(aka "Voice" or "Yeogo gwae-dam 4: Moksori" or "Ghost Voice" or "Voice Letter" or "Ghost Voice" )

 

directed by Ik-hwan Choe
Korea 2005

 

When Young-eon (Ok-bin Kim) stays after hours at school to practice her singing, she feels a presence with her. She runs from a dark form and passes out in front of the elevator. When she wakes, she finds that no one can see or hear her except close friend Seon-min (Ji-hye Seo) who can still hear her voice. The discovery of Young-eon's body at the bottom of the elevator shaft not only confirms her death but her fallible memory as a ghost. Suspicion falls upon music teacher Hee-myun (Seo-hyeong Kim) until she too is found dead. Misfit student Cho-ah (Ye-ryeon Cha) also hears the voices of the dead and helps Seon-min try to solve Young-eon's death which arouses Young-eon's jealousy and suspicion of Cho-ah's real motives. When Seon-min discovers that Young-eon had the same singing voice as Hyo-jung (Hyeon-kyeong Lim), a student rumored to have been in a relationship with Hee-myun and who committed suicide, Seon-min suspects that her ghost may have killed Young-eon out of jealousy but there is far more to it than that.

The fourth film in the "Girl's High School Horror" series, this moving film is less emotionally compelling than MEMENTO MORI (the second in the series) but seems to have balanced the emotional and horrific elements better than the former film (in which the filmmakers disagreed about the horror component). That said, while the plot is diverting, the scripting itself is less subtle. The minutae of the relationships between the girls and their cliques is glossed over and contrasted with one very banal lecture by one of the male professors on the meaning of life being the pursuit of happiness (which is defined by a good job, good health, good credit, and sociability). In spite of that, VOICE is still a more worthy effort than most of the more recent and derivate J-horror, K-horror, and their American remakes and rip-offs.

Eric Cotenas

Posters

Theatrical Release: 15 July 2005

Reviews    More Reviews  DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Genius Products/Weinstein Co. - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover

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Distribution

Genius Products/Weinstein Co.

Region 1 - NTSC

Runtime 1:45:04
Video

1.82:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.56 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio Korean (Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo)
Subtitles English, none
Features Release Information:
Studio: Genius Products/Weinstein Co.

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.82:1

Edition Details:
• Behind the Scenes (23:48)
• Theatrical Trailer (2:26)

DVD Release Date: July 15th, 2008
Amaray

Chapters 12

 

Comments

Long overdue on DVD in the United States and now graced with hideously misleading cover art (with a big unrated stamp to suggest torture porn horror though the lack of rating more likely comes from not submitting the film to the MPAA), Genius/Weinstein's release of the fourth film in the "Girl's High School Horror" series is a serviceable but disappointing release.

Although the film was undoubtedly mixed in 5.1, we only have a 2.0 mix here (the Korean release sports 5.1 and 2.0 audio) with a behind the scenes segment and theatrical trailer as the sole extras (the R3 release was a 2 disc set with several featurettes). Even as a Weinstein release, this is rather skimpy. We don't even get fifteen unwanted, unskippable minutes of Weinstein release trailers at the start. Had Tartan released this title as they had the other titles in the series, we would have likely gotten a more substantial edition.

 - Eric Cotenas

 



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DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

 

 

Distribution

Genius Products/Weinstein Co.

Region 1 - NTSC

 

 





 

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