Wishing Stairs

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

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

Wishing Stairs is the least scary of the Yeogo Goedam films so far (I've still to see the fourth however). It's just the same old clichés of 'be careful what you wish for' done in a South Korean girls school. It's like Wishmaster gone Asian with a bit of Grange Hill thrown in for abstract measure.

The windy atmosphere is don again, the lesbian love thing is done AGAIN and the old, dusty secret room is done again too. In fact, when I think about it, this movie is nothing more than some rehashed scenes from the first two. It's not boring in any way, but is certainly not scary and not a film I could sit through again.

Even fans of horror movies are sometimes in the mood for something a little lighter & this fits the bill. It's not gory or intense. The story is good, as is the acting. I've read a lot of comments about the lesbian tone to it, but it's just barely. I didn't see the first two before this one but I might check them out one night when I want something easy to watch. This movie would be perfect for something like a 13 year old girls slumber party or something like that. If there is a lesson to be learned from this movie, more so than be careful what you wish for, it's use conditioner. The main characters have such gorgeous hair it will make you sick!!

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?