Paul Magne Haakonsen Based on the cover of the DVD and the fact that it is a part of the '8 movies to die for' series, then "Voices" (aka "Du saram-yida") seemed promising and it was with a certain amount of anticipation that I sat down to watch it.And now that it is finished, I must admit that I have an empty feeling and a sense of having been cheated out of something potentially great.So why did "Voices" fail to deliver? Well, because it was a predictable storyline that held no surprises to throw off the audience. And director Ki-Hwan Oh failed to impress where it mattered.The acting performances in "Voices" were good, despite of the limitations imposed by the director and the lack of a proper script.And the absence of scares and spooky moments just made the movie even more mundane - to put it mildly.This movie scores a mere four out of ten stars from me solely on the production value and acting performances.

gftorain The opening scene is of a young boy in shock, reaching out to his (apparently) recently murdered mother. Who is this kid? It isn't the brooding "new guy" in school- he murdered his father. It isn't the boyfriend- his father tried to burn everyone to death. Mom, in her final act, shielded her son from the flames with her body.Okay. So why was the aunt murdered? Is the brooding boy a demon? Who was the recluse? What did he have in connection with ANYONE? Is our lead character insane? I don't know much about Korean culture, but I find it odd that the parents of a high-schooler didn't bother with at least finding out the name of her adult boyfriend, whom they we well aware of. In a flash-back, we learn that the boyfriend blames our lead character for his ill-fortune, even though our lead character was a toddler in the flashback, and her father showed an act of charity. How were the two families connected? If this review is muddled, choppy and not quite cohesive, then I've put you in the perfect mindset for "Voices"

Claudio Carvalho In Sung-Nam City, the teenager Ga-in Kim (Jin-seo Yun) goes with her family and her boy-friend Hyung-Joong (Ki-woo Lee) to the wedding of her aunt Ji-sun and she sees the bride falling off a balcony. Then she witnesses Jung-sun (Yu-jeong Seo) violently stabbing her sister Ji-sun in the hospital. In school, the outcast Sung-min (Gi-woong Park) tells her that the events were not accidents and advises her to not trust anyone, friends, and family, not even herself. Ga-in believes in a family curse and almost gets killed by the classmate Eun-kyung (Kan-hie Lee); then by her teacher; then by her mate in fencing. When her mother attempts to kill her, Ga-in becomes completely paranoid and travels to visit a strange with Sung-min to seek answers for the curse."Du saram-yida" a.k.a. "Voices" is an ambiguous and confused tale of manipulation and paranoia with a great potential. Unfortunately the flawed and messy screenplay is never clear and it seems that Sung-min is indeed a manipulative demon or evil force that is visible only for his victims that pushes the characters to a paranoid behavior, culminating with a death wish. I like Asian movies that usually requires interpretation of the stories; however, the subplot with Ga-in's boyfriend is ridiculous and the weakest part of the complicated screenplay. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): Not Available

GoneWithTheTwins Watching "Voices," a subtitled South Korean import, I kept asking myself: When will this movie be remade in America? It's not that I want it to be remade. It's just that, with the recent releases of "The Ring," "The Grudge," "The Eye," "Mirrors," "Shutter," and "One Missed Call" ... well, you just know it's going to happen sooner or later. When it does happen, I can only hope that American filmmakers will be able to make something out of the plot. Yes, this movie does have a plot, but God help me, I have no idea how I can describe it to you; it's one of those films that seems to intentionally forgo any degree of clarity, the story shifting gradually from vague to incomprehensible. I watched the bloody murder scenes and I read the subtitles and I studied the characters as best I could, but somehow, absolutely nothing was clicking. Now, I realize I may be at a serious disadvantage. It is, after all, a foreign language film, so it was most likely made with a very different audience in mind. Maybe there are cultural considerations I'm not aware of. In my review of "Slumdog Millionaire," I noted that the main character's sense of optimism seemed unlikely given his terrible circumstances; readers were shocked at my ignorance, and a few even took the time to inform me that I was looking at this film from a very Western perspective, that even the most downtrodden in Mumbai survive only because they find something to live for. So it's quite possible that I'm looking at "Voices" from a very Western perspective. I may in fact lack the cultural understanding required to make sense of the story, which turns back on itself so many times that it eventually seemed less like a plot and more like a frightening dreamscape. The original Korean title is "Du Saram-Yida," which literally translates as "Someone Behind You." This does accurately describe the sense of paranoia and uncertainty permeating the story. Paranoia is often times baseless and irrational, much like the story, in which a teenage fencing champion named Ga-in (Jin-seo Yun) finds herself at the mercy of an unstoppable and unexplainable death curse. At least, I think it's a curse. It seems that everyone around her wants someone else to die, and in a fit of rage, they act on it: one of Ga-in's aunts is pushed off a balcony on her wedding day, and as she recovers in the hospital, another aunt violently stabs her to death; one of Ga-in's classmates, a perfect student in all respects, becomes so jealous that she tries to stab Ga-in in the nurse's office; at a certain point, Ga-in's mother starts wielding a knife, screaming, "Die! Die! Die!" as her husband tries to subdue her. So then some supernatural force has been unleashed on Ga-in's family. Or has it? All throughout, a reclusive, sunken-eyed teenage boy named Seok-min (Ki-woong Park) keeps appearing to give her this ominous piece of advice: "Don't trust anyone. Not your friends, not your family, not even yourself." This may or may not have something to do with a bad thing that happened to him as a boy, which may or may not have something to do with the film's ending, at which point any remaining thread of plot cohesion is cut away. Watching those final scenes is like watching a demo reel of murders and surrealistic images and plot twists all edited together. It's a meaningless jumble of moments that wanted to reveal something without actually revealing it. To say I had no idea what was going on would be like saying that the surface of the sun is warm. The most maddening thing is that characters are constantly offering some kind of vague reason for what's happening. They keep talking, yet somehow they're not really saying anything. They certainly aren't saying anything understandable. How strange that a movie in dire need of clarity could have done with a lot less explanation. There's a point at which Ga-in travels outside the city to see an elderly recluse who killed his wife in a fit of rage decades earlier. Despite the fact that his scenes are annoyingly light on specifics, at least they hinted that the rest of the film would follow some kind of narrative logic. But then comes the ending. Dear God, the ending--a bleak, nonsensical muddle that reverses pretty much everything I thought I knew about the plot. This is one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in a long time. Rarely has a film worked so hard at being a confusing mess. Let it be known that I went into "Voices" with an open mind, and for the first forty-five minutes or so, I really did try my hardest to make sense of it. But at a certain point, it was obvious that there wasn't much to make sense of, and I threw in the towel. Yes, it's a frightening movie, full of gory death scenes and surprise scares and quiet moments that build tension. But when story is neglected in favor of atmosphere, you have nothing more than a thrill-a-minute funhouse ride. If I had wanted that, I would have gone to a carnival. American filmmakers will have their work cut out for them once they latch onto this screenplay and begin reworking it. Don't think it won't happen somewhere down the line. - Chris Pandolfi