Jaguimo (1998)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Kwang-hoon Lee

Writer:

Hong-zhou Li (writer)

Release Date:

14 August 1998 (South Korea)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Romance

Plot:

A battle is on to save the soul of a woman who must decide whether or not to become a vengeful spirit.

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Sung-jae Lee	...	Kantorates
Hee-seon Kim	...	Jin Chae-byul
Seung-won Cha	...	Na Han-su
Hye-jeong Yu	...	Baek
Jin-Young Jang	...	Lee Young-eun
Yeong-ja Lee	...	Diety
Kwang-jung Park	...	Sales Manager 2
Won-jung Jeong	...	Messenger of Death 1
Se-jin Jang	...	Messenger of Death 2
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Myoeng-su Kim
Shi-won Kim	...	Hyun-ju
Hyun-kyoon Lee	...	Kantorates's younger brother
Gye-nam Myeong	...	Sales Manager 1

Also Known As:

Ghost in Love

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Singapore:R(A) | Australia:R | Germany:16

Company:

Cinema Service

Dead boring, for most part!

Chae-Byyul who suspects her boyfriend, Na Han-su, is cheating on her commits suicide, with some unexpected help from some spirits. When she comes around, she learns she is dead and that in this afterlife she can set out for revenge against het old flame, who hasn't taken long to move on from her.

Let me begin by saying that I didn't intend to watch this film, as I recorded the wrong channel and this is what I recorded instead. So I decided I would check it out anyway. During the opening introduction I thought this was going to be an exhilarating story, but after the promising beginning it became somewhat of a real bore that was only saved by its strong visuals (if sometimes to way over-the-top) and one or two notable performances. The story and dialogue was SO bland and corny that it was an incredibly dour experience to sit through. Which is rather sad that it just couldn't pull me in, because it boasts an imaginative and such an impressive idea that was handled rather flatly and overall had such a hollow feel. Okay, sure there were moments of small flashes of excitement (especially those scenes involving the spirit of Pale face) and the special effects (like something out of a video game) are something sensational, but still you can't hide that rather empty feeling. It seems like they're throwing about the striking special effects to hopefully to cover it up. Basically this reasonable high budget production is coated with sugar and gloss, but is somewhat too sweet to comprehend. Especially, the unconvincing love story that turns rather melancholy. The creative effects are breath-taking (with the radiant colour scheme streaming through) and have flair to boot; but it's just too bad that the majority of performances didn't follow the same suit. If you're going to look cool, you got to have some personality to back it up! While, the humour was just too silly. The pacing felt rather stodgy and that's because of the wooden nature of it and the soundtrack was somewhat cheesy and lousily put together. I would say it just didn't know where it wanted to go. For me nothing really seemed to gel, as everything skewed all over the place. Although, Asian cinema enthusiasts might find something to like about it.

Overall, it definitely could have been far better, but the disappointing execution turns into an uneventful chase film with a lot of dull chin-wag amongst the incredibly, high-octane special effects. Worth a gander, but it's basically pure eye candy at best.