Product Details

• Actors: Ji-hyo Song, Han-byeol Park, An Jo, Ji-Yeon Park, Su-a Hong
• Directors: Jae-yeon Yun
• Writers: Soyoung Lee
• Producers: Choon-Yeon Lee, Eun-mi Ahn, Jae-hong Kim
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Korean (Dolby Digital 5.1), Korean (DTS 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Tartan Video
• DVD Release Date: July 19, 2005
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009NCQL4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,520 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Wishing Stairs" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fox, fox...please grant my wish, February 12, 2006

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wishing Stairs (DVD)

Wishing Stairs is the third in the South Korean high school horror trilogy, and my personal favourite, with Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori coming 2nd and 3rd. The movie revolves around 28 steps leading up to a high school girl's dormitory. But there's also a legend. "If the 29th step appears, it'll grant your wish. ... If you wish really hard, the fox will listen out of pity." So says Kim Soh-wee to her friend Yoon Jin-Sung. Both are high school students at the Yonghwa Art Institute, a specialized art school. True, the fox may grant a wish, but a backlash in the form of tragedy and terror occur as a result, with the wishing student meeting death. All that's due to the competition and jealousy that flare up at a specialized art school.

Soh-Wee is pretty, friendly, lively, and a kind of leader that other students look up to. She's also generous, as she buys concert tickets for herself and Jin-Sung, ditching school, and also the only one to be nice to Uhm Hae-Ju, a rather porky girl whom everyone else teases. However, Soh-wee is also the prima ballerina at school, and when the 26th Seoul Ballet contest arrives, with only one student allowed to nominate the school, despite the teacher Ms. Muhn's assurances of a fair audition, it's basically an audition in name only. But as Ms. Muhn says, the role of Giselle (in Adolf Adamson's Giselle and Albrecht) requires one to convey a lot of emotion, which is no problem for Soh-Hee.

As for Jin-Sung, she's a bit shy, sort of uptight, isn't that good at ballet, and is clearly overshadowed by her prettier friend. She wants to win just once, and she falls prey to jealousy. She climbs the stairs and guess what she wishes for? For her, the backlash occurs when Soh-Hee, whom she was in a tussle with, commits suicide. Despite winning the competition, Jin-Sung is hated by her peers.

The fat and unpopular Uhm Hae-Ju aspires to be a sculptor, as she even made a replica of the wishing stairs. But her disconnect with the real world prevents her from making friends, and in her loneliness and boredom, she eats. Her trip up the stairs results in dramatic weight loss, but being distraught over Soh-Hee's death reverses her condition. And she's also prey to the nasty Han Yoon-Ji, who's determined to win an art competition with her sculpture.

Comparing the warm friendship Soh-Wee and Jin-Sung had at the beginning to the destruction of that warmth is shattering, as Soh-Wee feels hurt and betrayed by her friend's jealousy, especially when Jin-Sung says she hates her and that she makes her feel miserable. It's almost as if they were a couple, with more feminine Soh-Wee being the romantic and loving wife. She even expresses the wish when they turn 20, to live together in an apartment. What was her wish on the stairs? That she and Jin-Sung would always be together. But alas...

There are particular chapters in this film, beginning when a student goes up the stairs, and ending with the aftermath. Scary moments? There are the brief flashes of Soh-Hee dancing around, but what about when the shower water suddenly turns to blood? And there is a Ringu-inspired scene of a white-robed girl climbing through a window.

As the prettiest Korean actress I've ever seen, Park Han-Byul is the glittering jewel of Wishing Stairs as Soh-Wee. Jo An steals the movie, where she gives a comical touches as Hae-Ju, from the funny sounds she makes to the way she runs or waddles off. But she gets Soh-Hee's facial expressions and footwork down when Hae-Ju is possessed by Soh-Hee.

I note similarities between Wishing Stairs and W.W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw," where fate is a theme. In the latter, a father is given a monkey's paw that'll give him three wishes. He wishes for 1) a large sum of money, 2) the return to life of his young son-whose death resulted in the company giving the money-and 3) that everything would be back to normal again. Well, the second and third wishes also are present in Wishing Stairs.

A brilliant cast, tight acting, and superior production values make Wishing Stairs a great, scary, but ultimately tragic story.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Changes...confusion...what's happening??, August 7, 2005

By 

Maryssa (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wishing Stairs (DVD)

I rented this because I really liked the first in this unrelated "series", Whispering Corridors. This 3rd movie has come a long way visually and with budget. It scared the HELL out of me visually at times. Unfortunately it also confused me. I wasn't expecting flashbacks and sequences that you had no way to be sure if they were real or not, and the plot just wasn't strong.
Two friends at a girl's school in Seoul take ballet class in school. It came naturally for So-hee, but Jin-sung has to work very hard to be good and the teacher reminded her. So-hee had been sitting out injured w/ wraps to heal. As things move along, we see that So-hee is an adorable, vibrant personality that does things spontaneously, like sneaking out to a concert or into the school dorm to talk to Jin-sung late at night. One night she says she only does ballet because her mother forces her and she'd rather quit. Then she says that it makes her feel alive. Before she leaves she tells Jin-sung that in 10 years they'll be performing in London, her as Giselle (the lead) and Jin as some other character and leaves. So-hee is also pretty insensitive, clueless, and self-preoccupied. Around this time, the fat, crazy girl in the school with orange hair has been wandering around- being weird. The "wishing stairs" are mentioned and explained in the beginning, and her fascination. One day- she appears to have lost weight, but she still acts and walks awkwardly- she tells Jin-sung what happened. In the meantime, it has been announced that there will be an audition and the best goes to a competition where the winner goes to ballet school in Russia. No one is excited because So-hee takes off her wraps and dances like she was never injured- which inspires gossip. Jin-sung overhears So-hee getting pointers on her dance,etc. -So-hee is so self-centered you really want Jin-sung to win!!
Jin goes to the stais, makes a wish to go to the competition -totally innocent. The next day she breaks a glass in the locker room and switches toe shoes- she comes out ans as Soo-hee dances, her foot starts to bleed badly. Ignoring it, she finishes perfectly and no one mentions it. After that Jin doesn't even want to talk to So-hee who keeps bugging her. Things come to a head on a staircase where Jin tells her she hates her and So-hee, used to getting everything she wants, grabs her. Jin tries to get loose and Soo-hee falls down the stairs. Jin wins the competition in So-hee's place and we see her go to the hospital. So-hee looks fine and is wheeling around in a wheel-chair. Next day- news that she's dead(?!?!?) and everyone is mad at Jin. That's when the crazy girl mourns the loss of her secret idol by asking the stairs to bring her back to her. That's when the hauntings and possessions begin. The scene of So-hee as a dead girl in her costume following Jin and dancing was terrifying! 5 stars to that, but other things were just too confusing and not explained after that. At the beginning and that one point, it IS the movie described on the box, before it shatters into confusion again.
This is the third movie in the Whispering Corriders series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stairway to Hell, July 30, 2007

By 

K. LeBlanc "horror fanatic" (New England, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wishing Stairs (DVD)

As you've no doubt already read, Wishing Stairs is the third entry in the popular 'Haunted School' series of Korean horror films, beginning with Whispering Corridors and followed by Memento Mori. Whispering Corridors was very well shot and well acted, but the real horror inflicted by the cruel, perverse, and overbearing teacher vastly overshadowed any of the supernatural horrors in it. Memento Mori functioned better as a heart-wrenching drama of the forbidden love between two school girls than as a horror film, which feels sort of tacked-on. Wishing Stairs, while not quite perfect, seems to have finally gotten the mix correct.

According to the film's legend, the 28 stairs to the dormitories are said to be enchanted by the Fox spirit, and if the 29th step appears, the Fox will grant your wish. Of course, the wish never turns out like any of the characters would hope. Enter So-Hee and Jin-Sung, two close friends who take ballet classes together (when they're not skipping school to go to concerts). So-Hee is the prettier of the two, and the more talented, however she is only taking ballet because of her mother's own life failings and doesn't really enjoy it. Jin-Sung is slightly more average-looking, and not as talented as her friend, but her passion for the art is genuine. Of course, this passion causes conflict when an audition comes up and Jin-Sung knows in her heart that she'll be passed over in favor of her more blase' friend, and this causes deep resentment in her.

So imagine her surprise when she sees the much-maligned Hye-Ju, once the school's chubby bulls-eye for cruel pranks, suddenly svelte as a result of the stairs, Jin-Sung implores the Fox to allow her to win the competition. Of course, she wins, but only as a result of So-Hee injuring her foot. After a tussle on an unrelated staircase, resulting in So-Hee's demise, Jin-Sung wins not only the audition but also the ire of her classmates.

Hye-Ju is quite distraught over So-Hee's death, as So-Hee was one of the only girls who was ever nice to her. Also, while the stairs granted her wish to be thin, she still was the same awkward and socially-stunted girl she always was, and as a result still eats to excess. Only now she ends up purging everything she eats as a result of her wish. Her life sucks now, and she begs the Fox to bring her only friend back to her, which obviously doesn't quite go as planned.

It's after this point where things go horribly wrong with the characters and the school, as it seems that the school has become haunted by So-Hee's vengeful spirit, as well as a now-possessed Hye-Ju. But are these hauntings of the supernatural variety, or are they the product of Jin-Sung's guilt and Hye-Ju's now psychotic obsession? The movie never quite explains this, and for this, I'm glad. Ultimately, this is a very tragic tale with believable characters, creepy imagery (loved the shots of the stairs), and an excellent soundtrack. However, some of the scare scenes appear lifted from other films, such as a spectral So-Hee crawling in from the window a la Sadako from Ringu (oddly, it still works, though). Other than its dips into far-too-familiar territory, Wishing Stairs remains an excellent addition to any Asian horror enthusiast's library, and my personal favorite of the series.