#11 - The Red Shoes (2005)
(dir. Yong-gyun Kim)
Sun-jae is a young woman who, after walking in on
her husband cheating on her, ends up divorced and starting her life
again. She moves into a small, shoddy apartment with her young
daughter, where they are staying until she gets her own business up on
its feet. On the subway ride home one night, she finds an odd pair of
"red" shoes (although clearly they are pink). Finding herself strangely
drawn to them, she picks them up and brings them home. She soon finds
that the shoes have a strange effect on women - anyone who sees them has
an uncontrollable urge to put them on and steal them. Once they take
them, though, they inevitably end up murdered and with their feet cut
off, and the shoes somehow find their way back to Sun-jae.
I
know "haunted shoes" sounds like the premise for a bad Stephen King
novel, but it actually works really well here. The film takes it's
subject matter seriously, and the gorgeous cinematography and great
acting really back that up. Asian horror seems to be filled with
haunted objects and vengeful ghosts, and even though this film doesn't
exactly push any boundaries (oh look, a ghost with long wet hair
covering her face!), it's so well done that I can't complain about the
cliches. The film has a sort of dream-like feel to it, and I thought it
did a great job of conveying the confusion and terror that Sun-jae is
feeling. It also helps that the actress playing her (Kim Hye-soo) is
really good at acting terrified.
Overall, I thought that this was one of the best examples of this sort of Asian ghost story that I've ever seen. It's beautifully shot, and it's always good to find a horror movie where the plot is genuinely interesting and not just there to set up the scary scenes. Speaking of the scary parts - there are a lot of them, and they are mostly extremely effective. Out of the films I've watched for the horrorthon this year, this is the first one that really had me on the edge of my seat (literally, towards the end). There is such a great feeling of dread and confusion that I found it impossible to not get sucked in.
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