Arang

The movie Arang, is one of the Asian Extreme films I have been meaning to watch. As I mentioned before, they do like the whole long hair over the face with only one eye showing. It is in every one of these movies! This film is somewhat based on the Korean legend of Arang. As the legend goes, Arang was the virginal daughter of a diplomat. She would go off at night with her nurse to view the full moon. On one of these moonlight visits, the nurse had conspired with one of the other servants who waited on her and attempted to rape her. She fought him, and lost her life in the struggle. The nurse and servant ditched the body in the bamboo and made up a story that she was kidnapped. Every night she would return and appear to the new captain of the guard to ask for her murderer to be found. Unfortunately, each time she appeared the captain died of fright. Finally after a few years, one was appointed that didn’t have such a weak constitution. He told the ghost he would do his best with the clue she gave him, which was a red flag. The next morning, he starts his investigation only to find the people were working on his funeral arrangements as every other time the officers died on the first night. He demanded a list of all the people who worked there Glancing down the list he found the name Ju Ki (주기- 朱旗). The name Ju Ki means “red flag”. Remembering the red flag waved by Arang, he demanded that the nurse and the servant, Ju Ki, be brought before him. The nurse and the servant eventually confessed. The servant led the new deputy delegate into the bamboo grove to where he had hid Arang’s body. Arang’s body lay with the knife still in her breast. They were startled to see that the body had not decayed and was still in perfect condition. The deputy delegate removed the knife and the body immediately decomposed until only the bones were left. The bones were then taken and given a proper burial.

The movie, though named for the legend, has very little to do with the actual legend itself. It takes place in Korea and deals with rape and a very strong female detective who is getting dreams of the young woman, but there the similarities end. The story revolves around a group of friends who after finals, went to a village to celebrate and get into a fight with a local boy and kill him. 10 years pass and one by one the now successful men are getting a strange e-mail. Eerie music plays and they each die in some strange fashion. A woman detective is brought in on the case with a new partner. She starts having dreams and while dealing with her own inner demons, works to solving the mystery.

The movie was really good. I loved the story line and the detective, So-young (Yun-ah Song) was a great role. As most of these films in the Asian extreme horror line deal with revenge however, it all seemed to be rehashed. A lot of these films seem similar but tend to have some aspect that makes them unique in one way or another. This one had a nice little twist to it that I didn’t really see coming until halfway through the film. I always like it when it takes me a little bit of time to say “Oh, I get it now”. Also, unlike the last few films, this one actually showed more of the deaths and explained a bit more on why these guys were getting killed off. Unfortunately there were quite a few plot holes, especially when we get to the end and start to wrap it up. Where Arang was very much like Shutter, I felt that Arang carried the story much better and was handled in a more entertaining fashion.

On a side note for this branch of the genre, where these films do come up with some great ghost stories, they tend to only focus on the main character. The people who die off during the film you really don’t get to know so well. I mean yes, we don’t like these guys for what they did. However, it makes the deaths detached. You only get to see a glimpse of the person they became and the person they were but other than that, you get no emotional attachment to the characters. This just makes the kills so impersonal, especially when the revenge aspect is such a personal thing.

On the gore factor, there really isn’t that much. As the ghost movies tend to base the mood on the atmosphere rather than the blood and guts. This was carried off very well. I think the most disturbing was the dead dog part, which still eludes me on how So-young figured that part out…. “Something hidden…” oh well that means we should dig up that dead dog from the first guy’s house to find the clue! Now, being a dog owner myself, I know dogs will eat just about anything, but that is not what I would have thought of…I guess I would make a crappy detective!

So, what we have here is not anything new. But it is handled in a better way than some of the others like it. Plot holes and all, it was an interesting film and the tie into the legend was a nice touch.

3 hair showers out of 5