Customer Reviews

Face

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

*
Of all of the Asian Horror DVD movies in my personal collection [that were] purchased on the International market, this is the one-- along with "Tyakusin Ari" (aka "One Missed Call") --I totally had NOT expected would be picked up for official "Region-1" DVD release. I don't know what this all means from the DVD marketers' perspective, but I'm beginning to have my... umm... "suspicions."

Here we have a movie that is neither exclusively "good" nor exclusively "bad" -- just weighed heavily in "ambivalence."

The main theme of the story is intriguing enough: A forensic facial reconstructionist, distraught over the death of his wife and additionally burdened with caring for his deathly ill little daughter, submits his resignation from police work even as he is being begged to stay on due to the sheer volume of work still needed to be done which requires his expertise. He is "involuntarily" coaxed back into service by a young new protege and by a number of "unexplained phenomena" surrounding a new skull he has been asked to offer his help with.

Complicating matters is the repeatedly unstable condition of his sickly daughter -- who had undergone a very dangerous & difficult heart transplant surgery that required a very rare type of "organ donor match" in order for the surgical procedure to have even the slightest chances of success (a "MacGuffin" referred to in the movie as "Beta Alergic"). "Inspired," if you will, by a thread of ghostly apparitions and other related inexplicable sights & sensations, the specialist becomes convinced that the spirit connected to the latest skull in his possession will not rest quietly until it has been given its face back. During this process he gradually becomes convinced that his daughter had become the recipient of the heart of the skull/ghost in question and that the circumstances under which it was acquired may be highly (and frighteningly) suspect. Et cetera and so-forth.

Even with the suspensions of logic that are required, this film has one MAJOR fault which prevented me from scoring it any higher than I surely would have: THE COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY "SADAKO-LIKE" GHOSTLY APPEARANCES! -- ALL OF THEM! (You will completely understand my frustration over this once the "Big Reveal" at the end becomes evident!) It was bad enough that our main protaganist was being "tormented" by Sadak...uh... 'that long-haired ghost-woman' -- but why was Sada... 'that ghost' ALSO being used to frighten his daughter? (Yeah, I know -- it's all supposedly because of the "connection" they all have between themselves & whatnot, but again the "LOGIC" behind it gets thrown to the wind upon the "Big Reveal"!) In other words, this movie was just trying to capitalize off of the "creepy imagry" made popular by Nakata Hideo's "Sadako" in "RING," and nothing more.

Had they left the ghostly appearances completely out of this movie it would have worked perfectly as a metaphysical/psychological thriller and would have made for a much stronger and more memorable movie, in my opinion.

And typical of what many "A-Horror" movies have become notorious for, this one features several "flashback" sequences which are immediately indistinguishable from the main scenes of the film, so expect to be thrown off track at a couple of important junctures -- then angered that such haphazard incorporations helped to further ruin an already difficult-enough viewing experience.

So the real question becomes, Can I recommend this title for purchase? At it's currently listed price, I'd say no -- especially if you're so fed up with the "A-Horror" cliches of recent years that you'd feel insulted that a movie would make such deliberate use of them for no other purpose than simply to capitalize on that market. Should the price come down on it, however-- say, somewhere in the neighborhood of $14.95 & under --then I'd say go ahead and give it a look-see, it wouldn't hurt much of anything then, if you did.

"Face" is a typical example of a nice Korean thriller that contains all the necessary for a genre details. It has elements of a horror movie, of cops-vs-maniac films, of a criminal thriller. Director Sang-Gon Yoo keeps the action tense and fast-going so you won't get bored. The story involves a lot of things: gruesome murders after which the murderer dissolves bodies in acid, face-reconstruction, illegal organ transplantation and ghostly apparitions. I know told this way it all may seem a one big mess but finally all the segments of this intricate film perfectly fit like parts of a puzzle.

You'll definately get a twist in the end like you've probably expected. Yes, the scheme this movie is based on is quite recognizable but you can never know all the details... And details make this picture memorable. I must note a perfect acting from all the main performers - I was pleasantly surprised. The cunning story-line, plus great acting and superior directing make "Face" a remarkable film among all other Korean and Asian in general thrillers.

Partly I have to agree with the reviewer 'Ace-of-Stars' who says all those Sadacoesque appearances were absolutely unnecessary. I think they were a bit worn-out but they seemed to fit the story well and this girl with long black hair was actually needed for the script. So... It already became a trademark of Asian horror cinema like a blind (crippled, unpretty, timid - pick any) girl who stays alive in the end of American slashers.

"Face" is definately worth watching, it's not a minute boring, it's well crafted and intense although at the same time pensive like many Korean films.

FACE (2004) is a South Korean thriller directed by Sang Gon Yoo, the same man who directed the Korean erotic drama "Yellow Flower". Equal parts ghost story and equal parts murder mystery with a touch of forbidden romance; the film is quite ambitious. However, the problems with the movie weren't all about its script, it also lacked coherency.

Lee Hyun-Min (Shin Hyeon Jun) is a sculptor but not your usual artist. He is the kind who assists the police to reconstruct skulls in order to recreate a "face". Hyun-Min's daughter is just recovering from a heart transplant and Hyun-Min needs to take a sabbatical. Unfortunately, a serial killer is on the loose and he has a very distinct way of eliminating the bodies that will require his expertise. Aided by a beautiful aspiring facial reconstructive sculptor; Jun Sun-Young (Sung Yu-ah), what he stumbles upon is something more sinister than he could have imagined--that involves human organs and the supernatural.

The film is full of atmosphere and it exudes creepiness. Of course, the long-haired ghost makes an appearance, and those scenes are quite creepy in its own way. The usual formulas are present as the ghost gives the main character the feeling of dread. The appearances of the ghost were puzzling and at the same time it arouses my curiosity enough to see just where everything is headed. However, this is not your typical ghost movie and the film does attempt to find its "heart". The film is also a murder mystery and it focuses more on this premise rather than the ghost itself. Most of its proceedings involve investigation and the scares are there only to provide some reminder of the supernatural's presence.

The problems with "FACE" is that it seemed to have pitched too many ideas with potential but it ended up not developing each one with credibility. The visions experienced by Hyun-Min's child has so severely underdeveloped that it seemed like a cheap way to induce the usual scares. True, it may make some sense in the climax but it somehow didn't add anything more to the film's pace. Also, the film may have showed its hand too soon. I would have preferred its `shock value' to be revealed perhaps after everything has slowed down. The direction was competent enough but it just didn't play its `aces' well.

The film is also decently acted as Shin Hyeon-Jun is by no means a slouch in his performance. The man has done comedies (Guns and Talks) and action epics (Bichunmoo); now he tries his hand at horror. He does a decent performance despite that he has so little to work with, he was rather convincing as the single father of an ailing child. Pretty Song Yu-Ah is the most intriguing character in the film. She is lovely, smart and exudes that "girl next door look". The blossoming feelings that start to surface between the two isn't surprising; this is a Korean film so expect the a "bittersweet" resolution to all of this.

"Face" is a decent horror movie from South Korea. The plot does have some holes when you nit-pick each one and its direction needed to be more coherent and solid. There were times that I felt that the script was just running all over the place. The supposed `shocking' revelation lost some of its effect because it showed its hand too soon that it felt like a throw-away detail. I was rather disappointed that the direction didn't play all its cards right. On a film like this, timing is everything. On the plus side, the film is quite touching in its own way and plays its theme of love and devotion successfully. The film isn't really that bad but thankfully it wasn't a lot worse.

Recommended with caution, Rent it first. [3 Stars]

There's this guy who does facial reconstructions for the police. His daughter is about to undergo heart transplantation but he is handed a case which he refuses to look after his daughter.
He is "sent" an assistant and, after much supernatural trauma (many familiar motifs here), he decides to accept the case.
The beauty of this film is that it takes you here, then there, then somewhere else and ultimately leaves you not knowing the direction you're going in...until you've got there.
It's a good one.

What is not to like ? Great story and top notch acting. Yun-ah Song and Hyeon-jun Shin are outstanding in there roles, I will be keeping my eye on these two.
As you have read this is kind of a haunted C.S.I. sort of story with our main man Hyeon-jun being a forensic artist that can sculpt a face out of clay on a skull like I have seen on Court T.V. and A.M.W.
The ghost are creepy as hell and the story is nice and tight.
You should hunt this film down like John Walsh would track down a "Narco Terrorist".

"Face," by director Sang-Gon Yoo is not a great horror film, but it is well above average. The film is a thriller, suspense, and horror film rolled into one. I am not quite sure what attracted me to this film--but I did find it to be one of the better ones of the genre. Not great, but good enough to recommend to others. The film centers around the character Hyun-min Lee (Hyun-jun Shin) who is a facial reconstructionist, and it is his job to put faces to unknown skulls. He works for the police, and his work entails the methodical and near exact science of trying to put a name to the unknown dead. Further, Hyun-min Lee is a widower, and he is taking care of a very sick child. Because of his daughters weakening condition [she has recently had a heart transplant] he decides to leave the force in order to take care of her. However, because he is needed by the police to help identify unknown victims--it is decided that he can work at home. This way he can take care of his daughter while also helping the police.

Moreover, he has a new assistant. She is Jung Sun-Young (Yoon-ah Song). She leaves a skull in a box in his lab, telling him that the face needs to be recognized. However, for some reason he refuses to work on this skull. Yet, strange things begin to happen and a strange event occurs which leads him to believe that the spirit of the deceased wants to be recognized. Suddenly, many strange occurrences begin to happen. With the eagerness of Lee now trying to solve the identity of the latest skull, another area of the film opens up. The lead Detective who has been investigating a recent spate of murders discovers that there is a connection to the killings, as they have all had there hearts checked out prior to their deaths. Moreover, the detective discovers that Lee's daughter has a condition called beta-allergy, and that his daughter Jin is a patient of a one Dr. Yoon, who is a heart transplant specialist.

The detective begins to suspect something about the skull that Lee is presently working on. I do not wish to spoil this film for you. Therefore, I will go no further with the plot, other than to say that the film is very good for this type of genre. Plus, the film acts as a thriller, mystery, suspense, and horror film rolled into one. What is it about this skull? And what connection does it have to Lee? Will Lee be able to identify this skull? And what about all of the strange behavior happening around him? Will it finally cease? Or is there something more sinister surrounding the skull. I liked this film. The twists in the film are great, and you will see this worked out at the end of the narrative. I don't want to give out too many details, but the film does deliver as a very good mystery. Recommended. Rent it first. [Stars: 3.5]

Someone is murdering young women and dumping their skulls. Not only that but the murderer is melting the bodies. If it were merely a matter of removing fingers or pulling out teeth to prevent identification, sure, but the whole body? A very grisly opening scene involving the removal of the heart sets opens Face, so titled because of the rights of the unidentified dead, to get their faces and hence their identities back, setting the theme of the movie.

The person placing names to skulls is National Institute of Scientific Investigation facial reconstruction artist Lee Hyun-min, a widower whose young daughter Jin recently had a heart transplant, but because she is beta-allergic, she is having reactions following surgery. He demands to know whether the donor had heart issues, but the doctor evasively brushes him off by saying that the donor's family wanted confidentiality, plus that he personally checked the heart himself. Lee wants to resign to look after Jin, but the police need him to ID faces ASAP. The director compromises by allowing him to work at home. Lee also sends his daughter to his mother's place in the country away from the hustle and bustle of Seoul.

In comes Jung Sun-Young, his new assistant as appointed by his boss. She's pretty but a bit cheeky, as she leaves behind a skull assigned to him that he refuses to ID. She tells him, "That victim had a face. Whoever it was deserves one, and you can get it back." However, his refusal results in weird happenings, such as weird high-pitched sounds, sand in the sink, and yes, before you can see Ju'on, the presence of a crawling woman in a white dress. The materialization of that presence provides one of the creepier moments of the film. He agrees and lets Sun-Young help him, but on a limited basis. In flashbacks, the viewer sees Jung as a member of a scuba diving club. She also seems to have a philosophical but positive outlook on life. When commented on how she entered facial reconstruction in college, by changing boats, she tells her classmates, "That's what life's all about. Your fate changes before you ever know it. That's the fun part of life."

In the meantime, Detective Suh is investigating the murders, and discovers a connection when he finds out that they had their hearts scanned prior to their deaths. That leads him to finding out about beta-allergy and Dr. Yoon, a renowned heart-transplant specialist at Daeyoung Hospital who also happens to be Jin's doctor. He's the typical intelligent cop with a correct hunch, and with a boss who dismisses his theories. His meeting with Lee leads the latter to wonder if the skull he's working on belonged to the victim whose heart is now in Jin.

Lee's talent as an artist can be seen, his work on the skull, from the extending pegs set on the skull, and the gray-green clay he uses to duplicate muscles and skin. He expertly explains to his assistant how the masseter and zygomatic muscles vary distinctively from person to person and that is why people have different faces. The wrong amount of clay applied to the skull, and one might get a whole different face. He does gradually warm up to Sun-Young, even giving her a hairclip to keep her hair in place after she puts a pair of bulldog clips in her hair. But even after he IDs the skull, the weird noises continue, as well as a dream leading him to yet another skull.

Ostensibly told linearly, a sudden clever twist towards the end makes the viewer realize that such is not the case. And after watching the film, the viewer realizes some innocuous words that in hindsight were clues to the mystery.

Part horror, part suspense, part detective-thriller, the well-directed Face is one of the better Korean films distributed in the U.S. by Tartan Asia Extreme, with its two winning leads, Shin Hyun-Jun as the low-key but gentle Lee, and Song Yoon-Ah as Jung Sun-Young. Face is also about regaining one's soul and happiness. Lee is tired and worried throughout the film because of his daughter and work. And by finding victims their faces, he does them a service and thus gets his grace, or soul back. So if you watch this, you won't lose face--sorry I just couldn't resist.

<strong>Peiseu</strong> (Sang-gon Yoo, 2004)

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but by coincidence, I ended up watching two Asian films about the underground organ-harvesting trade in one day. This is the one I knew covered that information, and it's the one I liked less, albeit slightly less; while there's a lot of good material here, and it's all well-presented, you're not going to find anything here you haven't seen before, probably many times.

Hyun-min Lee (<em>The Legend of the Shadowless Sword</em>'s Hyun-jun Shin) is Korea's premiere facial reconstruction artist, but he quit his job recently in order to move to the country with his daughter, who has a congenital heart defect and is not expected to live longer without a transplant. She's currently off living with Grandma while he finishes cutting his ties with the institute where he works (where are all these jobs where people beg you to stay when you quit? I see them in movies all the time, but in real life, not so much...), but on the day before he's supposed to leave, Sun-yeong Jeong (<em>Arang</em>'s Yun-ah Song), an up-and-coming university student whose greatest desire is to study under him, turns up with a box containing a skull. He refuses her, but she will only take a conditional no for an answer; she tells him she's leaving the box with him overnight and will be back to pick it up the next day. Cue haunting. When she comes back, the skull is out and mounted, though he has no memory of doing it, and so he reluctantly starts the process, both figuring out who belongs to this skull and mentoring Sun-yeong in the process. Meanwhile, other bodies are being discovered, and the ghosts haunting Hyun-min seem to be trying to point him to the killer.

<em>Peiseu</em> is a movie that's trying to be a little too much at once, I think. There's the obvious romance angle, there's the police procedural/mystery angle, there's the creepy-long-haired-ghost angle. Any two of those together would probably have worked well, but the material feels stretched a little thin, and it's likely you'll see the Big Twist(TM) coming a mile away. But it's all quite stylish and easy on the eyes; it's not an hour and a half you'll find yourself regretting, though you may want to just watch some of the other movies that did it just as well the first time around. ** ½

A killer is kidnapping, mutilating, and melting (!!) young women. The police are baffled. Forensic sculptor, Hyun-Min is expected to add a face to the skull of the latest victim. The trouble is that he's had enough, w/ his wife dead and his daughter in the hospital, Hyun-Min wants to retire from his profession altogether. Unfortunately, his latest partner won't stop pushing him. Of course, there's also the ghost that haunts Hyun-Min, and the nightmares, and the bizarre sounds in his head! FACE is another wonderfully creepy, Asian ghost story. Filled w/ mystery, suspense, and supernatural terror, this movie is the perfect addition to any spook-shelf...

I recently watched another Korean horror/thriller hybrid which was also a police procedural titled "Arang" and thought it was well-made. Well, "Face" is similar yet different and both are generally quite good.

In "Face", Hyun-min (Shin Hyun-jun) plays a face reconstruction specialist who basically helps the police ID murder victims by reconstructing their faces [based on their skulls]. His daughter Gin is suffering some side effects from a recent heart transplant and Hyun-Min thinks it has something to do with the donor whose identity the surgeon won't reveal.Meanwhile, the police are desperate to solve a series of murders where victims' skeletal remains are found without any flesh. One day ,an attractive young woman Sun-Young [Song Yoon-Ah] appears on his doorstep with a skull purported to be from the fourth victim for his analysis. She claims she is from the National Insitute of Scientific Investigation and when her appeals for assistance fall on deaf ears, she leaves the skull with him.

When Hyun Min begins experiencing bizarre and horrifying visions of creepy looking entities, he finally ties it to the fact that he needs to work on the skull and gets to work, grudgingly accepting Sun-Young's help. The rest of the story deals with how Hyun Min and Sun-Young gradually unravel the mystery of skull leading them to further clues that point towards other victims and eventually the solving of the case.

There are some unexpected twists in this movie that kept my interest - and even shades of the Sixth Sense, so this is not just a pure scare-a-minute Asian horror movie.

Though the scare effects are not very convincing, there are some gotcha moments that make you think. If it's pure creepy factor that you're going for, you will be disappointed. But, if you are a fan of police procedurals and thrillers with a creepy undertone, then this is worth a viewing. I liked both Face and Arang, both hybrid horror/thrillers and found the suspense element carried the movie through with a bit of horror to enhance the viewing experience. All in all, well worth a try!