Customer Reviews

Arang

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I read the blurb for the movie "Arang", I admit my interest was piqued as this didn't seem a run-of-the-mill horror story. I'm glad I watched it as though the entity in the movie is nothing new [the woman with long dark hair, bloody eyes, darting around and popping up in dark corners], the storyline is actually quite refreshing.

The story centers around female detective So Young [Song Yoon Ah] who seems to be a sort of tortured soul, always experiencing nightmares and apparently haunted by a tragedy in her past. She is teamed up with a rookie Hyun Gi [Lee Dong Wook] on a murder case where the victim is found burned to death though the cause of death is found to be asphyxiation. Later a series of similar murders has the detectives struggling to put the clues together in search of a serial killer. The clues point to a connection with a murder case that occurred many years ago.

What ultimately lifts this movie for me is not really the supernatural aspect [which is quite typical in comparison to other Asian horror flicks], but the well-crafted storyline with its twists and turns. You don't really see the connections until the ending and that really made me appreciate the movie even more. Though there are a few plotholes, all in all the story did seem to flow seamlessly and the lead actors do a pretty credible job of keeping the suspense alive throughout the film.

If you have been watching way too many Asian horror flicks, then you will not find anything new or exciting with thr supernatural part of this movie, but if you like to see something new with the detective story within a horror story, then this is worth checking out.

Arang is a Korean horror film on the Tartan Asia Extreme label which mixes elements of The Grudge, The Ring, along with a good ol' fashioned murder mystery into one tight package. Throw in a female violent crimes detective with a troubled past, and you get a very ambitious film that tries to do quite a bit and is generally successful in doing so.

The detective in question is So-Young Min, who is just coming off a suspension for beating up a man accused of sexual assault...We'll learn later about the dark secret that she hides and the reason for her hatred of sexual predators. She is saddled with a new partner, a rookie to the violent crimes unit who transferred over from forensics. He's over eager but is willing to learn from the experienced So-young Min. The pair are soon investigating a series of brutal murders of a group of friends who were involved in a murder nine years earlier. A young man was killed and shortly after, his girlfriend Kim Min Jeong goes missing. The men involved begin seeing apparitions of a hideous, pale female with blood dripping from her eyes like tears.

They each receive e-mails that plays a video showing them the site of the Salt storehouse where the murder took place nine years earlier. Soon the detectives are frantically scrambling to unlock the secrets of the past and to save the surviving partners. But Arang is a film loaded with sudden twists and secrets and what seems to be a pedestrian ghost story takes a turn for the clever and gives viewers much more.

The apparitions are the typical we've seen in many recent Asian horror films...they are seen as cars pass and elevators descend, or in the lens of a camera but quickly disappear. Still, the director Sang-hoon Ahn does a marvelous job building up the suspense throughout the film. Even when you know what's about to happen you still end up jumping in your seat when the ghost makes her appearance.

What sets Arang apart from some of the films I've mentioned is the performances of the actors? This film isn't driven by just scares and special effects but also by great performances, particularly by Yun-ah Song as Detective So-Young Min. She is intelligent, strong, beautiful, intuitive, yet also caring and vulnerable. Her depth of character was one that is rare amongst female roles in horror films. Arang is a well done chiller that works as both a strong horror and murder mystery that's loaded with surprises and fine acting.

The DVD is well stacked with features including commentary by director and cast, a making-of documentary, deleted scenes, interviews with the cast, interview with the musical director, and theatrical trailer. The film is in anamorphic widescreen and is in Korean with English and Spanish subtitles.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

With its unusual blending of both the horror and detective story genres, Arang makes for an ambitious effort by director Ahn Sang Hoon. In terms of the special effects, anyone who has seen such films as Ringu, The Grudge, or Dark Water will find the basic Asian ghost formula repeated once more - so don't expect to be scared out of your seats. Still, any decent image of a young white female revealing her pale, dead face from underneath her long, dark tresses of hair is going to have an element of creepiness to it. The placement and presentations of those ghostly appearances are very well done here, as well. Throughout, the cinematography and soundtrack are just superb - in these respects, I look at Arang as something of a work of art. I would also note that this ghost doesn't just show up one minute and kill somebody the next - she likes to make her victims suffer mentally and emotionally before closing in for the kill. Unfortunately, the story itself has some major problems.

One thing that makes Arang different from most modern Asian horror is the characterization on display in the story, particularly that of the female lead detective (Song Yun-ah). An experience in her past continues to haunt her (and - on at least one occasion - gets her into some trouble), and those feelings are brought to her emotional forefront during her investigation of an unusual series of murders. The victims are all healthy young men who share a disconcerting cause of death - a buildup of prussic acid inside their bodies (with no evidence that it was ingested through the mouth). We, of course, get to see these murders as they happen, and they all involve the inexplicable appearance of a vengeful young ghost of the Sadako (Ringu girl) variety. The only obvious link between the victims is the fact that, immediately prior to their deaths, they had all visited a web site featuring a certain old Salt Village. The detective and her green new partner, who left forensics to work on the homicide team, soon determine that a murder took place at that location nine years earlier, and that unsolved murder is somehow the catalyst for the string of recent murders. The lead detective takes the investigation quite personally, to the point that she wakes up each morning to nightmares offering her further insights into the case. Some reviewers have felt that the middle section of the film is too boring, as it follows the progress of the investigation rather than serving up more spooky images of the dead young ghost. I didn't really feel that way myself; in fact, I thought it made the film a bit more interesting.

The one major flaw of the film is the fact that several parts of the story make absolutely no sense. We all know Asian horror films can be pretty complicated, convoluted things, but the gaps in this particular story are far more than the result of the viewer "missing" something along the way - nor are they little things that don't matter all that much. One breakthrough in the investigation comes about in the most ridiculous of ways. The only thing stranger than the detective knowing where to find an important clue is the question of what that clue was doing there in the first place. There is no attempt whatsoever to explain this, either. That alone is at least a one-star deduction in my rating. Perhaps not surprisingly, the ending isn't all cut and dried, either. I don't really have a problem with this type of "conclusive ambiguity" (if I may coin a term), but I do expect someone to explain important details to me as the story moves along.

Despite some very real problems with the story and the fact that the film does little more than rehash a majority of the biggest clichés in modern Asian horror, I still find it hard not to enjoy a film with such a powerfully dark atmosphere. If you're new to Asian horror, I wouldn't recommend starting your journey with this particular film, but it's definitely worth seeing by those who are already huge fans of the genre.

This film I would give a 2/5 if it was a horror alone BUT... this movie plays more out like a detective story which is surprisingly interesting because it salvages the film. The horror aspects of the movie are predictable but the detective parts aren't so much. If you pick this one up I recommend you do it for the detective them than anything else. You can kind of think of these like a "ScoobyDoo" mystery. Some ghost is haunting people and it's up to the detectives on the case to figure out if it's real or not. There's even a dog that helps them heehee.

Either way this is a hard movie to give details on because it spoils the plot but if you like detective cop stories mixed in with horror/suspense like the grudge you'll probably enjoy this.

Four young men are being targeted by someone, or something. An old salthouse, the subject of numerous rumors about hauntings and murder was the sight of a grisly crime. The young men were implicated in this crime, though what role they played, exactly, is unclear. But there seems to be a ghost who is all too sure of their guilt, and is pent on exacting revenge. Strange, though, the ghost scares them to death AND poisons them. Who ever heard of a ghost using poison? Somehow, Detective Min and her partner must sort out what really happened at the salthouse, what these men did, and who or what is after them.

Arang does borrow a lot from movies like Ju-on, The Eye, and Ringu, but it uses these borrowings in a most unusual fashion. Arang will try to trick you into believing you know what's coming next. Unless you're very good at puzzles, you won't.

This is one of many Asian horror films I have seen and have to agree that the girl-ghost-with-long-hair-thing is definitely getting overused, but the story was still finely crafted with several good twists and turns. So-Young is a veteran female detective that is partnered up with an eager but inexperienced forensic investigator to solve a series of murders. The thing that links these murders-their friendship, is only one of several links. There is also the fact that they died from a poison that originated from inside their bodies, leaving the detectives with a lot of questions. There is yet another link that will be discovered with time. This film has it's supernatural overtones but is really a thriller-murder mystery and, in my opinion, a very good one.

After reading the great reviews, I decided to purchase this movie as I absolutely love a good scare. Not only was this movie not scary AT ALL, it was downright boring, predictable, and somewhat laughable. There was just so much wasted potential and honestly the visuals were not gory or scary enough to match the marketing and expectations. Instead of buying this, look for "A Tale of Two Sisters" or even "Cinderella".

Arang was like no other Asian horror film I have ever seen, but I don't think calling this a horror movie is the right category. It is more a thriller/detective story than a horror film. It begins with the story of a detective So-young and her new rookie partner Hyun-gi on a string of homicide cases; only to soon find out they are connected with each of the men being sent a website right before their deaths. It seems as though the homicides in question, stem from an unsolved disappearance of a high school student named Min Jeoung. Who seems to be coming to the men involved and murdering them through the revenge she rightly deserved. Only later will you find that it is not due to a vengeful spirit, but through the crafty twists and turns this movie uses to get to the true murderers and what happened to Min Jeoung.
I know many will see this and instantly think of it as a rip off of Ringu and Ju-on, but this story is original in its own way. It keeps you interested the whole time, wanting to know what happened to Min Jeoung and the story behind both detectives. The way the main actors portray their characters keeps the suspense high throughout the movie until the shocking conclusion when you finally find out all who are involved. I can't lie and tell you that I didn't feel very bad for what did happen to Min Jeoung in the end, even shedding a tear for her. This is a movie I will always recommend to people who want to see a great foreign movie that will both scare and surprise most that will get to see this great movie.

If you buy this movie hoping it treads new horror territory, you're in for a dissapointment. There's nothing here that you haven't seen or heard before. Nevertheless, the movie is anchored by solid performances, a good pace and an interesting plot that has a few twists and turns that actually make sense. Overall it's pretty good.
The extras and behind the scenes footage are very good.

The story was refreshing, but it had the typical asian ghost. I also enjoyed the actor's commentary.