Face (Korean 2004) Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A facial reconstruction expert is haunted by a victim's ghost that wishes him to complete his work in catching a serial killer.

Review: I remember seeing the trailer for this film when it first came out and thinking it would be really scary. How wrong I was. The main problem is that this film is more of a crime thriller with light horror elements that could have been reworked properly into the story. It's hard to tell if the original script was independent of any horror elements and they were tacked on because it was the height of the "Ringu" ripoff era. Or, the twist ending was written first and a story was weakly built up around this ridiculous reveal; I find it hard to believe this film could have come into existence outside of those two scenarios. At the same time, the film is unable to create a competent crime/mystery nor deliver any scares which is a shame because the ghost did look pretty creepy. The story can get needlessly convoluted so I will try and simplify it to only focus on what's important. An expert on reconstructing the faces of unidentifiable murder victims, named Hyun-min, has decided to quit his job so he can focus on his ailing daughter and because his wife died recently and because he's a big bitch. Not making Hyun-min more interesting and not giving him a personality beyond worrisome father was a big mistake. What drives this guy, how did he get into this work, and why is he even in this field if he hardly seems to care about the victims? We never learn a thing about this guy even though he should be interesting as hell. But who cares, there is some serial killer soaking all his victims in acid leaving only the bones behind which is where Hyun-min comes into play. An amateur in the facial reconstruction vocation, Sun-young, delivers the most recent skull to Hyun-min and tries to encourage him regardless of his douchebag ways. Even though there were random scenes of Hyun-min's daughter being haunted by some ghost, it's not until the skull is delivered that Hyun-min finds himself seeing visions and having nightmares surrounding the ghost. Basically, we get the vibe, and so does Hyun-min, that he is being prodded to continue his work and bring closure to the murder victims. I can understand the ghost haunting Hyun-min somewhat, even though I'm sure there's other people that could do the job, but why would the ghost haunt the daughter when she's just a dying little girl? And why wouldn't you just haunt the damn killer?! The motives of this ghost are hazy mostly for contrivance's sake. It's as if they realized, hey, we haven't had a scary scene for a while, let's make the ghost pop up for no reason! We never even get a good look at the ghost which is connected to the nonsensical twist that also explains why the ghost haunts the daughter. The majority of the film there is only one suspect, the daughter's doctor, who does appear overly suspicious which means he's obviously not the killer! It doesn't take much to realize that the daughter had a heart transplant and received the organ from the ghost at the behest of the killer. So Sun-young helps Hyun-min finish the skull only for it to not connect to the plot of the movie?! I'm still trying to figure that one out. Let me say this now, so many of these stupid moments will be exasperated to infinity once I explain what's really going on because it's just so dumb. After pointlessly building an unrealistic love interest out of Sun-young, Hyun-min eventually has a vision of where the latest victim is buried and personally retrieves the skull. Since the makers knew explaining to the police how the hell Hyun-min knew the location of the body would make him look suspicious, they simply don't bother to address it! That red herring doctor is found dead and they realize he must have been working with someone to harvest the organs. There are lots of background characters introduced here and there that we see one time at best and one of them turns out to be the killer; his motive is some bull shit about his son died from this rare disease that Hyun-min's daughter has and so he's killing people to save others? Yeah, not the best of motives. Anyway, he's just some guy who took Sun-young's photo one time at a bar...but, wait, Sun-young knows the killer?! The film thinks it's clever showing us a shot of Sun-young about the be killed by the killer right at the moment Hyun-min finishes the last skull. Oh shit, the skull belongs to Sun-young! Oh my god, no, she's the ghost! Ahh, so shocking...oh wait, total bull shit! So the ghost has been Sun-young all along which is really, really fucking retarded and does not follow any sense of logic anyone could conceivably come up with. We see her interacting with the world on multiple occasions. Even if it were all in Hyun-min's head, why would she put on the charade of having an umbrella, knocking at the door, etc.? Where did she get the first skull from? Pulled that one out of her ass, and why didn't that damn skull have any connection to the movie?! Besides, if she can take a normal form and semi-romance Hyun-min, why the hell does she keep taking the form of a creepy ghost and freaking him and his daughter out practically giving the daughter a heart attack to boot?! And if she has this much power, why can't she just fuck with the killer?! AND how fucking convenient that in life she was trying to get into the same job as Hyun-min and gets killed by a killer that requires that exact job to solve the crime who coincidentally helped Hyun-min's daughter and both had the same rare disease! Oh god damn it! Like I said, almost every single aspect to the story relies on this reveal which makes no sense. Ugh, whatever, Hyun-min gets his candy ass caught by the killer, they fight, and right when Hyun-min is going to die, Sun-young's ghost (finally!) scares the killer allowing the police enough time to shoot him. The film ends with the daughter healthy now and Hyun-min hears some recording from Sun-young she left him...oh good lord, I give up. It's as if they said let's remove all the subtly from "The Sixth Sense" and combine it with the most generic serial killer imaginable. Okay, this film did get a few things right with decent acting, a scary ghost, Sun-young is cute, the facial reconstruction angle was creative, and the mystery is somewhat intriguing, but it is impossible to ignore the ending and the sheer shenanigans of the plot in retrospective. The production value was high but overall the film is mediocre with one of the worst twists I've ever watched. When this film first came out I wasn't as infuriated by the ending as I am now, but that's because this time I followed the plot specifically trying to piece this ending into the story and it just does not fucking fit! I'll be generous and say it's maybe worth a view, but don't re-watch it or only regret and frustration you will find.

Notable Moment: When the ghost is lurking in the daughter's closet. Although, why exactly is the ghost chilling out in a closet in the first place?

Final Rating: 5/10