Epitaph

Beautiful, Haunting and Ambitious...But a Little Too Clumsy in Storytelling
Yeh, yeh...I know what you are thinking. Asian horror has become redundant with long-haired vengeful ghosts that seek a break from their torment. While I would agree, the "Yurei" or long-haired pale-faced ghost is actually a significant part of Asian lore; much like vampires, werewolves and zombies and we, as Americans never get tired of those elements...so why should Asians? The Jung Brothers' horror drama "EPITAPH" (a.k.a. "The Last Breath") is a film that tries something different and puts this horror film in the middle of a period drama that takes place during Japan's occupation of Korea. The film is an episodic tale of three different short stories similar to "Three Extremes" but different since they are all linked together.

February, 1942. Jung-Nam Park (Ku Jin) is a young Med student who is engaged to be married to a woman he had never met. He is also assigned to watch over the cadavers in the morgue that during this time, he falls in love with a frozen dead woman. A...

Excellent Supernatural Film from South Korea
I saw this movie awhile ago so details are fuzzy but I can say it is almost on par with A Tale of Two Sisters. It may be a bit confusing at times but it has the kind of storyline that draws the viewer in and makes one want to watch again to understand the ending better. It is an excellent example of the newer Asian horror; the kind that messes with your mind but still has a touch of the supernatural instead of the "long haired ghost" stereotype. Here is the description of the film:

" 'Gidam' is a horror movie about a mysterious incident that took place at the Gyeongseong Ahnsaeng Hospital in 1942.

The film has attracted a large number of moviegoers with its fresh story line, scenes that appeal to the aesthetic sense and the underlying sadness behind the prevailing horror."

It's worth it, trust me.

Beautiful, but confusing.
Gidam (Epitaph) (Beom-Sik Jeong, 2007)

I will admit right out that part of my problem with Epitaph may, in fact, be my problem, rather than the movie's; as I often do when I am as ridiculously far behind in reviewing as I've been for the past year solid, I was writing reviews while the movie was playing, and thus I may not have been paying as close attention to it as it commanded. That said, I find in reading various reviews around the internet that I am far from the only person who found the film to be somewhat confusing [[...]] [...] [...] [...]. So I'm going to assume at least some of the burden of proof is on the movie itself.

Plot: there are actually three different plots, all of which converge on a wartime hospital. In one, a young girl survives a car accident and finds herself haunted by the ghosts of her parents. A second details an intern's obsession with a beautiful woman who committed suicide, and the third concerns a husband-and-wife team...

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