Cello (Korea 2005)

[Yani]

Has anyone heard of this interesting looking Korean horror/drama? From the teaser it looks spooky and interesting. Here are posters and a link to teaser.



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mms://media1.maxmovie.com/av/Maxcelloteaser.wmv

Opens in August in Korea.

[Akitsu]

Finally it's out here in Korea. I suppose it won't get much attention here due to several blockbuster movies released recently, but that doesn't mean it was not worth watching.

Plot Summary:

Min-Ju (Song Hyeon-ah), a cello teacher living with her husband and two daughters, receives a tape with a somewhat eerie piece of classical music on it. After listening, something seems to be taking control of her, and it's not long before spooky things start happening in the house. Moreover, her daughter, who recently started taking cello lessons, suddenly behaves in a strange way, after trying to play that exact same piece.

Short Review:

Well, after watching nearly all Korean and Japanese horror films out there, I don't have any more expectations, but this one was a positive surprise. IMHO far better than its competitor 'Kabal/The Wig', released one week earlier, the acting and scare scenes are all pretty high standard. Of course, what would a Korean horror film be without those well-known cliches such as the black-haired ghost, but still, the plot is reasonably original. Definitely worth watching when it comes out in the rest of the world (if you aren't sick and tired of those films already).

[Yani]

Thanks for the mini review Akitsu.

[randomizer]

Wow! I'm looking forward to this alot...
The pictures gives me A Tale of two Sisters-vibes in some way... Just the cover and the "old-style" fashion.. The design :/ Maybe you know what I mean?
The plot and minireview was interesting, thanks Akitsu!

I'll keep my eyes open for a DVD with english subs for sure!

[Yani]

Originally Posted by randomizer

I'll keep my eyes open for a DVD with english subs for sure!

It's coming in two weeks! The Limited Edition comes with the Original Soundtrack for the movie. I'm looking forward seeing this one, the trailer struck on me.

[kyashi]

Originally Posted by Akitsu

IMHO far better than its competitor 'Kabal/The Wig', released one week earlier, the acting and scare scenes are all pretty high standard. Of course, what would a Korean horror film be without those well-known cliches such as the black-haired ghost, but still, the plot is reasonably original. Definitely worth watching when it comes out in the rest of the world (if you aren't sick and tired of those films already).

Personally, I think I still prefer The Wig, even though I would agree with you that Cello is probably better made. Maybe it's because I actually had very low expectations regarding The Wig - as yet another hair movie - but was quite pleasantly surprised by some of the twists in the story. Cello, on the other hand, though visually stunning, follows exactly the same formula as ever. Although the creepy little girl is quite something

[AmongTheOrchids]

Well this certainly looks exciting... trailers like that get me excited every time... even if it doesn't look strikingly original.

[Akitsu]

Originally Posted by kyashi

Personally, I think I still prefer The Wig, even though I would agree with you that Cello is probably better made. Maybe it's because I actually had very low expectations regarding The Wig - as yet another hair movie - but was quite pleasantly surprised by some of the twists in the story. Cello, on the other hand, though visually stunning, follows exactly the same formula as ever. Although the creepy little girl is quite something

Hm I agree with you partially, The Wig is more original, however I found the ending a bit lame. Not that the ending of Cello was anything to brag about, either...

[pdn]

I'm still not sure if this was meant to be a horror film or a farcical
black comedy - mostly though i thought it was just plain dull.
It probably didn't help that i managed to (more or less) spot
the twist ending about ten minutes into the film.

Korea's horror output has gone way downhill in the last
couple of years and it really needs someone with a bit
of inventive spark to give it a good kick up the arse.

[Ichi-kun]

I was also surprised by this. I actually liked it a lot; I guess it's because after seeing three different South Korean horrors and only liking one of them (Dead Friend, The Wig, and The Red Shoes- I loved the red shoes while I found the other ones just ridiculous and unscary particularly the wig). I didn't have any problmes with the pacing, unlike a lot of other people have... I liked how it was a joy for eyes as well as the ears. I'm glad the dvd I bought came with the movie soundtrack! The jump scenes weren't horrifying but this movie definitely had its "moments" and some good scares: there's evidently some really good suspense here, and I needed some new fingernails after I finished watching the last half . I was also impressed by the acting, Hyeong-a Seong did a great job.

My only problem with the movie is that the last fifteen minutes left my head spinning . I got pretty much everything else (even how the story was told through flashbacks and different timelines), just that last part... Can someone explain to me what happened? The only thing I could make of is that SPOILERS  Mi-ju might have gone crazy, or the ghost was messing with her head and made the past repeat itself, only that time giving hints that "it's only just begun..."...  END OF SPOILERS.

[PeachHipGirl]

Some comments from Sun Hyun-Ah are here

[maxtreme]

I'll wait for it to come out in America.

[Mandi Apple]

DDDHouse have it for pre-order now: http://www.dddhouse.com/dddhouse/en/...productID=5302 - apparently it'll be out in three days' time.

[Dabo127]

Oh, I tried to get on the official website for this one, but it killed my computer. It still looks good, though.

Eh, my friend plays the cello.

[Mandi Apple]

Poker are now doing a special edition DVD set bundled with the OST CD, if anyone liked it so much they had to have both: http://www.pokerindustries.com/poker...ku=CELLOKR-DVD

[dfd3657]

I rented this from Blockbuster the other day and watched it yesterday. It's entertaining, but nothing special. Probably won't be adding it to my collection any time soon.

[Scuz]

I was surprised by this. I was expecting something below average, but Cello was kind of good actually. It's not the best horror movie to come out of Korea, but it's certainly not the worst either. It's not scary (imo), but the plot is quite well-executed so it doesn't really matter. I got the impression this was supposed to be a "messy" movie, with plot-twists that'd make no sense, but I think I've got the majority of the movie figured out Jani and I had a short discussion about the ending (our initial opinions differed a bit) and after taking certain things into account, we managed to work out what happened. The black-haired ghost is present, but I think they managed to make it a little different from how it's normally portrayed.

The seemingly obligatory ending-twists in Korean horror movies are getting more and more boring, but other than that, it's an okay movie to watch when one has nothing else to do.

[GhostWearingRedShoes]

Is it just me, or did the long black haired ghost wearing a white dress evolve into a long black haired ghost wearing a black dress? After I saw this movie, I watched a few other's that have used the black dress instead. "Like Arang and Cinderella". Is this the new trend for female ghosts?

[sage]

This was a good movie for a rainy day(better yet, night!). If you were to accept it at face value (meaning, being comfortable with all the asian ghost cliches) and not expect too much, i think you'll enjoy this movie. However, if you're going in expecting a 'Citizen Kane'....LOL....Good Luck!!

[deadprinz]

Great movie but I though it was crazy when  that little girl die