Voices (2007)

Since The Year 2008 I Discovered This on the Internt,I Only Watched the Original Trailer on Youtube,Since 2009 i re-discovered it and buy the DVD,When i watched it i,m not so scared,I,m braver in watching it,s scenes,This gives me more plot twists and plot surprises,The 2007 South Korean Supernatural Thriller was loosely based on a comic strip written by Oh-Ki-Hwan under it,s original title "Two Will Come",This is provided with buckets of blood and oceans of murder victims,No long-haired spirits,But actually demons(in human form)and hearing strange noises,The film opens with a ghostly sequence where a little boy witnessed a mysterious murder of a woman in his own home,Blood smears over the television set,As he gets closer to the dead woman her eyes are opened and utters a hair-raising scream,Then we see on the opening credits Newspaper Reports that reads "Jumps Off-Balcony" and "Kills Mother and Daughter"And other spectacular and horrible past killings which were taking place since the past few years,The scene moves on to the main protagonist Ga-In(Yun-Jin Seo)who is a normal high school teen who has a talent for Fencing,Has a Lovng Family,A Cool Friend,And a Tender Boyfriend,The next day she,her boyfriend by the name of Hyun-Joong(Lee Ki Woo)and her family attends the wedding party of their Aunt Ji-Sun,But soon her Aunt,s happiest day of her life was turned into an act of violence where she was accidentally pushed from the balcony which was done by her Groom(Ahn Shin Woo),She witnessed this terrible event,After the accident happened Ji-Sun was rushed to the hospital and is confined where she was gruesomely stabbed by another aunt of Ga-In,s Jung-Sun(Yu- Jeong Seo),Ga-In sees this violent event,What if ever the people around you ,love,support and cared for you now are out to kill you faster,Will you race against time to uncover a murderous secret?,After the horrible murder of her Aunt,She began to experience mysterious and weird events at her home and school,In the dream sequence while she is sleeping she saw an apparition of a girl who is covered in blood telling her that she,ll be the next victim of the so-called "Family Curse"But when a string of inexplicable deaths of one of her family members,relatives,loved ones and friends,I Think she holds the answers to all her nightmares,Then The Clinic scene my favorite was Ga-In sees a vision of a shadowy figure(in shape of a lady)frightens her with a deformed hand,Actually Ghosts or Spirits of Dead Persons are actually demons or evil spirits,Because These Demonic Creatures pretend to be the spirit of a dead person or a loved one,Ga-In herself is attacked by another murderous schoolgirl Eun-Kyung(Oh Yeon Seo)who plans to kill her with a scissor,Then she is watched by a Mysterious Student with a dark past by the name of Seok-Min(Park-Ki Woong)Well i know that he is a Mysterious Villain and his role is very creepy,He then warns her "Don,t Trust Anyone,Your Family,Friends,Relatives,Not even yourself"Seok-Min is a mysterious schoolboy since in the Dream Sequence he stabs the spirit of his Father,The Locker Room scene follows Where she is grabbed by a deformed creature who then sometimes haunts her in her visions warning her that more killings will increase,There is an additional inexplicable scene where she hears a mysterious wind blows by closing the gate after she have accepted the Invitation given to her by another student by the name of Sang-Kyung who then have his try to kill her with a Baseball Bat,Terrified for her life she flees inside the house and sees her Mother throwing a Kitchen Knife at her then picks up a stiletto and shouts at her "DIE" Her Husband stops her,Then she travels with Seok-Min to a mysterious place in order to look and search for the mystery Behind these strange murders,The stranger by the name of Dae-Young confesses his dark past to her of why did he killed his wife,Then the next day At School she sees a vision of her Best Dude attempts to push her from the Balcony,But she ignored her and leaves school,One Night as her parents slowly to get murdered,She wakes up and makes her way downstairs where she finds Hyun-Joong(who turns out to be the last villain)Then turns around and saw her Parents sitting dead on the table,She mourns out loud ,Hyun-Joong reveals to her that he killed them because he had manipulated her to get close to her family in order to get back at her Father,This Movie is a Giallo-Supernatural Slasher style!This is one of the Inspiring Serial Killer Films like that of Suspiria(1977),The Bird With The Crystal Plumage(1970),Deep Red(1975) and Trauma(1993).

Korean horror thriller Voices offers up an interesting premise. A young girl named Ga-In Kim plated wonderfully by Jin-Sen Yun finds herself the victim of several people as they try and murder her. It seems that the people around her begin dying and some very gruesome fashions and visions of a grotesquely deformed man plague her thoughts. The film delicately plays on the concept of the people who are closest to you being capable of murdering you. It's executed well with dark visuals, a brooding atmosphere and strong performances. It all leads up to a surprising finale you won't see coming. Voices is in fact one of the most disturbing and solid Asian genre efforts in quite some time.

Sometimes I think that many reviewers are simply too lazy to understand films with indirect communication. I've heard people complain that "Asian horror movies don't make sense", which is usually just a roundabout way of saying, "I'm too lazy to figure them out." However, there are some films that prove to be very difficult to understand (e.g., Spider Forest) or simply don't make the slightest bit of sense at all (e.g., Marronnier). "Voices" (aka "Someone Behind You") is one of those projects that is most definitely a bit too vague for its own good, so it's understandable that many viewers have serious problems figuring this movie out.This is a shell game kind of movie that tries to bait the viewer into red herring traps from start to finish. Don't be fooled, this is simply and solely about a demon (in human form) who is one gigantic scumbag that uses varying degrees of manipulation to coerce and/or control human beings for his own sick little games and perverted enjoyment. His favorite statement, "Don't trust anyone, not even yourself" is nothing more than a patronizing taunt to scare his victims. If he was more forthcoming, he would say something like this: "I will coerce your friends and family to kill you. If that doesn't work, I will force them into a state of temporary insanity to kill you." The only true escape from this disastrous situation is to simply move into a desolate, isolated area and live the rest of your life in seclusion, which isn't exactly a losing proposition for a scumbag demon who wants to see people suffer, both physically and/or psychologically.The psychological effects come into play when his victims prove particularly difficult to kill – and our lead protagonist is one tough cookie, eluding a number of attacks from friends and family members. In cases such as this, the attempted murders will form an unprecedented pattern that points towards some supernatural, uncommon influence. Think about it. Why would every single friend and family member attempt to kill someone? At this point, the possibility of a curse no longer seems so far-fetched. In addition, paranoia reaches its highest level, and the target will suffer greatly when attempting to reconcile these crazy events with their newly acquired mistrust and fear of their loved ones. Just the kind of psychological games a sick, demonic scumbag would love to watch. It also makes this film hella interesting.While somewhat obvious that the demon has added outside influence to every attempted murder, what makes this movie even more appealing during a second viewing is pondering just how much manipulation is required to push a particular person over the edge into attempted murder. For example, the husband who throws his wife into the path of a moving bus is possibly the least influenced murder herein. It is possible that the demon made the phone calls to his house, but I have no problems assuming that the character is wholly responsible for his actions and that the demon simply instilled some doubt into his mind regarding his love's possible infidelity. To take a contrasting example, the groom who tosses his bride off the balcony had no identifiable motive for doing so, which leans more towards a demon-influenced state of temporary insanity. The other instances of assault usually fall between those two extremes.Not everything in this film is cut and dry though. As I mentioned earlier, the script is vague and ambiguous, leaving unexplained gaps in the storyline. Most of these are easily rectified with logical, common sense assumptions because there's very little (if any) blatant contradictions when one understands that a demonic scumbag is behind everything; and as we all know, demonic scumbags are not bound to follow a set or rules or guidelines. I would post my specific thoughts, but this 1000-word review is very limited (read the message board instead). Also, I knowingly confess that this film is flawed in terms of scriptwriting, so there's really no hard-hitting points to be made in that regard anyways.However, the blemishes in "Someone Behind You" are overshadowed by a number of positive qualities. At the very least you'll get solid acting and a refreshingly different premise, which automatically elevates this film above most non-Asian horror fare. The aforementioned murder attempts are well-executed (some of which are very bloody) and the sense of paranoia is most definitely highlighted at numerous points. The protagonists are also very likable and their decision-making is understandable. What you end up with is a flick that's pretty damn entertaining.The last few years have been fantastic for the South Korean horror/thriller genre. "Someone Behind You" (2007) is a nice compliment to films like "Hansel and Gretel" (2007), "The Chaser" (2008), "The Return" (aka "Wide Awake") (2007), "Epitaph" (2007), "Muoi" (2007), "Bloody Reunion" (2006), "Loner" (2008), "A Bloody Aria" (2006), "Seven Days" (2007), "Cadaver" (2007), "A Good Wife" (2007), "Coma" (2006 miniseries), and "D-Day" (aka "Roommates") (2006). Most of these have their own particular flaws (most films do), but this is a very good lineup of titles that would make an awesome weekend marathon. I'll never understand why everyone reflexively runs out to rent the U.S. "Shutter" remake while ignoring these little gems. There is a significant minority of movie buffs who like Asian horror, but more people need to see these movies. I rarely (if ever) hear anyone talk about them. Even the formulaic entries like "D-Day" are really cool – and all of them are better than 90% of the crap coming out of Hollywood these days. Please check them out.

Watching "Voices," a subtitled South Korean import, I kept asking myself: When will this movie be remade in America? It's not that I want it to be remade. It's just that, with the recent releases of "The Ring," "The Grudge," "The Eye," "Mirrors," "Shutter," and "One Missed Call" ... well, you just know it's going to happen sooner or later. When it does happen, I can only hope that American filmmakers will be able to make something out of the plot. Yes, this movie does have a plot, but God help me, I have no idea how I can describe it to you; it's one of those films that seems to intentionally forgo any degree of clarity, the story shifting gradually from vague to incomprehensible. I watched the bloody murder scenes and I read the subtitles and I studied the characters as best I could, but somehow, absolutely nothing was clicking. Now, I realize I may be at a serious disadvantage. It is, after all, a foreign language film, so it was most likely made with a very different audience in mind. Maybe there are cultural considerations I'm not aware of. In my review of "Slumdog Millionaire," I noted that the main character's sense of optimism seemed unlikely given his terrible circumstances; readers were shocked at my ignorance, and a few even took the time to inform me that I was looking at this film from a very Western perspective, that even the most downtrodden in Mumbai survive only because they find something to live for. So it's quite possible that I'm looking at "Voices" from a very Western perspective. I may in fact lack the cultural understanding required to make sense of the story, which turns back on itself so many times that it eventually seemed less like a plot and more like a frightening dreamscape. The original Korean title is "Du Saram-Yida," which literally translates as "Someone Behind You." This does accurately describe the sense of paranoia and uncertainty permeating the story. Paranoia is often times baseless and irrational, much like the story, in which a teenage fencing champion named Ga-in (Jin-seo Yun) finds herself at the mercy of an unstoppable and unexplainable death curse. At least, I think it's a curse. It seems that everyone around her wants someone else to die, and in a fit of rage, they act on it: one of Ga-in's aunts is pushed off a balcony on her wedding day, and as she recovers in the hospital, another aunt violently stabs her to death; one of Ga-in's classmates, a perfect student in all respects, becomes so jealous that she tries to stab Ga-in in the nurse's office; at a certain point, Ga-in's mother starts wielding a knife, screaming, "Die! Die! Die!" as her husband tries to subdue her. So then some supernatural force has been unleashed on Ga-in's family. Or has it? All throughout, a reclusive, sunken-eyed teenage boy named Seok-min (Ki-woong Park) keeps appearing to give her this ominous piece of advice: "Don't trust anyone. Not your friends, not your family, not even yourself." This may or may not have something to do with a bad thing that happened to him as a boy, which may or may not have something to do with the film's ending, at which point any remaining thread of plot cohesion is cut away. Watching those final scenes is like watching a demo reel of murders and surrealistic images and plot twists all edited together. It's a meaningless jumble of moments that wanted to reveal something without actually revealing it. To say I had no idea what was going on would be like saying that the surface of the sun is warm. The most maddening thing is that characters are constantly offering some kind of vague reason for what's happening. They keep talking, yet somehow they're not really saying anything. They certainly aren't saying anything understandable. How strange that a movie in dire need of clarity could have done with a lot less explanation. There's a point at which Ga-in travels outside the city to see an elderly recluse who killed his wife in a fit of rage decades earlier. Despite the fact that his scenes are annoyingly light on specifics, at least they hinted that the rest of the film would follow some kind of narrative logic. But then comes the ending. Dear God, the ending--a bleak, nonsensical muddle that reverses pretty much everything I thought I knew about the plot. This is one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in a long time. Rarely has a film worked so hard at being a confusing mess. Let it be known that I went into "Voices" with an open mind, and for the first forty-five minutes or so, I really did try my hardest to make sense of it. But at a certain point, it was obvious that there wasn't much to make sense of, and I threw in the towel. Yes, it's a frightening movie, full of gory death scenes and surprise scares and quiet moments that build tension. But when story is neglected in favor of atmosphere, you have nothing more than a thrill-a-minute funhouse ride. If I had wanted that, I would have gone to a carnival. American filmmakers will have their work cut out for them once they latch onto this screenplay and begin reworking it. Don't think it won't happen somewhere down the line. - Chris Pandolfi