Wishing Stairs

Yeogo goedam 3 (Wishing Stairs) is a sequel in name only. Other than the setting of the film (an all-girl's school in Korea), it has very little to do with the other films in the series. In this one, there is a staircase on the school grounds that the students believe is magical. The staircase has 28 steps. When you reach the top, if a 29th step appears, it will grant your wish. When one of the girls is killed in a fall, another of the girls uses the magical staircase to wish her friend back to life. But she gets more than she bargained for.

As with the other films in the series, Wishing Stairs is very well made. The directors of this film are able to get some very nice performances out of the mostly unknown and unexperienced cast. Technically the film is very sound with some nice cinematography as the highlight. The special effects are well done and help create some very creepy moments. Overall, it's a nice installment to the series.

But, I haven't rated Wishing Stairs as high as I did the previous two films. Why? It's a little too formalistic and unoriginal. One of the elements that made Wishing Corridors and Memento Mori memorable is the subtle use of horror. In contrast, the horror is more obvious in Wishing Stairs. At times it seems like one set piece after the next with nothing of substance pushing the plot along. As for unoriginal, if you've seen Ringu, you've seen one of the big moments in this movie. Wishing Stairs has a very pale girl with long black hair crawling in jerky motions through a window. Sound familiar?

In a Korean boarding school, there is a legend about its twenty-eight steps stairway: when the twentieth-ninth step appears, the fox will grant a wish to the climber. The lesbian ballet student Kim So-hee (Han-byeol Park) is in deep love with her passive girlfriend and also ballet student Yoon Jin-sung (Ji-hyo Song). When there is a competition for a single spot in a famous ballet school in Russia, the envious Jin-sung finds the twentieth-ninth step and asks to beat the favorite So-hee. However, there is a price to pay for the wish unknown to Jin-sung and the consequence is the accidental death of So-hee. Meanwhile, the fat student Eon Hae-ju (An jo), who is despised and tormented by her classmate Han Yoon-ji (Ji-Yeon Park), misses So-hee. When she also finds the mysterious step, she wishes the return of So-hee with tragic consequences.

"Wishing Stairs" is a creepy low-paced ghost story, where the climax with scary sequences is only reached in the end. The story builds the mystery developing four characters and there is a subtle insinuation, at least in the Western mind, that So-hee is lesbian, Jin-sung is her passive love and the complex Hae-ju worships So-hee, forming a never clear triangle of love. In the end, I liked this refreshing horror movie, that slightly recalls the concepts of "Wishmaster" (make a wish but to the stairs), "Carrie" (with the bad treatment spent by the schoolmates) and "Pet Sematary" (with the return of So-hee from the world of the dead), but in a totally different environment and situation. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

i think this movie had a lot of potential to be really scary, but unfortunately it's not. for some reason it just doesn't work till the final 30 minutes. for example in the beginning i got really distracted by the bad "fat" - make up of the red haired girl, and her weird shy/crazy acting. it's supposed to explain her character, but that's about the only explanation you ever get about her. and it was obvious from the start what's gonna happen to her. if you had more emotional access to her, i think that character could have gone down as a new icon in horror movies, cause - man - this Asian girl with weird red hair could scare the sh*t out of you. later in the movie, her "shy/evil" changes are actually very well acted.

the other two girls are not bad either. but most of the time i felt like watching some Asian version of an olson twins movie...

OK, the "ring - style" girl through the window will definitely not scare you. it has been abused in too many movies now, and is not done very well here. but still the final 30 minutes will give you a nice sense of unease and slight terror.

oh, and i dare you not to get haunted by the sight and sound when the blood starts tripping through the ballet shoes at the rehearsal - god, and that girl keeps smiling. hats of to that!

so, see it if there is nothing else on, but this is no "grude" or "ring"

The third part of the loosely bound "Yeogo goedam" series is a mixture of the first and the second movie. It takes some suspense and horror elements from the first and best part of the series and the dramatic and romantic fragments of the much weaker second movie. What eventually comes out is a mostly dark, well played and entertaining movie that still lacks of something to ultimately convince. I would say that I missed some really haunting, frightening or intense scenes. I would also say that the third part adds nothing new to the series. Another negative point is that the end is not much surprising and I was expecting something deeper or darker on both an emotional and a suspenseful level.

The main idea of this third strike is quite great. A legend goes that if you climb the twenty eight steps leading up to the women's art school dormitory where this movie takes place, counting each step aloud, and find a twenty ninth, a spirit will appear and grant you a wish. Now, you can imagine how school girls might abuse of this legend and you have a big scenario of jealousy, mobbing, treachery, broken friendships and love stories in mind. Sadly, the movie only scratches the surface of it and basically focuses on three or four personalities. The dynamics between these characters are only of a slight interest as there is only a strong connection between the two main actresses, the one that created evil and the one that lived the evil. This relation is not enough to carry this movie on and make it be more than just an enjoyable and entertaining movie.

It's a good movie to be watched once but I wouldn't give it another try as it didn't really impress, touch or inspire me. I really feel that this movie should have gone further with its intriguing initial idea. This movie could have been more complex, more human and more creepy and should have hit harder. The director and producers really missed a good occasion to push this movie on the same level as the popular first flick but the ultimately failed. The third strike is allover still slightly better than the second one that had gone nowhere. But the third part is even less memorable in its uniqueness as the previous one at some points and overall of an average quality. This movie is entertaining and has a couple of enjoyable drama, suspense and romance moments but the part don't glue and fit together like a puzzle and you can feel many ups and downs of quality throughout the whole movie.

I would only suggest watching this movie to the collectors and true fans of the series, anybody else might be alright just watching the first flick. Nevertheless, I am heading out for the fourth part that got some good critics very soon in the hope that this one equals the first part.

Living in the USA, I am forced to choose from some pretty crappy and unoriginal horror films. Not that this was the most original idea for a horror film, but it somehow manages to make it feel fresh enough to like it. I'm just glad I bought a multi-regional player, and a wife who was curious about the title. I would have missed a good thing.

The plot is inspiring. It's not as scary as "The Eye" from the Pang brothers, but it's probably a more engaging and simpler story. The acting is so good, that I can feel the characters emotions, even though they're not speaking English. I especially loved the red-haired girl's acting in the cafeteria scene. I could feel her torment.

For some reason, I felt transported back to the original "Nightmare on Elm Street". It has that "classic" feel to it, even though it's a third film in a series. I'm glad they made it stand out on its own.

When does the next film from these people come out? 8/10