Change Your Image
amiemica
Reviews
Gyeongseonghakyoo: Sarajin sonyeodeul (2015)
Mad science
The purpose of my review is to explain this movie to those who don't understand it, so, yes, there are definitely spoilers in my review. This movie comes across as a mystery, thriller, horror, etc, depending on what point of the movie you're at. It even has what appears to be supernatural elements. They are not supernatural. This takes place in the 1930's during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The boarding school is one of several boarding schools that are near a Japanese military base. They are basically science labs with active experiments. The girls at the schools are the experiments. The goal of the Japanese empire is to create a drug or set of drugs that can create super- soldiers. It is never truly said where the girls in the boarding schools came from, only the stories that they all believe. Every time a girl disappears, they are either doing additional experiments or she has died. If she hasn't died, they brainwash her and erase her memory and return her to the school as a new student. The remaining girls are either knocked out to "end the semester" or they are told that the girl's family came in the night and took her home. They are all given drugs that are called vitamins before every meal and before bed. They are convinced that the girl coming to the school is a new girl, even if she looks familiar. If they were knocked out, they awaken with no memory of anything that happened.each semester is a separate experiment and is labeled as a test group. If girls survive that semester, they continue on into the next semester, or test group. Later in the movie, Ju-ran (Shizuko) and Yeon-deok (Kazue) discover the science notes and film. They watch movies of themselves and Yuka and see film of how they have been in the other groups and have no memory. Kenji tells the headmistress that two have gotten out of her sight. Those two were Eguchi and Yuka. Eguchi has apparently escaped from horrific experiment and cannot find her way out of the school due to injury or whatever, but she is trying to get help or show the girls what is happening. That's why Shizuko saw her under the bed and later Kihira and Shizuko saw her under the stairwell. Apparently, Kihira's reactions to the drugs seem to be instability and what could be triggered programming to kill herself if she sees certain things. Yuka throws herself out of a tree and the headmistress says if she survives a little longer, they will break a record. The girls have been desensitized to pain, so Yuka is left broken to see how long she survives. Shizuko, Yuka and Kazue were in the original test group and kept surviving. They were friends from the beginning, so even though they have been brainwashed, some deep unconscious memories cause them to gravitate to each other, especially Shizuko and Kazue. Eventually, they both start to experience flashes of memory triggered by events happening around them. Shikuzo even has dreams. She thinks she is hallucinating due to her injections. After the whole movie has passed, the last scene is of Shizuko and Kazue in the basement. If you look closely, you'll see that they are much younger and the basement is not decayed. The record player even works. That is when they actually, really met each other for the first time. This scene shows us that the girls have been in the experiment for many years. Likely, all of the girls have disappeared at some point and been returned as "new" arrivals. Only when one dies is she truly replaced with a new girl. Shizuko doesn't exhibit supernatural strength. She is the result of years of drugs and experimentation to create super-soldiers. She has super-human strength and speed.
The Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2016)
Interesting story, perhaps misunderstood
This movie has a very interesting take on the various versions of the Sleeping Beauty story. It even references the Brothers Grimm version 'Briar Rose'. It is obviously working with a low budget and is very cheesy throughout. However, unlike other viewers, I feel that it pretty much explained everything; it was just very quick, rushed and could be easily missed. For those who are a little confused and are reading these reviews for a bit of clarification on some parts of the movie: the curse came about because Thomas' ancestors sacrificed a virgin to a version of Satan or a very powerful demon. The sacrificed woman became the vessel for the evil god/demon to enter this world and bring about the apocalypse. Apparently good djinn worked together to keep the woman asleep, which in turn kept the evil god/demon imprisoned. Because of the evil act of sacrificing the virgin to the evil god/demon, the Kaiser bloodline men were born with demons inside them. Presumably, they performed the sacrifice to get some sort of power but in fact were really opening themselves up to be the servants of the god/demon. The Kaiser men were bound to the imprisoned god/demon, and so could not leave the house. Maybe they knew the full truth, maybe not. Most likely not, since the djinn were necessary to guard the sleeping god/demon to keep one of them from awakening it. Since Thomas had virtually no knowledge of any of it, all he could do was go with what he was being told. He thought the Veiled Demon-djinn was evil and found a way to get to the woman and awaken her. He had no way of knowing that she was not a sleeping woman under a curse and that he was the one who was cursed. Therefore, he freed the god/demon and it in turn, freed the generations of demons that had been stored in his bloodline and proceeded to begin the apocalypse. This would be an awesome movie to be redone by a more skilled writer/director/crew/etc and be more fully fleshed out and explored. This movie is worth watching for the interesting story.