Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Dear Friend - The Ghost - 靈



Dear Friend (The Ghost/) is a 2004 horror film out of Korea. The film stars Kim Ha-neul, Ryu Jin, and Nam Sang-mi.

Kim Ha-neul plays Min Ji-won, an amnesiac sophomore sociology major at an university. Ryu Jin plays Park Jin-ho, a recent college student after 2 years of military service. Ji-won starts to see things and tries to confide in Jin-ho with no resolve. The ghost in Ji-won's dreams and conscience starts to increase in activity and kills off her high school buddies. will the ghost get Ji-won before she figures it out?

This movie was hard to watch because it employed all the stupid scare tactics used at an Knott's Scary Farm type deal. Lot's of off screen hands, hair a la The Ring, music to try to make you jump. Fortunately for this film, the story behind it was actually pretty interesting. As the main protagonist loses her memory and tries to regain it. In the process of trying to regain her memories, the mystery of the ghost seems to get closer to resolution.

The main appeal of the movie for me was primarily because of Kim Ha-neul. If she were not in this film, I would surely have passed. The story was interesting, but had so many major holes that I was scratching my head a lot. But the screen lit up with Kim Ha-neul around. Having a fresh faced Nam Sang-mi wasn't a bad choice either.

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