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Uninvited, The

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    Ian Jane
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  • Uninvited, The

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    Released by: Panik House
    Released on: 5/30/2006
    Director: Su-yeon Lee
    Cast: Shin-yang Park, Ji-hyun Jun, Seon Yu, Ok Jeong, Ju-shil Lee
    Year: 2003

    The Movie:

    Jeong-won (Shin-yang Park) seems to lead a pretty normal life. He's engaged to be married to a pretty and succesful woman with a lucrative light fixture installation business and even if she's a bit of a nag sometimes, she cares for him. Jeaong-won himself runs an interior design company that does pretty well renovating older building and doing internal construction work. His father's church seems to be doing better than it has before as well, which is a nice plus.

    His life, however, changes when he takes a subway ride home one night. As he gets off at the last stop and looks towards the train as it departs he sees two girls who appear to be sleeping, still in the car. He doesn't think too much about it until the next day when he learns from the news that the two girls were found that night, not sleeping, but dead - sitting across from one another in the very same subway car that he got out of. That day at work he has an accident and shortly thereafter he starts seeing what he thinks are the ghosts of the two girls that he saw that night on the train, only he's seeing them inside his apartment at the dining room table, sitting across from one another just as they were when they were found.

    From there, while at his father's church one day, Jeong-won meets Yeon (Ji-hyun Jun of My Sassy Girl), a quiet woman who suffers from narcolepsy. She passes out when he drives her home and he takes her to his apartment as he's unsure what to do with her. As he waits for her ex-husband to come and pick her up, she wakes up and tells him that he really should put his children to bed, as they looked tired. She leaves, and he becomes obsessed with her, knowing that she has seen the same ghosts in his apartment that she has seen. As he gets to know her better he learns of how the children died, and how the two murders tie into Yeon's life and more specifically, into his own past and some traumatic events from his childhood.

    The story unfolds simply enough, and the direction isn't flashy but with The Uninvited, writer/director Su-yeon Lee has crafted a complex and heady film that requires a lot of attention and a fair bit of thinking. It's a challenging film with more than it's fair share of completely distrubing moments that stick with you long after the movie is finished, but no overt gore or murder set pieces. The movie works on an almost completely psychological level and the back of the packaging makes a very astute comparison between this film and Roman Polanski's The Tenant. While there are very obvious differences between the two movies, the comparison makes sense once you see how TheUninvited ends and how it plays with themes of isolation and repressed psychological issues.

    Don't go into this one expecting the usual 'creepy girl with long black hair' that is so easily associated with Asian horror movies from the last decade or so. While the ghosts do manifest they're nothing like Sadako from The Ring or the ghostly creatures from the Ju-On films, and they're not really there to provide the movie with jump scares but rather to accent, or possibly to compliment, Su-yeon's descent into the horrors of his past.

    One word of warning - those put off by violence towards children should note that although the death scenes that take place in this film are not graphic in their depictions, they are completely horrifying and utterly disturbing. While that shouldn't put anyone off from seeking out the film (they're fake after all), they do pack quite a punch and as such they might be too much for those easily upset by such things.

    The movie isn't perfect - at over two hours in length it is actually quite slow in spots, but those who appreciate a multi-layered horror film that breaks from tradition and works on a completely different level than most, The Uninvited is well worth seeking out.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    The anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen transfer isn't perfect but it's pretty solid. There is some definite line shimmering present throughout and a bit of mpeg comrpession artifacting going on in the darker scenes. Print damage is minimal but if you really look for them you'll note the odd speck here and there. Color reproduction is rather cold looking but this is probably a stylistic choice of the cinematographer and art director rather than the fault of the transfer. Detail in both the foreground and the background of the image is pretty strong, and everything looks good - just not perfect.

    Audio options are available in DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mixes or in 2.0 Surround in Korean with optional subtitles available in English or Spanish. If you've got the hardware to make it happen, check out the either of the 5.1 mixes as they definitely add more atmosphere to the movie and really enhance a few certain scenes, especially towards the end of the movie. The subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read and free of any typographical errors.

    The first supplements of note come in the form of two audio commentaries, the first of which is an 'English language Audio Essay by Art Black performed by Korean Film Licensor Ed Lee.' Despite this awkward phrasing, this is basically Lee reading an essay written by Black, who has written quite a bit on Asian horror over the years. This reading gives a good overview of the rise of Asian cinema and South Korean's part in that ever-growing genre. It cover's how the Hong Kong new wave broke so much new ground, and then it touches on The Uninvited itself. Once it gets to the film in question, it makes comparisons to Memento Mori and Tell Me Something and explains some of the themes and plot devices before discussing the DVD release we're discussing in this review. While this is a reasonably interesting essay for those who aren't well versed in the history of Asian genre films, it isn't specific enough to the feature on the disc to be of a whole lot of value. It also runs out at twenty-six minutes and four seconds in length. A more specific commentary geared towards The Uninvited itself would have been very welcome, as the movie leaves a lot to be discussed. Black's essay is well written enough on its own but probably would have been better used as liner notes.

    The second commentary track is from Jesus 'Pelos' Olvera, editor of Al Borde. It's completely in Spanish and there are no English subtitles provided for it, which made this reviewer scratch his head and mutter to himself.

    A making of documentary is also provided, broken into nine. It's shot on video and not of the best visual quality but the Korean language audio is nicely subtitled into English and we get a lot of behind the scenes and backstage footage in here. We get to see how a few different scenes were shot, including some of the more disturbing ones (it's interesting to see how they look without the CGI effects added in) and while some more context or tighter editing would have made for a better way of presenting this material, it's still nice to see it here.

    Shin-yang Park and Ji-hyun Jun are interviewed in a segment called Reminiscence, which is an eight and a half minute long segment in which the two performers discuss some intricacies of their characters and what they liked and found challenging about their parts in the movie.

    Abridged: The Uninvited Condensed is an odd fifteen-minute version of the feature film that almost looks like it was a rough cut of sorts. No explanation is given as to what this short version is or why it exists but it feels like a work in progress possibly put together to use as a skeleton for a fleshed out version to be built upon. Those who found the movie slow can re-watch it again in this format and get right to the meat of the story!

    Rounding out the extra features are the trailer for the film, a pair of generous poster and still galleries, a storyboard to screen comparison, an essay in text format on the disc on South Korean horror movies by Art Black, a collectible sticker that reproduces the cover art of the DVD, some well written production notes, and some biographies for the key cast and crew members. The animated menus are provided in both English and Spanish language options, and once again Panik House have provided some neat packaging for this release as the disc comes housed in a textured slip case that fits overtop of the cover art which provides an interesting illusion. A couple of Easter eggs are hidden on the disc as well and three songs from the soundtrack are also available in a sort of mini isolated score option simply titled Theme Music.

    The Final Word:

    The Uninvited is a very unique, deliberately paced and cerebral horror film that with this DVD release gets a very nice presentation from Panik House, who have once again shown a loving attention to detail and a commitment to providing exemplary releases of unusual films.
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