`Sisily' Isn't Silly or Scary
Published on | Source
By Joon Soh
Staff Reporter
Give credit to the film "To Catch a Virgin Ghost" for trying to make something new out of something old. The movie, which opened Friday, takes two of the most popular and overused genres in Korean cinema over the past few years _ horror film and gangster comedy _ but rather than choosing one or the other, tries for a potentially new hybrid by combining the two.
Unfortunately, good ideas don't always make for good films. Instead of going the parody route like, say, the "Scary Movie" series, "Sisily" literally tries to find a midpoint between the two genres by halving the film, starting off as a gangster affair and ending it with ghosts. The result is an incomplete film that doesn't come off as either comic or horrific.
The gangster element of the film revolves around the aftermath of a diamond heist. Yang-I (Lim Chang-jung) and his subordinates, a group of wacky misfits, have three days to find Sok-tae (Kwon Oh-joong), who took off with the loot, and bring the diamonds back to their boss.
A trace on Sok-tae's cell phone leads the group to Sisily, a small "town" made up of a lodging house, an abandoned school and a handful of seemingly sweet people. The townsfolk, however, have a few secrets of their own, having let greed get the best of them after finding out about the diamonds.
Aside from displaying a bit more morbid sense of humor than the usual gangster comedy, "Sisily" doesn't add much more to the well-worn genre. The gangsters come off as quirky and their antics feel predictable, while the townspeople are too indistinct from one another to make much of a lasting impression.
The film's only real saving grace is Lim, who is appropriately funny as the frenetic gang leader. Sporting a goofy haircut and an even goofier fighting style, Lim is given the best comic lines and moments of the film, and he makes the most out of them.
Though the supernatural element, in the form of a longhaired female ghost (Im Eun-kyung), makes brief appearances throughout, it only really enters the story about halfway into "Sisily." It's too bad, too, given the potential for humor in making fun of the local horror film genre.
The scenes with the ghost, and especially her oddly banal conversations with Yang-I, should have been some of the better scenes in the film. But, as the saying goes, timing is everything in comedy, and these moments end up coming too little, too late.
Staff Reporter
Give credit to the film "To Catch a Virgin Ghost" for trying to make something new out of something old. The movie, which opened Friday, takes two of the most popular and overused genres in Korean cinema over the past few years _ horror film and gangster comedy _ but rather than choosing one or the other, tries for a potentially new hybrid by combining the two.
Unfortunately, good ideas don't always make for good films. Instead of going the parody route like, say, the "Scary Movie" series, "Sisily" literally tries to find a midpoint between the two genres by halving the film, starting off as a gangster affair and ending it with ghosts. The result is an incomplete film that doesn't come off as either comic or horrific.
The gangster element of the film revolves around the aftermath of a diamond heist. Yang-I (Lim Chang-jung) and his subordinates, a group of wacky misfits, have three days to find Sok-tae (Kwon Oh-joong), who took off with the loot, and bring the diamonds back to their boss.
A trace on Sok-tae's cell phone leads the group to Sisily, a small "town" made up of a lodging house, an abandoned school and a handful of seemingly sweet people. The townsfolk, however, have a few secrets of their own, having let greed get the best of them after finding out about the diamonds.
Aside from displaying a bit more morbid sense of humor than the usual gangster comedy, "Sisily" doesn't add much more to the well-worn genre. The gangsters come off as quirky and their antics feel predictable, while the townspeople are too indistinct from one another to make much of a lasting impression.
The film's only real saving grace is Lim, who is appropriately funny as the frenetic gang leader. Sporting a goofy haircut and an even goofier fighting style, Lim is given the best comic lines and moments of the film, and he makes the most out of them.
Though the supernatural element, in the form of a longhaired female ghost (Im Eun-kyung), makes brief appearances throughout, it only really enters the story about halfway into "Sisily." It's too bad, too, given the potential for humor in making fun of the local horror film genre.
The scenes with the ghost, and especially her oddly banal conversations with Yang-I, should have been some of the better scenes in the film. But, as the saying goes, timing is everything in comedy, and these moments end up coming too little, too late.
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