I watched this film for the first time last night and I have to say it was as lovely as it was disappointing. One of the reasons I watch Asian films is to get away from the conventional pacing and 'scares' of American movies. "Face" has incredibly American pacing and predictable attempts at frightening the viewers. And I do mean predictable. Allow me to illustrate.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD
It was not long after the movie started... oh, about 3 minutes or so... where I started calling the action and fright spots from my chair. Not that I'm great at that kind of thing (though I've been getting better at it), it was just THAT easy to predict. Every conventional spook they could throw in, they did.
There were two plot twists that I did not expect... the first skull being someone else and the big twist, which I won't reveal. There was a great deal of Ju-on style scare tactics here, lots of the same makeup... add a dash of Sadako for good measure and you have the horror part of the movie. Now, if they had touted the film as a thriller with some supernatural overtones, it would have been different... this was an interesting film.
Well, interesting premise. I loved the idea of the re-constructor, but the rest was basic stuff. At least it wasn't a case of 'organ makes recipient do bad things' or anything. Mostly it was a murder mystery that happened to have a ghost in it, and if you take it that way you won't be disappointed by the lack of scariness.
The movie also dealt slightly with black-market organs and how far doctors will go to help their patients, as it were. The movie touches on many small aspects without ever really delving into any of them, which is unfortunate but understandable. The filmography, the picture, the handling, everything was really well done. Korean films are often very pretty, though, with a great deal of potential delivering less than expected or, worse, less than they are capable of delivering. More than once has a Korean film left me mildly disappointed story-wise, though always satisfied visually. They also tend towards very good actors and music scores. All this adds to great padding and fluff, gorgeous eye-candy and just a little weak in the script. The climaxes are generally less than they should/could be as well.
All in all, a seven out of ten. It's worth watching at least once and definitely enjoyable despite its story flaws.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD
It was not long after the movie started... oh, about 3 minutes or so... where I started calling the action and fright spots from my chair. Not that I'm great at that kind of thing (though I've been getting better at it), it was just THAT easy to predict. Every conventional spook they could throw in, they did.
There were two plot twists that I did not expect... the first skull being someone else and the big twist, which I won't reveal. There was a great deal of Ju-on style scare tactics here, lots of the same makeup... add a dash of Sadako for good measure and you have the horror part of the movie. Now, if they had touted the film as a thriller with some supernatural overtones, it would have been different... this was an interesting film.
Well, interesting premise. I loved the idea of the re-constructor, but the rest was basic stuff. At least it wasn't a case of 'organ makes recipient do bad things' or anything. Mostly it was a murder mystery that happened to have a ghost in it, and if you take it that way you won't be disappointed by the lack of scariness.
The movie also dealt slightly with black-market organs and how far doctors will go to help their patients, as it were. The movie touches on many small aspects without ever really delving into any of them, which is unfortunate but understandable. The filmography, the picture, the handling, everything was really well done. Korean films are often very pretty, though, with a great deal of potential delivering less than expected or, worse, less than they are capable of delivering. More than once has a Korean film left me mildly disappointed story-wise, though always satisfied visually. They also tend towards very good actors and music scores. All this adds to great padding and fluff, gorgeous eye-candy and just a little weak in the script. The climaxes are generally less than they should/could be as well.
All in all, a seven out of ten. It's worth watching at least once and definitely enjoyable despite its story flaws.