SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Claudio Carvalho When Sun-ae (Jeong-yun Choi) returns from the United States of America to Seul after two years of absence, her friend Hye-jin (Gyu-ri Kim) welcomes her at home. Sun-ae is disturbed and tells Hye-jin that the ghost of their deceased friend Kyung-ah (Ji-won Ha) is haunting and chasing her. Hye-jin recalls when she introduced her new friend Eun-ju to their former close college friends: She-hoon (Jun Jeong), who used to tape every moments with his camera; Hyun-joon (Ji-tae Yu), who was a promising baseball player before damaging his knee; Jung-wook (Jun-Sang Yu), who has become a prominent lawyer; and Jung Mi-ryoung (Hye-yeong Jo), who works in advertisement on television. The jealous and envious Sun-ae revealed a secret from the past of Eun-ju causing a tragedy in the group. When She-hoon, Hyun-joon and Mi-young are killed, Hye-jin finds a videotape hiding a dark covenant of her friends about the death of Kyung-ah.This ambiguous horror movie is another great example of the high-quality of South-Korea (and Asia in general) in this genre. Director Byeong-ki Ahn uses a remarkable cinematography and angles of camera to disclose a plot where the viewer is never sure whether a revengeful fiend or an insane character is killing Hye-jin's friend, and if Sun-ae has guilty complex or is really being chased by the ghost of Kyung-ah until the very last scene. The cast has great performances, the actresses are extremely gorgeous and Ji-won Ha is one of the most beautiful actresses I have ever seen. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Joe Asian cinema has been on a roll in recent years, rewriting the rules of the horror genre in particular. "Gawi" though seems to turn the clock back and returns favours to the American teen horror market. The film centres round a group of friends reminiscing at first about the suicide of an old acquaintance, and then when each begins to be picked off grizzly one at a time, they start to fear what they can't see blaming it on her revengeful return.The film basically combines together influences from Scream, "I know what you did last summer" and adds the now obligatory "loner female with long black hair and a troublesome background" from the Asian markets (someone please now give this a rest!). The shocks are never really scary and the acting can be quite lame.Confusing at first, you will get the hang of it, and the last 20 mins are quite interesting as the film gently twists. Regardless it is not a good film, and very unoriginal. Not by any means the worst, but simply a poor straight-to-video effort in my opinion.

Gafke A small circle of close friends is disrupted by a new presence, a withdrawn and somewhat shy girl named Eun-ju. The kindly Hye-jin takes Eun-ju under her wing and introduces her to everyone, unaware that she has met Eun-ju before...or has she? Eun-ju wins the affections of the handsome baseball player and incurs the wrath of the jealous Sun-ae. At a casual gathering one night, Sun-ae reveals that Eun-ju is actually Kyungh-ah, a little girl from the small village where she and Hye-jin grew up. Kyungh-ah was suspected of being possessed by demons and was said to have caused the death of several people, including Hye-jin's father. Eun-ju commits suicide that night by throwing herself from a roof top...but a few years later, her friends start seeing her dark ghost following them around and staring at them menacingly. Soon, the friends are dying, but is it really the ghost of Eun-ju back for vengeance? Or is it the seriously disturbed Sun-ae who has just "run away" from an American mental institution? Or could it be the young ambitious lawyer who has everything to lose? What secret are the friends hiding about Eun-ju's death?This film is not as slick and sharp as "Phone" but it's not bad either. Fans of the movie "Ghost Story" may appreciate this Asian take on the tale, as "Nightmare" has essentially the same plot. There are some great visuals here, particularly with the ghost of Eun-ju, and the performances are all very good. There's even a little gore here for splatter fans. The movie may move a little slowly for people who prefer their horror fast, bloody and constantly scary, but it has an interesting story to tell and will be appreciated by fans of "Ringu" "Ju-On" and the aforementioned "Phone."

RJC-99 If you appreciate the renaissance in Asian horror, don't bother with Gawi. The film scarcely deserves mention alongside A-list work such as Ringu, A Tale of Two Sisters, Cure, and Ju-On (or even such good material as The Eye or Inner Senses). Those films brim with subtleties, unexpected imagery, rich characters, and a decidedly non-Western take on what's frightening. Gawi is strung together with the leftover limbs and organs of everything that has made American horror lousy for the past twenty-five years.The film tries to blend Asian ghost story and Hollywood slasher flick, but it's a bad fit. One aesthetic is bound to smother the other; guess which? Having no story of their own to tell the filmmakers loot Ringu for an evil-child subplot, but the situation is hopeless. Clichés, crap characters, witless plotting, a dull ghost, ho hum.