Customer Reviews

The Doll Master

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

 

 

"The Doll Master," I must say has at least one thing going for it: It's not a rehash of so many other Asian Horror films that seem to have proliferated our shores and inundated our video stores. There was a time I would have welcomed this, but it gets to a point that originality is being lost on an overabundance of films which are really not that good. Not that American Horror flicks are something to get all excited over either, however, it would be refreshing to see something genuine once in awhile. Since I have a pretty large Asian film collection, I can understand how some people are getting more and more turned off with many of these types of films. [Asian Horror that is!]

Which brings us to the film in question. Is it a good film? Or at least original? Well, yes and no. The plot of the film is pretty good, and as for the characters, well this is a horror film, therefore I usually don't expect Laurence Olivier or Toshiro Mifune. But is it an interesting film? Well, there will be those who dislike the film [no matter what] and there will be those who find the film appealing. This film was given to me by a friend who knows of my love for Japanese and other Asian cinema. [Drama, mystery, horror, samurai, etal.] The film, directed by (Yong-ki Jeong) will not win any awards, but it is not a total failure either. However, it is neither creepy, nor suspensefully nuanced. [To me anyway]

The film is predictable and laughable in many areas. Too many to go into. The film starts off very slowly. Several young people are invited to attend a special and creeepy gallery which is filled with dolls: Many of them life-size. These young adults are to be used as models for dolls by a very reclusive doll-maker: Including the films main protagonist, Hae-mi (Yu-mi Kim). However, they find that they are the object of vengeful spirits which inhabit the dolls [Hasn't this been done before?] Anyway, these dolls are pretty mean and do some terrible things to these young adults. Including killing some of them. There is a high gore level [minus one point for me], however some may enjoy this. I think the film could have been very good, if only the acting was a little more convincing. Recommended with caution.

The Doll Master begins in the past in a countryside during the Japanese occupation of Korea, some 70 years ago. A narrator tells us the tale of a doll maker who fell in love with a woman in red. He makes a doll as a gesture of his love. It works and the woman falls in love with him as well. Later in a tragic set of circumstances, the woman is found murdered. All the people blame the doll master. He is eventually arrested and killed by vigilantes in the woods. The doll, not content to be without her maker, sits by his grave for all time, apparently mourning his loss as if alive. Fast-forward to the present, where a group of strangers from the city have arrived at an isolated art museum in the middle of nowhere, with the promise of dolls to be made in their image. Of the group, there is Hae-mi, a sculptor; Tae-seong, a male model looking for work, Yeong-ha, a woman who claims she talks to her doll Damian, with a photographer and a ditzy high school student rounding out the final two. The group is greeted by the museum's curator, who introduces them to the museum's dolls, as well as a doll maker, who happens to be confined to a wheelchair. After Yeong-ha's doll has its head separated from its body, the guest list starts slimming down fast. All the clues point to a mysterious, young woman, Mi-na from the nearby village who happens to be the doll that Hae-Mi once owned as a child.

So i have to say this movie was not what i xpected but that was the beuty of it. I also loved that is not as trajict as other asian horros films

What's stronger than mere whimsical human love? Love that comes from the Spirit realms!

I love this movie because it depicts aspects of reality that most people today would like to ignore.

I see this story mostly as a love story of a spirit encased in a doll whose love for her human creator entrapped her in this evil human realm. After the doll's creator was murdered, the doll's spirit lingered around and went on a killing spree to entrap and kill all who killed her master. The later victims had no inkling as to the motives of the doll's anger and saw it merely as that, outward anger displayed as symptoms for lost love. This type of spirit can be easily appeased in RL, but most modern folks don't know how to cope with it. Despite some cheesy acting towards the second half of the movie, I felt that the first half of the movie and the last few scenes were particularly poignant and memorable, a very sad tragedy that needs retelling.

Spirit dolls are very easy to create, but if like playing with dolls, make sure you know what you're doing; study first and be careful what you call forth!

Recommended viewing:

Puppet Master Collection

I don't know if the movie is any good, as I wasn't able to watch it. Or, to be precise, to hear it. The movie soundtrack is DTS only, while Dolby Digital is used for the commentaries only (in Korean, with no subtitles). This should be warned in the product description.