Sep
30
2007
Muoi (The Legend of a Portrait)
Posted by luna6 3 Comments
Movie : Muoi (므이)
Release Date : July 26, 2007
Country : South Korea
Director : Tae-gyeong Kim
Starring : An Jo, Ye-ryeon Cha
Runtime : 103 min
Website : http://www.muoi.kr/
Editor Rating : 6.0
Users Rating: 8.04 
(24 votes)
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The typical Korean horror film these days tastes a whole lot like Coke, flat Coke that is, after the lid is left off the bottle for several days – flat, stale, and with absolutely no fizz. Fortunately, Muoi : The Legend of A Portrait rises above the more common Korean horror flicks (i.e. awful crap) with a solid script, appealing visuals and surprisingly well done performances. The film doesn’t break out of the formulaic nature of the horror genre, yet it does enough things right to make the film stand out from the crowd.
A young lady by the name of Yun-hee is under pressure by her editor to produce something of interest for her next book. She hasn’t had a book published in three years and is all too cognizant of this fact. Things look up when her old friend Seo-yeon calls from Vietnam. Seo-Yeon informs Yun-hee about a local Vietnamese folklore centered around a girl named “Muoi” and her haunted portrait. It just so happens that in Yun-hee’s prior novel, she wrote a semi-autobiographical tale concerning her friends title “Secrets & Lies”. In the book Seo-Yeon was portrayed in the most horrid manner, but Yun-hee is sure that Seo-Yeon hasn’t read the book as she has been living in Vietnam for years. Yun-hee eagerly flies to Vietnam to learn more about Muoi.
Over a century ago, Muoi was born as a normal child, but was ostracized by the locals and led a lonely existence. She eventually falls in love with a painter named Nuen, but Nuen already has a wealthy finance who is extremely jealous and vindictive. Once the finance finds out about Muoi’s relationship with Nuen, she has Muoi’s ankle broken and face disfigured in an utterly gruesome manner. Shortly afterwards, on the 15th day of the lunar calendar, Muoi hangs herself only to return as a ghost out for revenge. Eventually, village monks are able to capture Moui’s vengeful spirit and seal it within her portrait. Now the seal has been broken and it’s up to Yun-hee to uncover the mysteries of Muoi before the curse takes Yun-hee’s life.
The film itself is a joint Korean-Vietnamese joint production with most of the film set in Vietnam. Visually the movie just looked great and the special effects were done as impressively. One of the more surprising aspect of the film would have been how well An Jo performed in her lead role as Yun-hee. Last seen in the goofy time traveling comedy “Project Makeover”, An Jo breaks out of the sweet teenager typecast and delivers bolts of energy in her demanding lead role – she can also scream like a banshee when required. Her counterpart, Ye-ryeon Cha, last seen in “A Bloody Aria” played a more rigid character and thus her performance didn’t have as much flair, but she still managed to give her character the right amount of mystery.
Muoi The Portrait of Legend, isn’t the type of movie to scare the bejesus out of you, but there is an intriguing story set within Muoi, along with an abundance of mystery running throughout the film. Strong performance by An Jo is noteworthy, as she seems to give a breakout performance. Muoi tuns out to be an enjoyable horror film done right. Just remember…”Death begins the Curse”.
Cast:
An Jo – Yun-hui
Ye-ryeon Cha – Seo-yeonAnh Thu – Muoi
Anh Hong
Seong-Eon Lim
So-hee Hong
Binh Minh
Anh-Thu
Dong-yeob Ko
Yong-tae Kim
If you like this movie you may enjoy : Alone, A Tale of Two Sisters, Carved : A Slit Mouthed Woman
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2007 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews |
Comments
3 Comments so far
I will let you know what i thought about it…
I watched the cut yesterday btw and that one is really worth watching, you probably need to watch it twice tough to really understand most what was going on :-)
I had no clue what happened in the last 15 minutes but someone explained it to me…
hey rico…this one is worth checking out! Far from a classic but surprisingly better than the average Korean horror flick… cheers..
I cant wait to see this one, i will watch the other latest horror movie THE CUT today or tomorrow…