Bushinsaba [Uncut] [Special Edition] [2 Discs] [DVD] [2004]

Writer/director Ahn Byung-ki returns to the horror genre with Bunshinsaba, the follow-up to his 2002 hit Phone. Big-eyed Lee Se-eun stars as Yoo-jin, who has recently moved from Seoul to the provincial small town where her mother grew up. Yoo-jin is tormented by her classmates because of her status as an outsider, and the two girls that befriend her share her fate. As the film opens, Yoo-jin has decided to seek vengeance, and has gathered her frightened friends for a makeshift midnight séance over the desk of a girl who, legend has it, died horribly a generation earlier. While contacting the spirit, Yoo-jin warns her friends that no matter how frightened they get, they are not to open their eyes, or the spirit will possess them. Tragically, Yoo-jin herself fails to follow this sound advice. Before long, Yoo-jin is experiencing blackouts, and her tormentors are dying painful deaths that appear to be suicides. Terrified, Yoo-jin confides in a sympathetic teacher, Mr. Han (Choi Seong-min). Mr. Han, in turn, seeks the advice of a pretty new teacher, Miss Lee (Lee Se-eun, who starred in the film that started the K-horror craze, Whispering Corridors), who seems to have her own strange and possibly dangerous connection to the events that are unfolding. Before long, Yoo-jin and Mr. Han unearth the town's terrifying secret, and realize that everyone who lives there is in grave danger. Bunshinsaba had its North American Premiere at the 2005 New York Korean Film Festival.~Josh Ralske