The Red Shoes

This K-horror sophomore effort from Yong-gyun Kim was just so-so for me. The Red Shoes (2005) comes a little late to the Asian horror party and brings nothing particularly unique to the table. Aside from some interesting cinematography, particularly in the use of focus, this film is extremely forgettable. The A-horror tropes are paraded out: the vengeful ghosts, the cursed object, the creepy child (but in this case not so much creepy as just angry and annoying), the pale people with long bedraggled hair that represent restless spirits. Yada yada yada we get it. The Red Shoes isn't even particularly frightening, at least on a deeper emotional or psychological level. We never really get to know any of the characters that well. They are skin deep, facades, superficial. There's really no one to root for or even care about in this film. Without this connection, we must go without deep terror. The best the audience gets are some jump-scares, and honestly, after a few of those, you begin to resent the filmmaker for being so lazy and manipulating your unconscious surprise reflex to mine some cheap psuedo-terror.

Sun-jae, a single mother recently divorced from a cheating husband, spies a pair of red women's shoes on the subway one night. Being somewhat shoe-crazy (she maintains a veritable shoe museum at home, with soft lighting and special display cases) and seeing no obvious owner, she picks the red shoes up and brings them home. Pardon me while I digress for one moment here. I don't know if there was a problem with translating the film's title, or the director was color-blind, or some catastrophic coloring fuck-up in post-production, but the titular shoes ARE NOT RED. They're pink. Possibly, and this a stretch, you might say they were cranberry, but they are most definitely NOT RED. It sorta bugged me through the whole movie.

Anyway, back to the story. The moment Sun-jae picks up the shoes, her life begins to change. Events start to spiral out of control, friends begin to die mysteriously, and Sun-jae is haunted both by spirits and by visions of the past, of a bloody wedding and a mysterious ballet dancer. Perhaps most disconcerting are the changes in her daughter, Tae-su. Tae-su is immediately captivated by her mommy's new shoes, and although they are clearly much too large for her, she covets them and wears them at any opportunity. Which only serves to make Sun-jae suddenly and uncharacteristically furious and violent. Sun-jae must unravel the mystery of the shoes and reverse the curse before it's too late.

So, here's the thing: cursed footwear is just not frightening. Perhaps the premise could be tapped for a surreal dark comedy, but horror, not so much. Maybe if this film didn't take itself so seriously, maybe if it had a little self-awareness, a little snide self-mocking, something, anything to let the audience know that the filmmakers weren't deadly frickin serious about a pair of cursed pink pumps.

The acting here is okay, I guess. But Hye-su Kim's portrayal of Jun-sae is a tad over-the-top, like she went to the Nic Cage school of acting, perhaps. And really, the only thing Yeon-ah Park (Tae-su) does is either stare blankly or be really childish and annoying. I would figure that wouldn't be much of a stretch for any 6-year-old.

I also have to deduct a few points from the music, because my ears felt violated after watching The Red Shoes. In theory, composer Byung-woo Lee's mix of high-pitched strings, digital sound bites, and various other odds and ends could have worked. If done right. This was all wrong. My ears felt like they were being raped on a number of occasions, as the strings would screech into some previously undiscovered octave and the digital white noise would overwhelm the entire film until I literally had to put my hands over my ears and scrinch my eyes in pain. Not really what you want your audience to be doing when they're supposed to be watching your film.

In my continuing search for good A-horror, I will inevitably run into tepid efforts like The Red Shoes. But for any of you out there looking for good Asian horror, I suggest you skip this one. Instead, watch some Takashi Miike, or check out something good like A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), Infection (2004), or Sick Nurses (2007).

Storyline & plot: 2/10
Cinematography & effects: 6/10
Music & mood: 3/10
Performances: 5/10

The Reverend says: 4/10