Death Bell | |
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Theatrical poster |
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Hangul | 고死: 피의 중간고사 |
Hanja | 고死: 피의 중간고사 |
RR | Gosa: piui junggangosa |
MR | Kosa: p‘iŭi chuggangosa |
Directed by | Nayato Fio Nuala Chang |
Produced by | Hong Jung-pyo Im Seong-been |
Written by | Chang Kim Eun-kyeong |
Starring | Lee Beom-soo Yoon Jeong-hee Nam Gyu-ri Kim Sang Bum Han Na-yeon |
Music by | Kim Jun-seong |
Cinematography | Heo Seong-ryong |
Editing by | Yu Yeong-ju |
Distributed by | Mirovision |
Release date(s) | August 6, 2008 |
Running time | 88 min. |
Country | South Korea |
Language | Hangul/Korean |
Budget | ₩1.3 billion |
Admissions | 1,636,149 |
Gross revenue | $9,274,859 |
Death Bell (Hangul: 고死: 피의 중간고사; RR: Gosa: Piui Junggangosa) is a 2008 South Korean film. The only Korean horror film released over the summer of 2008, it is the first feature by former music video director Chang (real name Yoon Hong-seung), who also co-wrote the screenplay. Death Bell stars Lee Beom-soo in his first horror film role, and K-pop singer Nam Gyu-ri in her acting debut. Set in a Korean high school, the film's native title refers to gosa, the important midterm exams that all students are required to sit.[1]
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The film is set in a high school, where an elite group of twenty students—including rebellious heroine Kang Yi-na, her timid best friend Yoon Myong-hyo, and her suitor Kang Hyeon—are taking a special class for their college entrance exam. After Kang Yi-na is nearly strangled and another student throttled in the restroom, the classroom TV screen switches to an image of top-ranking student Hye-yeong trapped inside a fish tank that is slowly filling with water. A disembodied voice announces that her life depends on the exam questions he will set for them, and that a student will die for every question the class gets wrong. Trapped with the students are head teacher Hwang Chan-wook and English teacher Choi So-yeong. Yi-na realizes that the students are being killed in order of their rank in the class, and she is ranked fifth. Someone is slowly killing the students one by one, but who are they? And what do they want?
Shot on HD video with a budget of ₩1.3 billion,[2][3] Death Bell is the feature film directorial debut of Chang, a former music video director,[4] who also co-wrote the screenplay with Kim Eun-kyeong. The film also marks the acting debut of Nam Gyu-ri,[4] a singer with K-pop trio SeeYa, and stars veteran comic actor Lee Beom-soo in his first horror film role.[5]
The only Korean horror film to be produced in the summer of 2008,[5] Death Bell made its premiere in July 2008 at the 12th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.[2] Post-production on the film had been rushed in order to have it ready for the festival,[6] and director Chang had to apologise for the poor state in which it was shown.[7]
Released on 6 August 2008 in 366 theatres nationwide, the film grossed $2,370,785 and received 575,231 admissions on its opening weekend, placing it third at the local box office.[8][9] By its third week, Death Bell had climbed to second at the box office,[10] and as of 14 September 2008 had grossed a total of $9,274,859.[11]
Death Bell had looked set to become the second most popular Korean horror film after A Tale of Two Sisters, which attracted more than 3 million viewers in 2003; however, admissions of 1,636,149 (as of 14 September 2008) were less than those recorded by R-Point and Wishing Stairs.[4][9][12] Nevertheless, the film attracted more than twice the number of viewers required to break even at the box office.[13]
Death Bell was released on DVD on 8 November 2008.[14]
Derek Elley of Variety found Death Bell to have a "neat concept" with "enough shocks and gore to keep genre addicts contented", and commented, "After a fairly conventional half-hour setup, the pic keeps the tension high with tight cutting and a no-flab script that ups the student body count in some especially inventive ways. Solution to the whodunit is less convincing than the lead-up, with a finale that doesn't deliver on expectations. But the journey there is fine, with Lee, better known for comedy, interestingly cast as the students' tough prof."[6] Kyu Hyun Kim of Koreanfilm.org was more critical of the film, saying, "Death Bell annoyingly combines prettified, slick visual filmmaking (but with no real depth) and gag-inducing torture porn excesses: it's simultaneously tepid and lackluster on the one hand and gross and offensive on the other"; he also regarded the screenplay as a "fetid mess" with an unconvincing central premise, but gave credit to the performance of Lee Beom-soo.[15] A review for Twitch also labelled the film's premise as "ridiculous", going on to say, "Lee Beom-Soo certainly tries, and the tempo keeps building decently until the end, but there’s really no vibe to it. It’s just a succession of tortures and murders, with no sense of surprise, no interest... [and] no thematic consciousness whatsoever".[3]
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