Face Reviews
February 4, 2006
the scares at the beginning were fantastic, but lost its momentum and got pretty cliche and subpar
March 28, 2013
Korean horror movie in the typical Asian fashion - white-faced girl ghost with the hair covering most of her face, bizarrely moving over surfaces. Hyeon-jun Shin is a bit too sedate in his performance of a father grieving for his ill daughter, but Yong-Ah Song is wonderful as the assistant. Not a riveting story, but put together well enough to hold my attention. Not scary, little gore; it does register as being slightly creepy, but just barely.
December 11, 2012
Tiene un buen inicio pero decae al final aunque la historia esta bastante bien. No da terror alguno aunque algunas apariciones están muy logradas.
December 23, 2011
I'm not quite sure how it happened, but by coincidence, I ended up watching two Asian films about the underground organ-harvesting trade in one day. This is the one I knew covered that information, and it's the one I liked less, albeit slightly less; while there's a lot of good material here, and it's all well-presented, you're not going to find anything here you haven't seen before, probably many times.
Hyun-min Lee (The Legend of the Shadowless Sword's Hyun-jun Shin) is Korea's premiere facial reconstruction artist, but he quit his job recently in order to move to the country with his daughter, who has a congenital heart defect and is not expected to live longer without a transplant. She's currently off living with Grandma while he finishes cutting his ties with the institute where he works (where are all these jobs where people beg you to stay when you quit? I see them in movies all the time, but in real life, not so much...), but on the day before he's supposed to leave, Sun-yeong Jeong (Arang's Yun-ah Song), an up-and-coming university student whose greatest desire is to study under him, turns up with a box containing a skull. He refuses her, but she will only take a conditional no for an answer; she tells him she's leaving the box with him overnight and will be back to pick it up the next day. Cue haunting. When she comes back, the skull is out and mounted, though he has no memory of doing it, and so he reluctantly starts the process, both figuring out who belongs to this skull and mentoring Sun-yeong in the process. Meanwhile, other bodies are being discovered, and the ghosts haunting Hyun-min seem to be trying to point him to the killer.
Peiseu is a movie that's trying to be a little too much at once, I think. There's the obvious romance angle, there's the police procedural/mystery angle, there's the creepy-long-haired-ghost angle. Any two of those together would probably have worked well, but the material feels stretched a little thin, and it's likely you'll see the Big Twist(TM) coming a mile away. But it's all quite stylish and easy on the eyes; it's not an hour and a half you'll find yourself regretting, though you may want to just watch some of the other movies that did it just as well the first time around. ** 1/2
Peiseu (Sang-gon Yoo, 2004)
I'm not quite sure how it happened, but by coincidence, I ended up watching two Asian films about the underground organ-harvesting trade in one day. This is the one I knew covered that information, and it's the one I liked less, albeit slightly less; while there's a lot of good material here, and it's all well-presented, you're not going to find anything here you haven't seen before, probably many times.
Hyun-min Lee (The Legend of the Shadowless Sword's Hyun-jun Shin) is Korea's premiere facial reconstruction artist, but he quit his job recently in order to move to the country with his daughter, who has a congenital heart defect and is not expected to live longer without a transplant. She's currently off living with Grandma while he finishes cutting his ties with the institute where he works (where are all these jobs where people beg you to stay when you quit? I see them in movies all the time, but in real life, not so much...), but on the day before he's supposed to leave, Sun-yeong Jeong (Arang's Yun-ah Song), an up-and-coming university student whose greatest desire is to study under him, turns up with a box containing a skull. He refuses her, but she will only take a conditional no for an answer; she tells him she's leaving the box with him overnight and will be back to pick it up the next day. Cue haunting. When she comes back, the skull is out and mounted, though he has no memory of doing it, and so he reluctantly starts the process, both figuring out who belongs to this skull and mentoring Sun-yeong in the process. Meanwhile, other bodies are being discovered, and the ghosts haunting Hyun-min seem to be trying to point him to the killer.
Peiseu is a movie that's trying to be a little too much at once, I think. There's the obvious romance angle, there's the police procedural/mystery angle, there's the creepy-long-haired-ghost angle. Any two of those together would probably have worked well, but the material feels stretched a little thin, and it's likely you'll see the Big Twist(TM) coming a mile away. But it's all quite stylish and easy on the eyes; it's not an hour and a half you'll find yourself regretting, though you may want to just watch some of the other movies that did it just as well the first time around. ** 1/2
Cynthia S
Super Reviewer
November 1, 2011
Typical Asian horror movie. Nothing really new here. That creepy girl with the hair hanging down over her face, etc, has gotten so overdone. Move on already.
Daniel Francisco S.
February 14, 2010
Esperaba un poco mas, la trama no logra ser lo suficientemente intensa. Se vuelve predecible incluso al inicio de la pelicula si el espectador es logra notar ciertos detalles. Para verla solo una vez...
ilovemyprozac1
March 29, 2009
Pretty average but an interesting mix of the supernatural and serial killer type themes. Too bad it got lost in minute character details of the two leads rather than focusing on the actual storyline.
alanjayh
Super Reviewer
March 7, 2009
A rather quick moving korean mystery tale that starts out rather gory, and then proceeds to use a sledgehammer to introduce the ghostly supernatural elements. Still this would have been a passable watch except for the last 15 minutes; there we experience the obligatory twist and a far-fetched coincidence that tests the viewer's patience. Overall, it is decent entertainment more so because of the acting rather than the script. However, it's just nothing new or original in the k-horror genre.
aqintactus
June 10, 2008
This movie was bizarrely gripping for me. i wouldn't call it excellent but I was happy with it. Some of the dream sequences were well done.
March 24, 2008
a) don't believe in Korean horrors
b) don't believe in Korean horrors
c) Damn it, don't believe in Korean horrors...
d) don't call a crime movie a horror movie
what I learned from it?
a) don't believe in Korean horrors
b) don't believe in Korean horrors
c) Damn it, don't believe in Korean horrors...
d) don't call a crime movie a horror movie
lovelyspectrum
June 19, 2007
very good movie, with a great ending
mitts2403
April 9, 2007
A bit creepy, but I wouldn't consider this a horror film, more like a crime movie. Though there were some supernatural moments, it wasn't really scary. I don't think they had to add the horror parts to it to make it a good movie. It's just a bit too much of a reminder of the Ring. The story was bittersweet (my fav type lol), and I liked the slow pace. But, like I said, if you're going to make a horror movie go all the way! This movie didn't, and I think that's going to disappoint a lot of horror flick fans.
michaeljtutt
April 1, 2007
A satisfactory korean thriller/ghost story if a bit generic. It tries a bit too hard with its "sixth sense" style twist & unfortunately is ripe for a Hollywood re-hash.
sleepykiss
October 8, 2006
Simple story, bit boring.
