The Curse Of February 29th (2006) Korean
Why did I pick this movie as a break from my Bava lovefest? Was it because it was a doom movie and we've got a doom date coming up? Nope. Was it because it was Korean? OH HELL NO. Was it because it was a spooky/psychological drama? Nope. I chose this movie because THERE WAS A TYPO ON THE MOVIE POSTER. That's it. And trust me, I regretted every stinking boring minute. Oh boy, a movie about a tollbooth worker who either experiences the results of an old curse or a boring, paranoid woman getting no sleep and finally going off her nut. Yay. The tag line? Four Horror Tails. There was three things wrong with that tag. It was NOT horror, there were NOT four of them and, yes, TALES is spelled wrong.
Let me break it down nice and quick 'cause that's how I watched it: On February 29th of an unspecified year a prison bus at a tollbooth inexplicably burst into flames. All were rescued except one female murderer - yet her body was never found. Ooooh, I'm shivering now... so the legend goes that every four years on February 29 someone at a tollbooth is murdered. Tell you what folks, if you have to use a tollbooth very often, the excuse to kill one of 'em isn't that hard to find. Except around here of course, they're all great (she said, wanting to be able to use the two nearby). Now we have Ji-yeon (please don't ask me to pronounce that), an impressionable young lady who hears this story and is frightened by it.
Interesting note (not really, just filling space): In Korea apparently, toll booth workers are required to dress professionally - we're talking like they're freaking executives or something - they even have their own name plates to put on the door while they're working. Gee, and they wonder why it costs so much. So every four years, a car will drive up and hand you a bloody ticket. That means somebody in a tollbooth somewhere behind you has been murdered. Oh my.
Ji-yeon is currently in a mental hospital because she is afraid she will be the next victim. Umm, I thought it was one murder every four years. But then this movie doesn't really stick to rules, or logic, or a story of any kind. Her doctor is letting his nephew, a science writer to do an article on her although it's nothing in his experience or expertise. So we hear her story. She hears Feb. 29 legend, she thinks she sees woman in car give her a bloody ticket, there's a murder, the police don't believe her. Lather, rinse and repeat because this gets drawn out so much... ya know, I'm doing way too long of a review as it is. She's finally institutionalized because everyone around her, including two cops trying to solve the mystery, are dead.
So they take her away. We then hear the REAL story... or is it? It is. She's a damaged person, having a horrible fear of the dark since she was trapped in the sewers for three days when she was five and apparently there are no Ninja Turtles in Korea so she warped. When her booth goes dark for no reason, she snaps and thinks that the burned woman dead/not dead killer is after her and kills her friends and the cops. Actually, she is the one who's done it. Now the writer asks the doc why lie to her and say it's February 29 when it's not? So she'd talk. But watch out - she's gonna get you in four years. Wa. ha. ha.
Which story is real and which is not? If you really, really care, you are really, really bored. I know I was. And waiting for the inevitable twist ending because you can't make a movie without them anymore. Sure enough as the two men leave, the burned dead/not dead killer with the bloody knife is going down the hall to keep her date with Ji-yeon (even though they SAID it's not 2/29, MASSIVE DUH)... Seacrest out.
No comments:
Post a Comment