previously and the music teacher, but this opens
up other questions – about Yeong-eon and their friendship is tested to
the limit. Cho-ah warns Sun-min “The ghost remembers only what it wants
to”.
What is quite effective here is simply the irreversibility
of death and how profoundly sad it can be for both the dead and those left
behind. At one point Sun-min turns to Yeong-eon in frustration and anger
exclaiming that no matter what they do it will never bring her back to
life. How long can a friend stay loyal to her dead friend, but if she doesn’t
the ghost will vanish. This mixture of pathos, a few chills and female
bonding makes for an interesting film and both young actresses do fine
jobs in portraying their characters.
My rating for this film: 7.0
Trailer
Reviewed: 02/06
Previous films from Director:
This is his debut film
