Muoi: The Legend of A Portrait

((summary taken from AsianMediaWiki))

 Yoon-hee, a novelist, desperately seeks for a new story and that’s when she hears from Seo-yeon, her friend in Vietnam, a very tempting story about a legend of Muoi’s portrait. A long time grudge makes Yoon-hee hesitate to go to Vietnam to meet Seo-yeon. However, fascinated by sources of the portrait Seo-yeon incessantly sends her, Yoon-hee heads for Vietnam to unveil a century-long legend of the portrait. Yoon-hee is stunned by Seo-yeon’s dazzling look never seen before but is readily welcomed by her friend. As Yoon-hee unveils the mystery of Muoi, Vietnam, seemingly an exotic place, turns into a setting of a living nightmare, and the secret of Muoi in buried as if never to be revealed.

My Rating:

As far as horror movies go, this one was very impressive. The story was well developed, the acting top-notch, and the directing was great. The lighting and music really fit the tone for each scene, and I found myself jumping at quite a few parts. I wouldn’t really say it was that scary, but people who scare easily, or who don’t watch many horror movies will probably find it frightening. It does do a terrific job of reeling the viewers in. And in case you’re curious, the movie it reminds me of the most is The Ring.

On an unrelated note, I like how the story is sort of a count down to the “big event” which just happens to be on January 15^th. And since I watched this on January 14^th, there was an added “creep” factor that I hadn’t counted on when I first started watching it. I’m learning though, that I seem to really like horror movies that have a sort of count-down going on—where everything is leading up to one particular moment or day.

And I was really impressed that the story was so easy to understand. I wasn’t confused or frustrated with the ending—in fact, I was very satisfied. For once, I felt like the ghost had a legitimate reason to be pissed off, and more or less, thought (most) of the victims deserved what they got. It’s very rare for me to finish a movie and actually understand everything that went on—so that’s another thing the film has going for it.

I hope the writer and director team up for another horror project—there aren’t enough really good horror movies out there. What we need are more movies like this one.