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Geoul sokeuro (2003)

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14 comments in total

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Pretty creepy and effective South Korean horror., 26 December 2004

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby,Poland

Wu Young-min, a former policeman who inadvertently brought about the death of his partner during a face off with a criminal,has quit the police force and now heads up security at Dreamapia Department Store as an employee of the security company SecuZone.Having been caught up in the situation at the department store Wu comes across his former rival and co-worker Ha Hyun-su,who now heads the investigation into the recent murders linked with mirrors.A mysterious woman Lee Ji-hyun is found lingering about the crime scenes.Without wishing it,Wu is drawn into the creepy mystery surrounding the murders."Into the Mirror" is a creepy South Korean horror with some striking visuals.There is very little gore,fortunately the aura of distinctive mood is clearly visible.The acting is great and the climax totally creeped me out.All in all if you are a fan of recent slew of Asian horror give this one a look.8 out of 10.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Living Inside the Mirror, 18 July 2007

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After the accidental death of his partner Young-ho in a hostage situation, the former detective of the Seoul Special Operations Force Woo Young-min (Ji-tae Yu) feels responsible for the tragedy and quit the police force joining the private security company SecuZone. His uncle and owner of the department store Dreampia, Jeon-il Sung (Ju-bong Gi), hires Woo to be the chief of the security of Dreampia, which was rebuilt after a fire where many employees died and is near the reopening in spite of the protest of the families of the victims that claim their indemnity. When an employee dies after hours in the store, Woo leads an internal investigation, while detective Ha Hyun-Su (Myeong-mim Kim) that blames Woo for the death of his friend Young-ho, and his assistant Park, come to the store to lead an official investigation. When other employees that worked in the same department are mysteriously killed in the store, Woo meets Lee Ji-hyun (Hye-na Kim), the twin sister of Lee Jeong-hyun, that convinces him that her sister has not died in the fire and is trapped in the mirrors, while Ha Hyun-Su believes that Lee Ji-hyun is the serial killer.

"Geoul Sokeuro" is another great South Korean horror movie. With a complex screenplay that discloses an intricate and intriguing supernatural plot, this film is supported by great direction and acting and excellent camera work, using mirrors in many unexpected scenes. The horror is not gore but psychological, and there is an important and complex explanation about the "mirror-world" that is basic to understand the end of the story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Espelho" ("Mirror")

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A self-reflective murder mystery., 23 January 2008

Author: Roger Burke (mayapan1942@yahoo.com) from Australia

This could have been a good story if it had not been a supernatural fantasy. By combining the elements of murder mystery with fantasy, however, means that the viewer has a bigger job in suspending disbelief...

So, why did I keep watching? One reason only: the very clever use of mirrors that form a constant motif – in fact, a psychological sine qua non – throughput the entire film. To that extent, this is a stunner. The camera techniques will have you trying to work out how a particular shot was achieved. So, from a technical aspect, the production crew deserves high marks, no question.

The story, however, is difficult to follow and not only because sub-titles are generally atrocious to follow; it's just a very convoluted narrative that twists and turns along many paths. Fortunately for me, that was alleviated to some extent by the clever visuals.

And, now that I think of it, there's another reason for watching this film: the ending. All through the story, mirrors are the focus – for many important reasons, as you will see – and at the end, there's a twist that hints at much wider implications about the real world and the nature of reality. A bit arty, perhaps, as an ending, but one that does reflect the problem of personal identity. When you watch, you'll see what I mean...

Not recommended for kiddies.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A curate's egg of a movie, but engaging nonetheless, 29 December 2004

Author: Danny_G13 from Glasgow, Scotland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Despite being unsure what it is, Into the Mirror succeeds in spinning an entertaining yarn.

Ji-tae Yu is Woo Yeong-min, a former policeman who's been reduced to security guard for his uncle's company since a hostage incident 1 year prior resulted in the death of a man as a consequence of a mistake from Min. He opted to shoot the aggressor and missed, shooting his reflection by mistake. The occurrence left him completely traumatised and entirely miserable, and unable to look himself in the mirror.

However, when 2 employees of the company die in extremely mysterious circumstances, Min's former partner on the force, Heo Hyeon-su joins the investigation and strange goings on continue.

Part supernatural chiller, part cop drama, part psychological drama, part surreal mystery, Into the Mirror is very much an eclectic mix of different styles of movie. It without question succeeds in the basic discipline of any film, that of concertedly engaging the viewer's attention for the duration, and it does this thanks to a number of elements:

First of all the cinematography is spot on, and is extremely good at facilitating the supernatural psychology. Aided by a director who seems to know exactly what to show us, each scene is smartly captured, with many clever uses of mirrors. Many occasions will call for your attention on more than one thing, and the mystery of wondering what, if any, wrongness will occur is well realised.

Furthermore, the acting is surprisingly decent for an Asian movie. As ignorant as that may sound, I have viewed many Asian films and the acting is uniformly rather bland. Even though westerners do not understand the language, emotion et al can still come across on celluloid and Asian movies are often left wanting here. However, Into the Mirror is more than decent in this area for once, with good performances from a fair few players. It certainly adds to the experience when it's not just the story we watch for.

There lies another strength. As touched on earlier the movie is downright entertaining, and relies on a pretty strong script and effective narrative. This film is never boring, aided and abetted by a script which never has vacuous moments and empty sequences. Everything is there for a reason.

However, the big weakness is the overriding suspicion that the film really doesn't know what it is trying to be. With so many styles mixed together, it comes across as more of a salad bowl than melting pot. Weird goings-on akin to the spooky occurrences in movies like Ring seem a little out of joint in the company of a police drama and crime mystery.

However, if you are willing to forgive this lack of harmony, like I, then you can overlook it and accept the movie for what it is: An entertaining yarn with enough going for it to keep you watching.

One last flaw though is the ending. Obviously I am not going to give it away, but the problem with it is it seems far too ambitious, and not a tad confusing. I was left not so much baffled as to what was going on, but what it actually meant overall. This took the shine off perhaps a little, but it was still a fine picture overall and I would still recommend it.

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3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
disappointing, 11 July 2005

Author: rand corp from Belgium

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The last few years we've exposed to a lot of Asian horror movies, from Takashii Miike movies to Korean masterpieces as "a tale of two sisters", most of these movie share one single characteristic, they are incredibly aesthetic.....this one doesn't fail in this field, except for a few little mistakes, the movie is beautifully shot unfortunately it's not enough to make a good movie....

while for example "audition", aforementioned "a tale of two sisters", or ab-normal beauty (my favorite three movies of the kind) this one lacks substance....it seems everything was made just to get beautiful mirror effects....

the story itself is full of cliché's, and while it still works the first 30 minutes, the next hour I surprised myself at wondering when this would finally end, the ending was quite a huge disappointment too (even though I won't give spoilers about it, let's just say it didn't work for me)

I give this 5 out of ten points, and I feel I'm being quite mild....

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5 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A very mixed bag, 2 February 2005

Author: jangu from Stockholm, Sweden

Parts of this horror movie are absolutely brilliant. The opening scene, with the doomed girl standing in front of a mirror, is a real stunner! And for the first half hour things move along quite effectively. We get some amazing visuals, mostly concerning mirrors, and good suspense too. Then, after that half hour mark, we get some truly boring dialog scenes and a lot of quarreling between our hero (who, according to me, seems to be a nice guy but a complete bore!) and an ex-colleague of his (he used to be a police but resigned after a shooting accident). Things pick up later in the movie, but the ending is a little bit of a let-down, because the build-up had so far been (mostly) very effective. But it is a nice idea for a horror story and well directed! Give it a try and I think you'll like it! :-)

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5 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
One excellent film, 3 January 2004

Author: narcissus293 from California, US

This film was based on a psychological analysis for mirror and patients who suffered severe shocks. The movie doesn't really have a ghost or a bloody scene, however, the flimmaker intentionally puts mirror into the film many times, the fear and thrill flows underneath the screen.

The film starts with a department store in South Korea, the department store caught fire and one woman was killed. Few years later the department store was opened again and those people who hold secrets of the department store and the dead woman began to be killed.

To tell the truth, the film was great and I recommend you all to see this!!

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Korean horror similar to phone, 8 October 2005

Author: The3Extremes from the zoo

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Into the mirror is indeed, yet another great Asian horror film that's plot revolves around ghosts, possessed spirits and pretty gruesome killings. The trademark plot twist isn't there, though there is a surprise ending(i wouldn't call it a twist) The film is about mirrors. In Korea it is believed that there are 2 worlds, the normal world and the mirror world. They believe that if you die in the real world you remain in the mirror world, and if you die in the mirror world you have no reflection. Into the mirror is original and at some points very eerie. The film is quite gruesome and has some cringe-worthy moments. The end is a bit muddled but still a must-see for Asian horror fans.

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2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
I always thought there was something unnerving about mirrors., 5 January 2006

Author: lost-in-limbo from the Mad Hatter's tea party.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

An ex-cop becomes as a security guard to escape the haunting past where a mistake cost him his partner's life. Now he's working in a shopping complex owned by his uncle, but he gets caught up in a series of bizarre deaths that are occurring in the building. All of these deaths seem to be link somehow to mirrors, which cover most of the building. So now he becomes involved in the police investigation surrounding these unusual circumstances.

Another little unknown Asian flick, this time from South Korea, which really snuck up on me. But on that point it had me in two minds. Neither was it bad nor good. At times, I couldn't care less what was happening, but at least it didn't follow the same suit of most Asian films of last couple of years… well kinda. 'Into the Mirror' is a murder mystery that dabbles into the supernatural by involving the folklore about a world that lives through the mirror, where a part of our soul can cross over.

To quote the narration from the flick "Self-hatred triggered by a mental shock, can cause a personality to split and perceive two worlds inside and outside the mirror. The world is divided into two symmetrical worlds, both perceived by the person who is psychologically split. If you die outside the mirror you can still be living inside. And if you die inside the mirror you see no reflection".

Now that would've made for an involving watch, but sadly this idea isn't taken advantage of. Instead it's just too bad that they seemed to settle on the tired and we've seen it all before sub-plot about the cop trying to come to terms with his past and then getting involved in a investigation that doesn't really add up. This actual sub-plot does have merit to how it connects with this mirror theory, but it's not as interesting as delving into this belief of two worlds. The parts involving this premise are the most lively and neat moments within the film.

The opening half an hour has such a brood mood and nice supernatural touch, with characters dying strange deaths and the last 15 minutes has a decent climax that probably goes on for too long, but it ends in a cool fashion. Then there's the ending which makes you think well there goes by a good story right there, why did it take that long (?). The mid-section is where it gets really bogged down though, the drama element sees most of the daylight and by shaping the way for the lengthy investigation and feuding cops moments… and the creepy opening to it all has sort of lost its way through this stage. During the middle half it's not so hard to tell what's going to happen next and so the puzzle isn't really one at all, because you already guessed the key players. But you have to wait until the last 15 min for some new unexpected twists. There's a moral stacked into the story about conquering your fear, or it will eventually destroy if you don't face it and not to trust what you always see.

The film looks a treat, being rather stylish in detail and in its glossed up set pieces. They make good use of the film's environment (that being mostly set in a shopping complex) with beautifully presented ideas and visuals make you sit up. Helping that is a bone rattling score and the camera-work has its moments by putting you off balance with its fluid angles and shots. The performances are incredibly down played and mostly giving lifeless expressions, but that works out within this film's dour context, but the main lead was probably a bit too wooden.

'Into the Mirror' is a fair and ambitious horror-mystery flick, even if it's a muddle of ideas executed in a patchy manner. You just can't stop thinking what could have been if they concentrated more on the supernatural side of things.

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3 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Interesting at points, but leaves one feeling unsatisfied..., 17 January 2006

Author: kayakofan from Orange County, California

"Into the Mirror" has an interesting and unique premise, a good story, and a few decently creepy scenes. And even though it sounds promising, you can't help but feel as if there's something missing. The first ten minutes has all the atmosphere, all the suspense, and the shock factor to make the rest of the film great. But the atmosphere, the sense of dread and suspense strangely disappears after then, and never really comes back. From then on, it sets up the mystery, and until the last twenty-five minutes, things are dull and uninvolving.

Despite the apparent terror factor that's missing, I do have to say that the film itself is well-made and has high-quality production values. The photography and imagery is nice, the Ho-sung Kim's direction is stylish and artsy, the acting is really good (with a very welcomed performance by Ji-tae Yu, as seen in "Gawi" and "Oldboy"), and the visual effects are impressive.

So, I know a lot of people love this movie, but I personally think this is, well.. a wasted opportunity. There's some interesting things here, but "Into the Mirror" left me disappointed.

My rating: 5.5/10.

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