The Red Shoes (2005 film)

The Red Shoes

Promotional Movie Poster
Hangul 분홍신
Hanja 粉紅신
Revised Romanization Bunhongshin
McCune–Reischauer Bunhongsin
Directed by Kim Yong-gyun
Produced by Hyon-tae Park,
Kwang-su Kim,
Peter Kim,
Shin Changgil
Written by Kim Yong-gyun
Ma Sang-Ryeol
Based on The Red Shoes 
by Hans Christian Andersen
Starring Kim Hye-soo,
Kim Sung-soo
Park Yeon-ah
Go Soo-hee
Lee Eol
Music by Lee Byung-woo
Release dates
  • 2005 (2005)
Running time
 103 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Box office US$7,657,523[1]

The Red Shoes (Hangul: 분홍신; RR: Bunhongshin) is a 2005 South Korean horror film written and directed by Kim Yong-gyun. Kim Yong-gyun was inspired by a fairy tale of same name by Hans Christian Andersen[2]

Plot

Sun-jae (Kim Hye-soo) leaves her unfaithful husband, Sung-joon (Lee Eol), and moves into an old apartment with her daughter, Tae-su (Park Yeon-ah). During Sun-jae's return home, she takes a pair of hot pink high heels she found in a subway car, only to discover that they are cursed. Her obsession grows, arousing envy and greed with mysterious, nightmarish visions. Even Tae-su and one of her friends, Kim Mi-hee (Go Soo-hee), fall victim to the power of the shoes, resulting in hysteria and theft. Mi-hee dies soon after she takes the shoes, but they return to Tae-su(suggesting that she may be Keiko reincarnated).

With the help of her new boyfriend, In-cheol (Kim Sung-soo), Sun-jae tries to discover the mystery behind the pink shoes before it kills her and Tae-su. She then discovers that although the original owner of the shoes escape from harm, the person who takes them will die with their feet chopped off. The mystery leads to an old woman who lives in a basement below Sun-jae. The old woman refuses to disclose any information and they chase after her in the parking lot. She identifies Sun-jae as Oki which confuses her, but soon the truth comes out. In her youth during the last years of the Japanese occupation of Korea, the old woman was a servant for a young, prominent dancer named Keiko. She was the daughter to a high-ranking officer that was blessed with pink shoes from a man whom was her lover. Unfortunately, Keiko had a rival named Oki who was jealous of her talents and wants the shoes for herself. She paid the old woman with a scarf to steal the shoes away from Keiko. Though she succeeded in stealing the shoes for Oki, the old woman watched her and Keiko fight for them at the photo shoot for a ballet advertisement. Then one night, Keiko had witnessed her lover and Oki having sex. When she slapped him out of betrayal and grief, Oki grabbed a weapon and viciously attacked her. Using the weapon, she forcefully killed off the baby, revealing that Keiko was pregnant with the man's child. Taking them outside, Oki made the man watch as she continued killing Keiko and dumping her in an unmarked grave. She wasn't aware that the old woman had watched Keiko's murder unfold and laughs as she took the shoes for herself. Feeling guilty and grief for cheating on Keiko, the man attacks Oki in retaliation. During one scene when they were supposed to do a wedding scene, Keiko's ghost got her revenge on both the man and Oki which lead to their deaths. The old woman warns Sun-jae of the same fate that will befall on her if she doesn't return the pink shoes to Keiko at once.

At Keiko's gravesite, Sun-jae returns the pink shoes to her, hoping this will end the haunting she has been tormented with. Later on, she comes to visit In-cheol only to discover that he found out the truth about her unfaithful husband's true fate. She tries to deny it, but when she learns that Tae-su told him what she did to her father, she hurries home to try to kill her. Sun-jae chases Tae-su into the subway station in an attempt to kill her, but at the last second, she saves her daughter's life. Tae-su seemingly disappears from her. While attempting to find her, Sun-jae is then confronted by the ghost of Keiko who reveals the haunting truth about her. It is revealed that Sun-jae is Oki, suggesting that Sun-jae is a reincarnation of Oki. However, Sun-jae denies it claiming she has the wrong woman. However, Keiko reveals she's known the truth and taunts her by laughing continuously. She revealed to Sun-jae, that she murdered her husband, her best friend, Mi-hee, even In-cheol and attempted to kill her own daughter, Tae-su. As Sun-jae tries to escape, she is then face to face with a deformed Keiko who finally claims her.

The scene switches to 1944 when Keiko is dancing proudly in her pink shoes during rehearsals. The last scene reveals Tae-su practicing her ballet skills in her mother's bedroom.

Cast

Reception

Ryan Daley from Bloody Disgusting said that although the film has occasionally "poor" pace, its cinematography is "striking" and that its plot machinations are "all over the map", which added to the confusion of the story. He also noted that "solid and stylish" gore was a plus to the film and that he was "dying" to know how it ended, even if [he] was a little overwhelmed by the final ambiguous twist."[3]

Awards and nominations

2006 Grand Bell Awards[4]
2007 Korean Film Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Box office by Country: The Red Shoes Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-06-04
  2. ↑ http://legacy.www.hani.co.kr/section-009100000/2005/06/009100000200506291822198.html
  3. ↑ http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/film/1012/review
  4. ↑ http://www.cinemasie.com/en/fiche/oeuvre/bunhongshil/recompenses.html

External links

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