Whispering Corridors (Yeogo Goedam), South Korea, 1998 Director Park Ki-Hyung Screenplay In Jung-Ok, Park Ki-Hyung Producer Lee Chun-Yun Director of photography Suh Jung-Min Art Director Kang Chang-Kil Editor Ham Sung-Won Music Moon Seung-Hyun, Park Jung-Ho With Lee Mi-Yeon (Hur Eun-Young), Choi Sai-Yun (Youn Jae-Yi), Park Jin-Hee (Park So-Young)

Runtime 105 minutes

Memento Mori (Yeogo Goedam 2), South Korea, 1999 Directors Kim Tae-Yong, Min Kyu-Dong Screenplay Kim Tae-Yong, Min Kyu-Dong Producer Oh Ki-Min Director of photography Kim Yun-Su Production Designer Lee Dae-Hun Editor Kim Sang-Beom Music Jo Seong-Woo With Kim Min-Seon (Min-Ah), Park Ye-Jin (Hyo-Shin), Lee Yeong-Jin (Shi-Eun), Kong Hyo-Jin (Ji-Won), Baek Jong-Hak (Mr. Goh), Kim Min-Hie (Yeon-An)

Runtime 98 minutes

Wishing Stairs (Yeogo Goedam 3: Yeowoo gyedan), South Korea, 2003, Director Yoon Jae-Yeon Screenplay Lee So-Young Producers Ahn Eun-Mi, Kim Jae-Hong Director of photography Seo Jeong-Min Art director Jl Sang-Hwa Music Gong Myung With Song Ji-Hyo (Yun Ji-Seong), Park Han-Byeol (Kim So-Hie), An Jo (Eom Hye-Ju), Park Ji-Yeon (Han Yun-Ji)

Runtime 100 minutes

The Voice (Yeogo Goedam 4: Moksori), South Korea, 2005 Director Choe Ik-Hwan Screenplay Choe Ik-Hwan, Sol Joon-Seok Director of photography Kim Yong-Heung Music Lee Byeong-Hun With Cha Ye-Ryeon (Cho-Ah), Kim Ok-Bin (Young-Eon), Kim Seo-Hyeong (Hee-Myun), Lim Hyeon-Kyeong (Hyo-Jung), Seo Ji-Hye (Seon-Min)

Runtime 105 minutes

DVD: UK, 2008 Produced and Distributed by Tartan Video (region 2) Aspect ratio 1.85:1 Sound Mix Options: Dolby 2.0 Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS Digital Surround 5.1 (excepting The Voice) Four Discs

Extras: Disc One. Whispering Corridors theatrical trailer. Asia Extreme trailer reel. Disc Two. Memento Mori ‘Making of’ featurette. Theatrical trailer. Music DVD. Asia Extreme trailer reel. Disc Three. Wishing Stairs ‘Making of’ featurettes: ‘First Position’, ‘Sketching Stairs’, ‘Fitting In’, ‘Unique Music’. Asia Extreme trailer reel.

Note: Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori and Wishing Stairs have previously been issued by Tartan Video as stand-alone releases. This four-disc set also features the UK premiere of The Voice.

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Recent Far East horror cinema is marked by a fear of the adolescent female. Japan has given us the ghost girl of the Ring series; South Korea offers the haunted girls’ school, where those difficult teenage years receive a supernatural twist. The four films included in this DVD set form the loose Yeogo Goedam series (literally ‘High School Girl’s Ghost Story’), linked by backdrop and theme rather than narrative or character. The Yeogo Goedam films highlight sympathetic female protagonists whose friendships and resilience are tested by malevolent forces both living and dead. Male characters are marginalised, ignorant, insensitive and often aggressive. The claustrophobic school environments are clearly metaphors for Korean society as a whole, shown as regimented and repressive. Individualism is ruthlessly crushed and the lack of humour in the films reflects an underlying pessimism. There are more frightening forces than ghosts at work in the Yeogo Goedam universe.

Whispering Corridors was a surprise hit in South Korea, as much for its critique of the country’s education system as for the horror elements. The precise direction and editing conjure an uncanny atmosphere, typified by recurring shots of dripping water and blood, with possible menstrual undertones. Well-staged set-pieces depict a vengeful ghost meting out deserved retribution. The film also conveys the loneliness and confusion of adolescence, the awkwardness and aggression countered by tenderness and friendship. Schoolgirls’ petty quarrels are nothing compared to the coldness and vindictiveness of the adults employed to educate them. The downbeat ending suggests that the brutality and hypocrisy of one generation will be carried over to the next. Good people succumb to peer pressure, even if it hurts their closest friends. While director Park Ki-Hyung handles the material with assurance, the leisurely pace dissipates the underlying tension. The lack of character depth is also a problem, the narrative cluttered with too many main players.

Memento Mori is the best known and most ambitious of the Yeogo Goedam films, downplaying the supernatural element for a more psychological haunting. Its depiction of a lesbian relationship between two schoolgirls was considered daring in South Korea. While the characters are sympathetic, the exploration of female sexuality seems nervous and finally reactionary. This chaste romance has ‘doomed’ written all over it, the wistful rooftop liaisons merely the calm before the storm. Making their feature debut, writer-directors Kim Tae-Yong and Min Kyu-Dong display visual flair but little sense of structure. Their eye for detail is compromised by lapses into music video styling, such as the ‘ghost-cam’. Secondary characters are lively and credible, though the non-stop bitchiness is wearing and acts of kindness seem unappreciated. A ghostly caressing suggests further repressed desires and the school piano conceals a lavish romantic shrine.

Memento Mori suffers from a lack of forward impetus and questionable choices during post-production. Working with a three-hour rough cut, the directors struggled to reconcile their vision of the film with the demands of the producers and the result is an uneasy compromise. The supernatural material was reduced, including a subplot involving a ghostly little girl. Shared bathtub scenes and an additional kiss were also cut, suggesting executive nerves over the lesbian romance. In the final edit, the non-chronological structure is confusing and the pace sometimes drags. The first hour holds little hint of the uncanny, though a bloody suicide signposts things to come. Despite solid performances, it’s hard to care about the characters and the overblown finale has little impact. The international title is Latin for ‘remember you must die’. While Memento Mori plays on images of mortality, it recoils from touching the skull beneath the skin.

Wishing Stairs is, for its first hour, the highpoint of the series. Much of the credit goes to debut director Yoon Jae-Yeon, the first woman to helm a Yeogo Goedam film. Yoon captures the school backdrop very well, sketching in the friendships, gossip, rivalries and resentments. The importance of status is underlined, along with the ever-present parental pressure. While the ballet school setting invites comparisons with Dario Argento’s Suspira (1976), Yoon’s low key approach eschews Argento’s baroque styling and slaughterhouse carnage. Small details have unexpected resonance, such as chalk breaking on a blackboard. The featured ballet, Adolphe Adam’s Giselle (1841), has clear parallels with the main plot, involving love betrayed and supernatural retribution.

Yoon’s confident direction is undermined by a faltering screenplay, which runs out of ideas and steam. The main concept is intriguing, though it comes as no surprise when a selfish wish has terrible consequences. Later scenes are dominated by Eom Hye-Ju (Ann Jo), an overweight misfit who miraculously slims overnight. Ann Jo gives a strong performance, initially wearing ‘fat’ make-up and a body suit, yet the showcasing of her character leaves other elements neglected. With hints of ghostly possession, the film becomes hard to follow, blending reality and fantasy to confusing effect. The script borrows freely from Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori and Ring (Ringu, 1998), and a bloody shower sequence is a random horror cliché, suggesting producer anxiety over the low gore quotient. The weaknesses of the last half hour should not detract from the earlier achievements. At its best, Wishing Stairs serves as a forceful reminder that ambition has no friends.

In The Voice, a singing student encounters a whispering spectre with vengeance on its mind. By far the weakest of the series, this fourth Yeogo Goedam has sound technical credits but is otherwise redundant. The CGI effects are well used and the film is solidly crafted, highlighting ominous red chimes, floating sheet music and death by cello strings. There are hints of imagination: a ghost invisible to the living is audible to her best friend and through the school’s radio broadcast system. Any initial promise soon gives way to tedium, the slow pace as monotonous as the brown hues that dominate the film. The equation of lesbianism with rejection, misery and death is both reactionary and depressing. Amid the general wastage, the film evokes a sense of loneliness and draws an interesting – if contentious – parallel between haunting and mental illness, voices whispering in peoples’ heads. Friendship transcends mortality but also reveals painful truths. Victims aren’t always as innocent as they pretend. Yet subtexts count for little when the surface text is weak and the dreadful finale leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Whatever their flaws, Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori and Wishing Stairs are all essential viewing for fans of Asian horror. The Voice is an empty experience, suggesting the Yeogo Goedam series has run its course.

Contributor details

Daniel O’Brien is a freelance writer and film historian. His work has appeared in The Independent, Shivers and The Dark Side. He has contributed to such reference works as The Hutchinson Encyclopedia, The International Dictionary of Films and Film-makers and Directors in British and Irish Cinema. His books include Clint Eastwood: Film-Maker (1995), The Frank Sinatra Film Guide (1997), SF:UK – How British Science Fiction Changed the World (2000), The Hannibal Files (2001), Spooky Encounters (2003), Paul Newman (2004) and Daniel Craig: Ultimate Professional (2007). He is currently researching a PhD thesis on the peplum or “sword and sandal” genre.