"White: The Melody of the Curse" movie review, part one

 

 Release Date: June 9, 2011  Length: 106 minutes  Directors: Kim Gok and Kim Sun

Main Cast: Top four are the members of the Idol group Pink Dolls.

Ham Eun-Jung as Choi Eun-Ju.... Leader and oldest member of Pink Dolls. Eun-Ju had been a backup dancer in the past but has never made it to the big time which of course is the wish for her and any Idol. Finally her wish comes true to be the main vocalist of a song but that meant the death of three others and was the fame worth it?

Choi Ah-Ra as Ah Rang.... Youngest in the group and kind of a dour girl but in a way all four are. Shin-Ji is considered to be the best dancer in the group but to me Ah-Rang is, she was the third victim of the 'curse'.

Kim May Doni as Shin-Ji.... As mentioned most feel she's the best dancer in the group but isn't much of a singer but does 'rap' on occasion during songs, the second 'victim'.

Jin Se-Yeon as Jenny.... Usually is the main singer for Pink Dolls' songs but doesn't have much stage presence, the first victim of the 'White Curse'.

Hwang Seul-Hye as Sun-Ye.... Eun-Ju's best friend though she's about ten years older and at one time was also an aspiring Idol. Sun-Ye is Eun-Ju's vocal coach and helps out during the recording sessions, she was the one to finally discover what the real curse was however it was just a bit too late to save anyone.

Pyeon Jung-Su as Kim.... The manager of Pink Dolls and it may seem hard to believe but her name was never mentioned once during this film though she had a large role. The character's name isn't in any cast list either so will call her Kim as I do need a name for her, a very strict yet fair manager.

Choi Min-Chul as Choi Tae-Gon.... Sponsor of the group and also a TV show host.

Kim Young Min as Lee.... Recording producer for the group.

 Trailer that's subbed in English

 The stretch from 2008-14 had so many low budget horror films, don't think nearly as many are made these days. But though low budget affairs those films have all been good and don't think I've seen a bad one, now the hunt is on for a few I've missed! Taking a mini break from dramas as I've missed viewing films and will be reviewing many of them in the next month. Most will be from Korea but will also have some Japan mixed in and they too will hopefully be some under the radar horror flicks. Actually the goal is to have all of these upcoming reviews be of lesser known films since 2010 but they're not the easiest of movies to find.

 Didn't read any review that closely but most thought this didn't have too much horror in it, the real horror was what goes on behind the scenes in the world of K-Pop! Fans only see the end product but there's a lot of backstabbing and such that takes place, sure in J-Pop too. However I thought there were quite a few horror scenes and don't know why others didn't think that way. The first half hour was a bit slow for things but it was needed to set the story up. So while not a classic thought this turned out to be a decent horror film and I've never seen all that many bad ones, bet I've viewed over 500 Asian horror movies. Very rarely will one get over a 9/10 grade but on the other hand very few get lower than an eight. Let's finally get to things and the review will be in two parts to make it easier to read. From left to right are the members of the Pink Dolls Idol group: Jenny, Shin-Ji, A-Rang and Eun-Ju.

 The second screenshot above is of the Idol group Pure who are very popular and could be considered the rivals of Pink Dolls. Their career started out well but has fallen into such a slump and it's easy to see why. At concerts Pure is such an energetic group whose songs are so darn catchy. Which is the opposite of Pink Dolls whose shows are rather bland and I blame that on the songs which are so-so at best, at shows fan tend to look at their phones more than the group! In the bottom screenshot above is Kim who is the manager of Pink Dolls, unsure if she herself was once an Idol. She still believes in the four members and what they need are some better tunes. She's rented out a new studio, a refurbished one that had burned down fifteen years prior with some fatalities. The girls are excited and they need a nice break as the membership to their fan club is dwindling quickly and how many more chances will they get? Eun-Ju is the 'leader' and oldest member of Pink Dolls, one night she was practicing by herself at the new studio and noticed the wall mirrors were also doors to closets.

 Behind one was the VHS you can see above with the word 'White' written on the cover. There were other videos and cassettes but the 'White' one attracted the eye of Eun-Ju who brought it to her room that night. The video was severely damaged and you can see that above too but the audio was somewhat listenable and to Eun-Ju what a super song this was! The following day she showed the other three members the video and also their manager Kim, looks like Pink Dolls have their next single. They even performed it once at a show the next day and the fans instantly took a liking to the song, now it's time to record it. Here's where the problems for the group started as the song was mainly a solo one with no background vocals so unless things were changed just one member would sing and the other three would just be dancers. Jenny is the strongest singer in the group and naturally thought she would be the solo singer which she was at first. But she couldn't handle the song so well and neither could any of the three other members, perhaps the song should have been changed around. The song is of course named "White" and though there was a video the song was never released as tragedy struck the group who recorded it. Mainly the the singer Jang who is in the video, she supposedly died in that fire fifteen years ago but is there more to the story?

 We're quickly up to about the thirty minute mark, the action really does pick up from here and horror films tend to work best when the opening is a bit slowish. None of the members could ace the vocals to "White" so it was decided for now to have Jenny as the solo singer, still think they could have arranged it so all four could have sang. Jenny did a passable job but there were problems with her, soon it's a 'curse' that will affect all of the Pink Dolls members. Epihidrosis(was it spelled correctly?) is some sort of condition that has to do with sweating too much due to stress, Jenny did have some liquid medicine she took which has worked well. But the pressure of the song was too much for her, during the rehearsal and solo practice session she had Jenny must have consumed fifty of these liquid packages, ten times more than recommended. So with Eun-Ju watching from the recording booth Jenny had an overdose of this medicine and couldn't breath, she was rushed to the hospital but she's now no longer part of the song. Did wonder what happened to her as we didn't see her again but finally did at about the seventy minute mark.

 To make the confusing story a bit shorter it seems whoever becomes the vocalist for the "White" song will have some tragedy befall them. None of the members realized that but then again none seemed to have a high IQ! One person did notice what was going on was Sun-Ye who will be in many screenshots but may not talk about her often. She's Eun-Ju's 'mentor' and vocal coach, she also helps out the recording producer Lee during sessions. With Jenny out of commission Pink Dolls is down to a trio and the vocal duties fell to Shin-Ji. That also meant the curse fell to her too which was okay in a way as she was not a likable character. Shin-Ji was so consumed with her looks and used so many cosmetics which led to her tragedy. Somehow it appeared her vast supply of cosmetics had been poisoned(!) and when she applied anything it made her face bleed! Shin-Ji blamed Eun-Ju for her condition which wasn't the truth, however Shin-Ji's face was such a mess she too had to withdraw from the song leaving just two members who are Eun-Ju and A-Rang. What's a bit of a mystery is why Pink Dolls' popularity was getting so high. With two members sidelined and the "White" song still not recorded the K-Pop public still couldn't get enough of Eun-Ju and A-Rang, an army of fans has been camping outside of the group's new studios.

 There were a few quiet days for Pink Dolls but soon tragedy was to hit again with the third victim of the 'curse. A-Rang was the youngest member but to me their best dancer though not the most cheerful of females. A-Rang presumed she would now be the main vocalist and did have the backing of their manager Kim who thought Eun-Ju may be too old to be the singer, now that the group was down to two members perhaps a duet would have worked? A-Rang made a guest appearance on the variety show 'Survival Challenge' and her quest was to 'escape' from the group's studios. Sounds like an easy enough task but during this time A-Rang had been hounded by the spirits of the 'White' song, those spirits sent her over the edge but she was able to flee the building but it may have been wiser to stay there! In the lot was a crane for shooting videos, against all odds A-Rang's hair got stuck in one of the mini compartments and she was whirled around the lot with her fans screaming below. You can see the outcome above as A-Rang was thrown to the ground with that compartment landing on top of her, like the two other members she wasn't dead but will be out of commission for a long, long time.

 So that just leaves Eun-Ju as the sole member and she's finally come to the conclusion that there is a curse around this "White" song and is she next in line? Along with Sun-Ye she did a bit of investigating about this unreleased song's origins and did come up with some answers but as we'll see towards the end many of them were wrong. But one correct thing was that the female in the grainy video was named Yang who was the main vocalist for the "White" song. Eun-Ju surmised she wrote the song but before it could be officially recorded Yang and nine others had died in the studio fire. There's something very fishy about that fire and was it caused by an evil spirit? Yang's group had a backup dancer who a few days before the video was made had killed herself and Yang was blamed for that though it quickly was forgotten, could this suicide have anything to do with Yang's death and the curse now haunting the Pink Dolls group? Good questions and they'll be answered in the next post. Took 110 screenshots and this post went up to #65 which was more than I intended. The pics below follow the action in the order the events happened and the next pot will pick up with Eun-Ju still investigating this curse.