Director
Bong Man-Dae
Cast
Do Ji-Won Yoon-Hee
Shin Se-Kyung Hyoon-Su
Ah Yung-Ahn
So-Min Jeon
DVD Release Date: April 10, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 94 Minutes
The Movie
Hyoon-Su has a lot going for her as a teenager. She is in a popular high school and her mom, Yoon-Hee, is one of the leading plastic surgeons around. Her popularity mostly comes from the success of her mother, especially considering that almost everyone these days is trying to change their appearance. Of course, she is always willing to convince her mom to do work on her friends whenever they need a little adjustment.
It doesn’t take long before the mystery unfolds as a strange looking apparition appears one night to Yoon-Hee and demands her looks and old face restored to her. In the mean time, all the patients that Yoon-He gives cheap surgery too end up starting to act slight strange. Their behavior becomes increasingly erratic before they all end up killing themselves. The girls are found badly self-mutilated in trying to restore their former looks.
Yoon-Hee not only wants to figure out what is going on with all of her patients, but wishes to discover the identity of the ghost who visited her. As Hyoon-Su has witnessed everything that has been going on, she too starts to investigate all the odd happenings. It is then that she discovers a dark secret about her mother’s past and must choose to keep it that way or confront her about it.
Cinderella is an enjoyable and creepy film to watch, but if you’ve seen virtually any of Tartan Extreme’s recent releases then it’s not going to be anything new to you. There is a ghost that haunts someone due to some sort of horrible mistakes made in the past. One member of the family keeps those mistakes a secret and it’s up to a new generation to figure them out before it’s too late. See also: Ju-On, Bloody Reunion , Ringu, and a host of others.
The ghost in the film is exactly the same as you have surely seen before. Female with a pale white body with a bit of a glow. Long stringy black hair that is all over the place and mostly over her face. She’s barefoot and just in a tattered white dress. And she just kind of gyrates as she walks or crawls creepily along the floor, ceiling, and walls. After a few of these films, you honestly begin to think they are just one sequel after another but with different characters. Well, except for the ghost.
Judging a lot of these films isn’t really fair, especially if they come after it’s already been done. The directors are each trying to portray a different story and location while telling a frightening tale, but it is impossible not to compare them to their predecessors. If you’re not a big fan of Japanese horror and you’re being exposed to this for the first time, then you are in for a treat. But for those like me, it is kind of hard to see much creativity in it. Not to mention that Cinderella does not bring much horror to the table either. Sure the ghost is creepy and all, but there is a severe lack of scares otherwise.
The Video
The film is shown in 1.66:1 Widescreen format and looks pretty good. The colors are bright and the subtitles are very easily seen throughout which is super important. The one complaint is that the dark scenes are a bit too dark. You just can’t always tell what is going on until you get a small glimmer of light, and by then you’ve already missed what happened.
The Audio
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with English subtitles and sounds awesome. The surround sound really kicks in for the intense moments, but it is the music that makes this film. There is of course the creepy music to make the film scary and tension filled, but then there are the lullabies. Light and happy little children’s music always makes scary situations that much more frightening.
Special Features
The Making Of Cinderella – Broken down into five separate parts, Tartan delivers a great special feature as they always do. Well, when they actually give us some. But the “making of” is broken down into “Desire,” “Jealousy,” “Death,” “Secret,” and “Curse” with each being themed to discuss certain aspects of the film. The director starts us out by explaining why and how he came about choosing the children’s story of Cinderella to turn into a horror film. The cast and crew then are in each segment discussing how the film came about and what they thought about it. It’s always good when you see the cast enjoying themselves, not only with each other, but while making the film. If they are having a good time, then more then likely you are in for a good film.
Original Trailer
Trailers – The Red Shoes, The Maid, Cello, A Tale Of Two Sisters, and The Heirloom
The Inside Pulse
I’ve already said enough for you to know that unless you are gung ho about Japanese horror or a first-timer, then simply rent this one and bring it back when you’re done. I will admit that the special features are better then I’ve seen on past Tartan Extreme releases, but still nothing too exciting or time consuming. This DVD just brings a case of “seen it before” with nothing much to tide you over after it’s done. I recommend checking out some of Tartan Extreme’s other titles or hell even Disney’s Cinderella.
