Anssi Vartiainen The first king of the Silla kingdom united the various Korean tribes under his iron fist through the use of superior technology and tactics. One of those tribes was led by a sorcerous chief, who was imprisoned within a lake by the Silla king after he had sworn vengeance against him for the destruction wreaked upon the tribe. A thousand years pass and stories become legends, legends become myths, yada yada. Now the Silla kingdom has stood for almost a millennia, but once again it's threatened both from within and by outsiders.The biggest problem with this film is the fact that it doesn't invest its viewers. None of the characters are given proper personalities beyond their general archetypes, for one. The main character is a skilled general, and that's about it. His intended is the intended, and that's about it. The lovelorn empress is the lovelorn empress. There are some additional touches, like the fact that the main character is apparently of lower birth, but they don't really add all that much to the story.The story is riddled with clichés and is also baffling in details. For example, the title of the movie is The Legend of the Evil Lake. Emphasis on the word 'evil'. Yet, the very first scene shows us the chief imprisoned within the lake simply because he had issues with his tribe being taken over by the Silla king. Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm with the chief on this one. Down with the Silla kingdom! Which makes watching the movie a touch aggravating when it so clearly assumes we're on the Silla side of the conflict.Aside from all that, it's not really a bad movie. The fight scenes are nice, the locations are gorgeous, the clothing, make-up and all that stuff works really well, and as a whole it's simply an okay Asian fantasy/horror film. If only the story had been even halfway decent this might have amounted to something.

humpback Lucky Me, I got to watch this at the local "Fantasy Film Fest" (under its anglicised title "Legend of Evil Lake"), and was pretty well surprised.First off - humanly possible, yet well choreographed swordfights/meleeing, plus some more inhuman demonic magicking. This felt nice for a change, I for one start to grow bored and jaded once one enters the realm of obvious wire-Fu these days - there are some extraordinary movies and hundreds of mediocre wanna-bees down that particular road. The fighting here seemed authentic, yet breath-taking and tense - without even a single bouncing of the walls or ceiling. Second, the plot, while featuring a love-story at its core, was less saccharine then one would dread imagine (Korean movies are notorious with regard to that ), with the possible love triangle put to good effect, motivation-wise, yet never dominating the unfolding plot.. Third, cinematography, set-design ( breathtaking - especially the palatial sequences and the ruin setting for the exorcism), backdrops and even the soundtrack are definitely top-notch. Well, Korean movies are rightfully famous for that, still it's pleasing to see. Fourth, the acting was solid, although the sub-titles did not seem to do justice to the inflections notable in the actors' voices. On the other hand, longer sub-titles would distract from the viewing even more. And the plot at least attempted to fill a lot of background and motivations in, although doing so less obviously than most generic Hollywood exposees (usually via the explanation to the coincidentally hapless know-nothing )...<spoilers AHEAD> The plot ? It steers nicely on the line between heroic adventure and mystical tragedy - from the opening sequence, where the ancient Korean High King entombs an evil demon-worshiping shaman into the ground of a sacred hollow, binding him into the very ground with his sacred sword (which must stay stuck...) to the main story nine-hundred years later, where in the embattled realm of Shilla the high general Biharang is not only beset by the numerous enemies of his queen, but also by her love, which he cannot reciprocate, because of his love for the peasant girl Jaumbie. Things really start to roll, when assassins send from the royal court ( though not by the queen, some rivals try to upset her relationship with her commander ) try to kill Jaumbie, who, flying through the woods near the ill-omened lake pulls an old sword from the ground in self-defence... From that point forward, everything is up for grabs, as the demon-shaman makes a swift, possessive and bloody comeback and plans to take painful revenge on the royal bloodline, Biharang trying to save his love Jaumbie (who is possessed/dominated by the demon after drowning in said lake), the queen and the realm at the same time, courtiers scheme and rivals get in the way. Things get very bloody at times, and torture, dismemberment and some exorcisms round out the list of "bad-things-happening". Some unexpected plot-twists and exorcisms make things even more complicated, and only in the parting shots is the eventual outcome finally revealed - just who can be saved, and at what price....This is definitely worth watching if you like Asian sword-fighting stories, unless of course you absolutely want/need/crave wire-Fu (not much of that) or massive explosions (none at all). Yes, it is not quite a "Musa - the Warrior", and yes, it has some weaknesses but not every worthwhile movie is the "Godfather" either, and even the "Godfather" has its faults, right ? I will definitely try to see this again, which will probably mean getting the DVD, seeing how few Korean and other Asian movies make their way to Europe and the US these days.8/10 chopsticks

Martin Edelius The movie starts with the evil sorcerer from one of many clans in China at the time captured and bound by the current emperor. Fast forward circa 800 years and general Biharang is fighting the rebels while his love waits for him at home. At the same time the queen is in love with Biharang, he only has eyes for his love though.The queen and her advisors do not approve of this and plots against Biharangs girlfriend, sending her into a series of events that unleashes the evil that was trapped almost a thousand years ago, taking over her own body. Will Biharang be able to fight this evil without killing his loved one? Will he be able to battle the scheming advisors and a love struck queen?This might not be such an epic movie as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but it's still quite enjoyable. The story contains love, drama and suspense, the acting is more than ok, the effects, while not up to ILM standards, gets the job done.Don't try and cram this movie into the standard Hollywood formula since most asian movies that are worth watching doesn't fit into this formula. Try to concentrate less on the evolution of the plot and more on the feeling of the movie and the, in my opinion, very well done camera work.Well worth watching if you can find it.

stikky Hmm... where do I start? Fighting scenes were horribly choreographed, acting was mediocre at best, not much character development, plot was really weak ... and given the low expectations of typical action movies, it still did not meet my LOW expectations. I recommend _Musa_ instead of this one -- for obvious reasons.