One of the biggest disappointments of the 2004 summer season has been the terrible under-performance of the horror film genre. Aside from the critical and box-office success of the Viet Nam-themed R-Point, (To Catch a Virgin Ghost did fairly well too, but it is, strictly speaking, a comedy) this year's straightforward horror films performed between mild disappointments and dismal failures in box office terms, and were absolute disasters in critical terms. Interestingly, all these films seem to have failed for different reasons, aside from possibly one common denominator, the bad screenplay.
Face is at least based on an interesting premise. Hyun-min (Shin Hyun-joon, the sourface hero of Bichunmoo [2000], quite convincing as a misanthrope) is a specialist in recovering a dead person's identity by reconstructing his or her face. (Fans of mystery films might recall that facial reconstruction also figures in the Michael Apted thriller Gorky Park [1983]) He reluctantly takes on the job of identifying the victims of a horrid serial murder case. The victims have turned up as skeletons, with all flesh dissolved away with some chemical solvent. Sun-yeong (Song Yun-ah, Jail Breakers) joins him in the investigation as a junior partner and they develop a friendship. Meanwhile, Hyun-min is plagued by the visions of a long-haired, funeral-clothes-garbed female ghost, who seems to have apprenticed in ghosting skills under Sadako from Ring (1998). She pops up in his bathroom. She pops out of a puddle on the living room floor. And so on. Darn, it's so scary.
First and foremost among the movie's many problems is that its plot makes no sense whatsoever. The screenplay credited to Pak Cheol-hee and three other writers tries hard to plant red herrings and manipulate the viewer's expectations, only to hinge the entire film on a ridiculously flimsy "twist" ending. Looking at Hyun-min crawling away in abject horror from the "final revelation," you will either feel insulted, like being subject to a sales pitch by some beer-smelling cretin in a bar, or hang your head in embarrassment. This revelation comes from absolutely nowhere (let's not even go into the numerous lapses in logic required for the characters to arrive at this point) and yet is utterly predictable: it is a fine example of how the obsession with a "surprise ending" can ruin a screenplay. It might not have mattered that much if director Yu Sang-gon chose to make the film in a deliberately unrealistic style, perhaps in the manner of some Italian gialli. However, Yu chose to make the movie in a naturalistic mode with overtones of a police procedural, accentuating the senselessness of the plot.
The true shame is that Face is in fact a polished production with a lot going for it in the technical end. Choe Ji-yeol's cinematography, Lee Han-na's music (especially her use of the wailing female vocals) and the veteran Pak Kok-ji's editing are all proficient and envelop the film in professional sheen. Face also does include several effective scenes, such as the long, dialogue-less sequence where Hyun-min uncovers a key piece of evidence in a sand quarry near the Han River. Here Yu keeps things quietly menacing without resorting to herky-jerky camerawork that mars the similar sequences in many other movies.
Face (Korea Movie 2004)
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