Director
Lim Dae-Woong
Cast
Oh Mee-Hee Miss Park
Seo Yeung-Hee Nam Mi-ja
Yeo Hyun-Su Se-ho
Lee Ji-Hyun Sun-hee
Park Hyo-Joon Dar-bong
Yoo Sul-Ah Eun-young
Lee Dong-Kyu Myung-ho
Jang Sung-Won Jung-won
DVD Release Date: March 13, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 93 Minutes
The Movie
Mrs. Park is an old school teacher who has over time developed a serious illness confining her to a wheelchair. The last years of her life have been quite hard and difficult as her illness has gotten worse and made her body deteriorate more and more as death approaches. She wishes to get back together with some of her favorite students though before she does end up dying and invites them all to join her at her home. They know she is not going to be around much longer and grant her request, but they don’t know about all the things that have horribly affected Mrs. Park’s life besides her illness.
When she was younger, Mrs. Park had a fantastic life teaching children and living with her husband. She had become pregnant and they would now have their complete family and a child of her very own that she could teach and mold. Fate dealt them a horrible blow as their child was born extremely deformed and it was too much for his father to take. Mrs. Park’s husband hanged himself in front of their young child and she was forced to raise him all alone. But to keep her child from the pains of the world, she kept him locked in the basement for she was all he needed. No-one else.
Still, their teacher was one of the people who had a big influence and the students arrive one by one seeing each other for the first time in years. They have of course grown up and changed, but they spent so much time with one another that they are still able to tell who each other are. They all show their extreme gratitude and respect to Mrs. Park letting her know just how much she changed all their lives. Her death would be a great blow to them all, and they don’t want it to come for a long time. She meant so much to them all that even the shyest kid in school shows up to see her once more.
Reminiscing, eating, drinking, and laughing; the group has a great afternoon talking about old times and just learning about each other’s lives now. Day turns into night and the group continues learning more about one another, but slowly they begin disappearing. It isn’t long until we see them being tortured in various ways down in a dark room more like a basement. It’s then that a deranged person in a bunny mask is revealed to be the one kidnapping and committing the horrible murders. Not only must they try and keep themselves alive, but the mystery of who is behind the mask and why is eating at those still living.
Lim Dae-Woong has done an excellent job in creating a blood and guts horror flick into a deep storied mystery film. At first glance it seems almost comparable to any Friday The 13th you’ve ever seen. People get together for a good time and deformed freak runs around in a mask killing people. But see, that’s only what you think is going on so don’t get upset thinking I just gave away who is behind the bunny mask.
Everyone in the film has a lot more to them then what they simply show on the outside and how they are interacting with everyone else. Mrs. Park has her demons just as every single former student who shows up wanting to thank her and pay give their final regards before her passing on. And her demons run much deeper then a deformed son she kept locked away in a basement. They are all connected in such a unique way that even the deaths have more meaning to them then the simple useless killings.
For only an hour and a half film portraying itself as an eighties slasher, there was almost as much of a deep story in it as there was in Se7en. Everyone played their parts perfectly and the story you think are watching ends up turning into many different directions all with the help of a magnificent twist. It’s amazing how the actions done and the incidents that occur during childhood can carry on through a person’s entire life.
The Video
The film is shown in Anamorphic Widescreen and looks pretty good. My only real concern is that at times the colors look somewhat dull and it’s almost as if the entire film has a bit of a dim tone to it. So I’m not quite sure if that was intentional or not, but it seems as if it’s not one of those effects done to create a mood, but to be blatantly noticeable.
The Audio
The film is heard in the Korean language in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with English or Spanish subtitles available and it sounds great. The little subtle noises that come through in the background so clearly like waves crashing on the shore, the tightening of a noose, and the clicks of a stapler really made the scenes more intense and made me feel it more. The subtitles look rather crappy though and are kind of jagged and rough, but that’s a small complaint.
Special Features
The Making Of Bloody Reunion – Tartan always does a good job on their “making of” featurettes and this one is no exception. There are of course your looks inside the filming of the death scenes, the build-up scenes, and even the car rides with nice comparisons from filming to the finished product. What I liked the most about this featurette was that there was no narration from director or anyone like there usually is in a “making of.” Sure the cast comes to the camera every now and then to let us know who they are, but other then that the filming action just speaks for itself. And I’ll add that the crew picked a fantastic stuntman for this film. Trust me; you’ll see what I mean.
Deleted Scenes – Only two deleted scenes and an alternate ending here so not much to go on. But there is optional commentary from director Lim Dae-Woong that is fantastic. He not only explains the scenes and what they were going for in each, but gives in-depth reasoning for why they took them out.
Photo Shoot – All the actors do their publicity shots for posters and junkets and such so there isn’t much to this special feature. It’s still kind of fun watching them have to do their different emotions and hold them all the while someone screaming in their face to “get angrier!”
Special Effects And Make-Up – A great look at the cosmetics team and how they created all the death scenes complete with blood and horrible wounds. Interesting enough is that they originally were going to use dummies for the corpses but were able to convince the actors to stay still enough and make it seem more real. Great look here at how some really intense death scenes came to life.
Original Trailer
Interview With Director Lim Dae-Woong – Even though only about ten minutes, this could have very well been the commentary, but I liked it this way much better. Just about every Tartan film is in a different language then English of course, and following reading along with the commentary while not being able to understand a word in the background is quite frustrating. Sure you’ve already seen the film, but during long pauses or quite moments, it’s good to hear or understand what is being said. In this interview, Lim goes through casting, set-up, and deep looks into the characters themselves complete with a few scenes thrown in. An excellent special feature and a definite watch.
Trailers – Shutter, Perth, The Red Shoes, The Maid, H-6, and Sheitan
The Inside Pulse
Here is your run of the mill slasher flick with people getting bumped off in gruesome ways while a couple people fight and stay alive. But Bloody Reunion throws a very good back story into the mix and keeps from being only horribly bloody death scenes. The special features give you over an hour of extra viewing time and are awesome. I would have to say that the “making of” and director interview are require viewing if you pick up this DVD. Tartan has done it yet again so make sure to add this one to your collection. Just don’t talk to anyone in a bunny mask along the way even if we are close to Easter.
