To Sir, With Love / Bloody Reunion (Korea 2006)

[Yani]

Nevermind the odd title, but this is a slasher movie.

The bloody reunion... shattered memories... the night you'll never survive.

Mrs. Park in a wheel chair and Mi-ja, once a student of Mrs. Park, live together in a quiet seemingly inhabited cottage by the sea. As Mrs. Park's illness gets worse, Mi-ja invites old classmates from elementary school to please her feeling. Mrs. Park and seven former students have an emotional reunion for the first time in 16 years. They include the class president Se-ho, vice-president Eun-young, Super-Pig Soon-hee, Dar-bong who was good at sports, Myung-ho who was especially favored by Mrs. Park, and the incredibly quiet kid Jung-won. Mrs. Park happily welcomes her disciples as they arrive one by one. But the happy reunion does not last long as they start to talk about the memories of the past and an unexplainable tension starts to fill the air. Eventually, brutally murdered corpses turn up one by one and the scars and truths around them start to get revealed....

To Sir, With Love ["Seuseung-ui eunhye"] Directed by Im Dae-woong. Screenplay by Park Se-yeol. A group of men and women gather at the home of their former elementary school teacher, who had abused them in the past. Soon, the guests at the house start to disappear. Starring Oh Mi-hee, Seo Young-hee, Lee Ji-hyun, Yeo Hyun-soo, Park Hyo-jun, Lee Dong-gyu, Jang Seong-won, Yu Seol-ah., Kim Eung-su. Cinematography by Kim Yoon-su. Produced by U Zone Films and Fineworks. Distributed and sold internationally by Show East. Rating: 18+. 93 min. August 3.

Reviewer's comment:

- [Heo Ji-Woong, Film2.0]
"As a Korean-style slasher this film is quite interesting in many ways. All the students growing up with the repressive educational environment and feeling a sort of silent victimism might even find delight in the actions and words of the film's character ('serves you right, you damn teachers!'). But then a certain sense of guilt ('they're teachers after all') will accompany that feeling, so this combination of conflicting sentiments creates a fresh new viewing experience. Despite adhering to the usual preconceptions of having to become a 'well made' film and having a melodramatic second half, the fact the film keeps the basic enjoyment of traditional slashers alive is something we can't criticize."

From Twitch:

스승의 은혜 (To Sir, With Love)

Director: 임대웅 (Im Dae-Woong)
Cast: 이동규 (Lee Dong-Gyu), 오미희 (Oh Mi-Hee), 여현수 (Yeo Hyun-Soo), 서영희 (Seo Young-Hee), 이지현 (Lee Ji-Hyun)
Produced By: 오죤필름 (Ozon Films), 화인웍스 (Wineworks)

Rating: 18 and Over
RELEASE: August 3

Official site.
http://www.teacher2006.co.kr/

Trailer.
mms://wms07.bcst.krn.yahoo.com/c/cine21.com/movie/trailer/2006/07/teacher_main_tr_700k.wmv

Teaser trailer (QT ~50mb).
http://www.showeast.co.kr/eng/traile...withlove_t.zip

EDIT: Added another English synopsis.

[Mandi Apple]

I think this is one Alex won't want to be seeing, being as how he's a teacher an' all

[Scuz]

This movie seems to have many different English titles. "To Sir, With Love" is one, "Teacher" is another and "My Teacher" is a third. It'll be interesting to see which one will be the official title.

Edit: Well, after some searching, according to Yesasia "To Sir, With Love" will be the official title after all. And the movie will be released on DVD on September 30th.

http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept...id-1004487901/

[d'hypnotist]

Originally Posted by Yani

Nevermind the odd title, but this is a slasher movie.

Oh! Hehe, at first I thought it was romance. Thanks for the inform.

[Scuz]

http://slasherp.nexcess.net/htm/revi...irwithlove.htm

A surprisingly positive review for the movie. I'm starting to have high hopes for this one.

[Yani]

Well, the movie is brutal, even nihilistic. Bloody and gory. It's a slasher and really inspired by Friday 13th, but there's more to it than that. Acting was good throughout the movie. The violence and very well done and I think this movie goes on the top when it comes to violent movies I've seen from Korea. But the violence in the movie is not only physical, but psychological. The movie has such despicable characters you start hating everyone for some reason. It questions one's morality. However, it is a slasher, so don't expect too deep movie. I am disappointed by some things, such as the way the movie was done and the ending, in a way, but I can't go much further without spoiling. And the camerawork was bad, in my humble opinion. I read in that review above it was fresh in the reviewer's opinion, but I found it bad. Same goes with some of the editing. However, the movie is often nice to look at.

If you're up for a brutal 1,5 hours with lots of slasher elements and a cool masked killer, and you're sick of those ghotst with bad hair days and grudges for everyone, do check this out. Keep your expectations low enough and you won't be disappointed. It was a nice change to see this, for me.

[fiol_brothers]

After watching the trailer, I ordered my copy from yesasia....i can't wait to watch it!!

[Akitsu]

To anybody who's seen this movie: what did you think about the ending?

[nivia]

I can't wait to see it.

[comandatuba]

Originally Posted by Akitsu

To anybody who's seen this movie: what did you think about the ending?

It was released in the U.S. named "Bloody Reunion", by Tartan Asia Extreme.

I just watched it today, but need to watch it again because, well, read my question below only if you've already watched it.

p.s. I haven't posted here for quite awhile, so I hope I got the adequate spoiler tags in place.


***SPOILER WARNING***


Spoiler / question:
 Did the deformed kid in the basement really exist? The ending was confusing as heck 

Regards.

[Anticlimacus]

Spoiler Free Review

I just watched To Sir With Love (aka Bloody Reunion) last night, and was mightily disappointed. I'm not exactly sure who wrote this script, but he/she should be exiled from South Korea immediately to prevent any further "products" such as this. In fact, he/she'd probably be scooped up by Hollywood in a heartbeat. Yes, it's that bad.

So a bunch of highschool alumni visit their teacher years later, but they are killed one by one. That's about it. If the filmmakers could have constructed some solid suspense sequences (ala High Tension) or provided something interesting to supplement the basic slasher plot line (ala Cure), it might have been a good film. They don't. To Sir With Love is basically a by-the-book formulaic slasher with some halfway decent kills and a really poor attempt at an ending, which consists of "twists" that are either too predictable or come from out of nowhere, having absolutely nothing to do with the events that occurred previously. In a nutshell, it was pathetic.

Think of Friday the 13th absent the (unintentional?) black humor. That's what you get with this film. And what was with the camera work? They would repeatedly zoom in and then zoom out on someone's face while they were talking. I felt like reaching my hand thru the television screen to choke the cameraman, who apparently suffered from A.D.D. Very annoying.

Even more horrific than the film itself are the glowing reviews that it's inexplicably garnering: "easily the best Korean horror film in years", "To Sir With Love really did work wonders", "Korea's answer to Haute Tension", "the best slasher pic to come along in a while", etc.

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what all of these critics are smoking, but I want some. This isn't "the best Korean horror film in years", because the very solid Spider Forest was released in 2004. Okay, so nothing memorable was released in 2005, but even so, the not-so-good films like Cello and The Red Shoes were even better than this, and that's not saying much. This film also "did not work wonders", unless you consider the mimicking of American horror idiocy thru Korean cinema a "wonder" – I personally consider it a travesty. Finally, comparing this film with High Tension is nothing less than gross negligence, as High Tension actually had TENSION. To Sir With Love has absolutely NONE.

Let's put it this way. If I wanted to watch a crappy slasher, I'll rent a Hollywood movie. The fact that South Korea would make a film like this worries me . . . big time. The last thing I need is for the Korean horror industry to be Americanized. That thought is what truly scares me, yet To Sir With Love felt so much like a typical Hollywood slasher that I re-read the cover of the DVD just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

I can understand why some would like to mutate the intelligence and creepiness of East Asian horror into something totally superficial, tasteless, and downright stupid. And who can blame them? Those kinds of movies make lots of money. The problem arises when one considers the fact that Japan, Korea, and China are producing almost ALL of the subtle, intelligent, and original horror films in the world today. If those countries begin to pander to the "turn your brains off at the door" moviegoer, than the advantages of quality horror film-making will regress into total extinction. Thus, any East Asian filmmaker who begins to pander to dim-witted horror cinema should be shunned out of the industry altogether in an effort to stop this trend into mediocrity.

This whole sorry state of affairs can be summarized by an excerpt from an online review of To Sir With Love:

"…meaning that the eyes are always entertained even if occasionally the brain has to switch off."

Not good. Not good.

[darkriku0]

I'm not sure if anyone has heard of this movie, I've been looking online and there isnt that many reviews for it or anything. I recently bought it and thought it was a very good Korean horror film, although it can get confusing in the end.
Anyone else hear of this film, and any plans to review it in the future?

[BeesInTheCaramel]

I personally am interested in seeing this, but I'm not sure if I want to blind-buy without reading some more reviews of it - opinions seem to be pretty divided.

[PandaYuki77]

I saw it yesterday on the shelf when I dropped off some dvds... I am going to rent it this weekend

[GhostWearingRedShoes]

I watched the Tartan release of this film last month I believe, and I must say, I wish I would have watched something else. For me, the camera and editing killed it for a while, but I got used to it during the movie. It sort of looked like it was filmed with a camcorder at times. There was one scene I did enjoy though, but I won't say which one. The ending was so lame, and the "twist" was totally uncalled for. I mean honestly, I can probably think of a better one. I guess I got too excited when I saw the trailer. The trailer was better than the actual film in my opinion. Well anyway, to sum it up, I didn't like this film, even though it had some nice things in it. In the end, it all seemed pointless. Again, this is all just my opinon, so don't attack me I love you all lol.

[AmongTheOrchids]

I completely agree with everything you just said. It seemed like so many plot elements turned out to be completely irrelevant at the end. I also felt the same way about that awful, unwelcome pointless twist ending. I should have seen it coming. A typical South Korean ending on a typically over-stylized pseudo art film.

[Brian]

I just thinkk the whole movie was crap...the "killer" was kinda expected but then all the plot twists really made everything confusing. The ending couldve been better, i mean does every Korean movie have to end with a Psychological twist???? It gets really repetetive after a while.

[GhostWearingRedShoes]

The ending shouldn't even be considered psychological XD There was nothing logical about it It was just a random, uncalled for, piece of crap ending that ruined the whole point of the movie!! Meow!!!

[Brian]

Originally Posted by GhostWearingRedShoes

The ending shouldn't even be considered psychological XD There was nothing logical about it It was just a random, uncalled for, piece of crap ending that ruined the whole point of the movie!! Meow!!!

 lol, good point. It did suck but by psychological i mean that "its all in your head thing". I dont think anyone will do it better than A Tale of Two Sisters. 

[GhostWearingRedShoes]

Amen Brian AMEN