(Credit: amazon.com)
Directed by
Woo-cheol Lee
Cast:
Ho-bin Jeong …. Jun-ki
Yu-mi Jeong
Da-an Park …. Kim Tae-yeon
Hyeon-a Seong …. Hong Mi-ju
I find the artistic exchange between the movie industries of South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan to be really interesting. There was a time when the gap between the styles of the three countries was indeed quite wide. For instance check out the gangster pictures of John Woo and Takeshi Kitano during the early 90’s and you’ll see a world of difference. Take a look at the countries’ outputs now though, and you’ll notice those stylistic lines have blurred somewhat.
A good example of this would be Director Woo-cheol Lee’s Cello. Cello tells the story of Hyeon-a Seong ‘s Mi-ju Hong, a high school cello instructor who is not really prospering in her personal life. First off, she’s threatened by a bratty girl that openly scratches her in the teacher’s lounge as part of retribution for a bad grade. After suffering a slashed tire and threatening phone call, you’re wondering where Mi-ju’s backbone is, but then we find out her home life is even worse.
Her oldest daughter, Yoon-jin, seems to be learning impaired and is really pretty creepy, as managing anything but a blank stare seems to be beyond her. Mi-ju’s younger daughter, Yoon-hye, is the exact opposite, cute as a button, but doesn’t seem to get along with her mute sister. Also, I’m not sure if it was intentional or just a bad performance, but Mi-ju seems to have no chemistry at all with her husband Jun-ki (Ho-bin Jeong). This makes for lifeless scenes when the two are together.
Things go from bad to worse when spooky incidents keep frequenting Mi-ju’s household. She receives an audio tape, which seems to try to run her off the road. Jun-ki hires a housekeeper who is as eerie as Yonn-hye is cute. Mi-ju’s sister has her fiancé leave her and then dies in absolutely horrible fashion. A cello purchased for Yoon-jin seems to have awoken a violent nature in the girl, which seems to be related to an incident from Mi-ju’s past.
The whole things builds rather slowly, until the film’s big mystery reveals itself rather unremarkably. There’s quite a bit of bloodshed at the film’s end, but the proceedings aren’t nearly as compelling as the film makers want it to be. Most problems arise because Director Woo-cheol Lee borrows too heavily from the film makers that have gone before him.
Cello has too many moments that echo great Asian Horror of the last few years such as having a sinister tape, ala The Ring, creepy dead people, ala The Eye, and scary looking children and black smoke, ala The Grudge. I’m all for homage, but this often borders on rip off.
The film contains decent performances, but this film is so pedestrian that each actor is buried in this tired plot. Film makers would have been better off trying to come up with something truly original, which is what I see time and time out from Asia Horror maestros Chan Wook Park or Takashi Miike, who are on a different level from the makers of Cello. Aside from the cute Yonn-hye, there’s really nothing here to recommend.
Score: 3.5/10
The Video
The print on this disc looks good but not great. The colors just don’t pop as they should sometimes, which is a shame because cinematography is an area where this film tries to excel. The film is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The Audio
The audio track is on par with the disc’s video. There’s nothing spectacular, but the film’s score comes out nicely. The film’s soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Making of Documentary, Audio Commentary, Trailers
Audio Commentary with Director and Producer – This is a decent commentary, though it’s in Korean, so you’ll have to put the subtitles on. Both of the people on here are pretty proud of the film they made, and that’s fine. They don’t come off as overly pretentious and keep the commentary going throughout.
Behind the Scenes documentary – This runs about 35 minutes, but at the same time, try as I may I couldn’t find a way to put subtitles on it, so most of it is a mystery.
Trailers – You get a slew of trailers for other Tartan titles, the best of which is the trailer for Chan Wook Park’s Lady Vengeance, which actually had me more excited than anything else on this entire disc.
Score: 4.5/10
| InsidePulse’s Ratings for Cello | |
