Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait Review

Check out my updated review! http://thevagrantrises.blogspot.com/2014/03/updated-review-2-muoi-legend-of-portrait.html

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A writer, desperate for a new hit, hears a story about a cursed painting and vengeful ghost in Vietnam and investigates whether there is any truth.

Review: This is another mixed bag film for multiple reasons. For one, at first glance, you may think this is a really scary movie until you realize all of the scares were cheap, jump scares. There may be one or two genuinely frightening moments while all the rest are "dreams" from the main character, Yoonhee, which usually end with some shock value right before she wakes up; they even pull the infamous dream within a dream trick which only emphasizes how cheap the scares are. I will say this, to the film's credit, the jump scares are done well but could have been better applied so they weren't just dreams. There was even a bit of originality and creativity to these scenes which is why I was so disappointed they were just dreams; this isn't a one or two scenes kind of situation, I'm talking like 10 or more times! The other thing that really sucked was the typical K-horror cliches of an ending making no sense and the usual, weird girl on girl "friendship" even though we have confirmation the one girl, Seoyeon, liked some guy; it's hard to explain it all, but once you discover Seoyeon's intentions and the length she has gone to get revenge on the main girl you will wonder if there weren't more going on there. Speaking of Seoyeon's revenge, I did like how deserving she was to get it; she was gang raped by the guy she liked and his friends while one of her female friends filmed it. She was then further betrayed by Yoonhee who wrote a book about how big of a slut Seoyeon was. I really felt bad for Seoyeon and knowing her torment enhanced the story and made it feel more powerful. But again, why make the target of her revenge Yoonhee unless there was just a little something extra between them or perhaps I just can't wrap my mind around these "bonds?" The story is interesting enough as a woman, named Muoi, around 100 years ago had an equally tortured life and committed suicide transferring her vengeful spirit to a painting of herself that was unfinished by her lover. Basically Yoonhee is trying to find out how real this story is while creepy antics ensue. In the end, somehow Seoyeon has replaced Muoi's spirit in the painting and offered up Yoonhee's body for Muoi to possess in exchange that Muoi will exact revenge for Seoyeon. Eh, that's the best I could explain it, but it does not present itself so clearly in the actual movie. Overall, this is a film that may impress you on a single viewing despite its many cliches, but it is loaded with cheap scares and could have been one of the greats had they done a few things differently. Honestly, I really wanted to rate this film higher, but they just couldn't integrate the dreams to be an actual part of the film. Lastly, I did particularly like the joint effort from Vietnam and Korea together.

Notable Moment: When Muoi comes out of the painting of course. You knew it would come at some point, but it was done better than I thought it would be.

Final Rating: 6/10