Dead Friend
Dead Friend | |
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Dead Friend movie poster | |
Hangul | 령 |
Revised Romanization | Ryeong |
McCune–Reischauer | Ryŏng |
Directed by | Kim Tae-gyeong |
Produced by | Jeong Oh-young |
Written by | Kim Tae-gyeong |
Starring |
Kim Ha-neul Nam Sang-mi Ryu Jin |
Music by |
Choi Wan-hee Hyeon Gyu-hwan |
Cinematography | Mun Yong-sik |
Editing by | Kim Yong-su |
Distributed by | Showbox |
Release dates |
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Country | South Korea |
Language | Korean |
Dead Friend (Hangul: 령; RR: Ryeong; lit. "The Ghost") is a 2004 South Korean horror film. It is one of a number of South Korean horror films set in a girl's high school; the trend began with 1998's Whispering Corridors.[1]
Plot
Three friends from the same high school are conducting a séance with a bunshinsaba - a traditional South Korean ouija board. As the spirits are called by Eun-jung (Lee Yoon-ji), the planchette of the bunshinsaba starts jumping up and down: At the same time, her sister Eun-seo (Jeon Hye-bin), who was sleeping in the next room, wakes up screaming. When Eun-seo comes out, she has an argument with Eun-jung about conducting the séance rather than studying. After she leaves, Eun-jung says she wishes the ghost had taken her sister away, and then jumping to join her friends in bed jokingly tells them that if they don't send the ghost back it will kill them. They are all unaware of the planchette moving around the board on its own. Nor are they aware of Eun-seo being attacked by a ghostly water-based presence in the kitchen.
After a visit to her doctor, an amnesiac Min Ji-won (Kim Ha-neul) finds out that now her brain waves have stabilized, there's a good chance she may get her memory back. She's decided to leave college, leave her mother (Kim Hae-sook) and go overseas, to make a new start for herself.
Over time, however, fragments of her memory start to come back in her dreams - and they're almost always tainted by some frightening figure she can't place. Not only that, but they seem to be continually connected to water, whether in the dream itself or by the medium of a knocked-over glass of drinking water next to the bed. But soon enough, inexplicable things begin to happen to her in reality as well - echoes of her dreams, the ghosts of her forgotten past invading her waking life.
During this time, Ji-won gets a blast from the past: Yu-jung (Jeon Hee-ju), an old friend from high school, comes to find her after she saw her in a dream - and not only that, one of the other girls, Eun-seo, has died after telling this girl she had seen something bizarre. It's not long before Yu-jung also has a terrifying supernatural experience with the ghost Eun-jung never sent back.
Now three of her closest friends from high school are dying under mysterious circumstances. But what is the identity of this ghost, how is it linked to her own forgotten past, and can Ji-won find out how to save herself?
As Ji-won investigates the mystery, she remembers exactly what happened to her friends and herself. She finds out that she was the one who pushed Su-in (Nam Sang-mi) in the water but her friends pushed her too. And both of them started to drown but Su-in tried to save her. They later found Su-in's dead body.
As Ji-won goes home to see her mother, it is revealed that her mother's body was possessed by Ji-won and "Ji-won" was actually Su-in in Ji-won's body. Then other ghosts start to rise, wanting to get Ji-won's body for themselves, so Su-in/Ji-won grabs a broken piece of a vase and cuts her wrist. She is saved in time by her friend and sent to the hospital, with Su-in's soul still inside her.
Cast
- Kim Ha-neul - Min Ji-won
- Nam Sang-mi - Su-in
- Ryu Jin - Park Jun-ho
- Jeon Hye-bin - Eun-seo
- Shin Yi - Mi-kyung
- Jeon Hee-ju - Yu-jung
- Lee Yoon-ji - Eun-jung
- Choi Ran - Su-in's mother
- Gi Ju-bong - Detective
- Kim Hae-sook - Ji-won's mother
- Park Grina - Yu-jung's friend
- Joo Da-young - young Su-in
References
- ↑ Soh, Joon (17 June 2004). "Ghost Adds Little to High School Horror". The Korea Times via Hancinema. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
External links
- Ryeong at the Internet Movie Database
- Ryeong at allmovie
- The Ghost at Rotten Tomatoes