To Sir, With Love (2006) probably one of the movies that included into my watchlist when I was a teenager. The interesting synopsis and poster artwork intrigue me so much, but back then it's really difficult to look for Korean films, ultimately horror genre, in my country. Just today I watched the movie, and it's not living up my 10 years expectation, but at least I like it.
The movie told a terrifying story of the relationship between a disabled teacher in her old days and her ex-students back in their elementary school. After grim stories about their old days begin to unfold in the reunion day, a person in bunny mask awaits to turn the reunion red.
Slasher flick isn't too strange for us. There are certain elements in slasher films involving unknown figure that always bring a shock in the end, and for an unhelpful hint, the same in this movie. With that being said, once you see this movie and have seen many similar stories, this movie is kind of stale. Lots of boring jumpscares, unearthly characters, and "effortless" twist, even the torture scenes seem uninspired for me. However, the twist changes it all.
While I said the twist is pretty easy (I can figure it out in the middle), the twist justify many lacking points this movie has. It just elevates your cliche slasher into a psychological drama with bonus of melodramatic sequences the usual K-Dramas have given.
What refrain me to give this movie higher than 6 is the direction and how the cinematography implemented in this movie. I should judge this movie with mind that super fast scenes with lots of flashes (ultimately in the disturbing scenes) were heavily used back then in Korea. But, I never really been a fan to that kind of effect. The production design, also seems cheap in the camera. I don't know if it's the wrongdoing of my copy, but it makes this movie seems like from early 2000s with soap drama effects.
At the end, this movie is preferable to me based on its story, although somehow the execution may make me unable to recommend this to my horror-loving colleagues.
The movie told a terrifying story of the relationship between a disabled teacher in her old days and her ex-students back in their elementary school. After grim stories about their old days begin to unfold in the reunion day, a person in bunny mask awaits to turn the reunion red.
Slasher flick isn't too strange for us. There are certain elements in slasher films involving unknown figure that always bring a shock in the end, and for an unhelpful hint, the same in this movie. With that being said, once you see this movie and have seen many similar stories, this movie is kind of stale. Lots of boring jumpscares, unearthly characters, and "effortless" twist, even the torture scenes seem uninspired for me. However, the twist changes it all.
While I said the twist is pretty easy (I can figure it out in the middle), the twist justify many lacking points this movie has. It just elevates your cliche slasher into a psychological drama with bonus of melodramatic sequences the usual K-Dramas have given.
What refrain me to give this movie higher than 6 is the direction and how the cinematography implemented in this movie. I should judge this movie with mind that super fast scenes with lots of flashes (ultimately in the disturbing scenes) were heavily used back then in Korea. But, I never really been a fan to that kind of effect. The production design, also seems cheap in the camera. I don't know if it's the wrongdoing of my copy, but it makes this movie seems like from early 2000s with soap drama effects.
At the end, this movie is preferable to me based on its story, although somehow the execution may make me unable to recommend this to my horror-loving colleagues.