While most are probably tiring of the alphabetical horror coming out of Asia (J-horror, K-horror, T-horror, etc.), I remain infatuated with the material. Like rock & roll, horror movies keep me young. Thus, I couldn't resist Ik-Hwan [Equan] Choe's Voice, the fourth installment in Korea's yeogo gwedam (girls high school horror) series. I haven't seen the other three—Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori, and The Wishing Stairs—though I intend to. I was properly horrified by The Tale of Two Sisters, however.Kyu Hyun Kim's synopses for both the SFKAFF catalog and the Korean Film Page background the tale.
Voice adds a whole new ouch to the paper cut. Its strength lies in its atmospheric dread and attendant special effects. What most impressed me was its riff on the premise that hearing is the last sense to go before you die and that it is in the remembrance of those departed that they remain alive. Without memory, death conquers. Choe does a fine job of capturing the confused pain of a ghost unwilling to let go of life. Most ghost stories make a point of showing how frightened the living are of the dead; but, Voice inverts the formula to show how frightened the dead are of the living.
