The success of The Ring inspired Japan’s nearest neighbors to tell their own ghost stories, and South Korea certainly didn’t waste the opportunity in the mid-2000s. During this heyday of “K-Horror,” there was a burst of spectral yarns centered around cursed objects, haunted technology, and most of all, revenge. Homemade folklore often played a role as well, and filmmaker Ahn Sang-hoon looked to a classic Korean story for inspiration when putting together his debut.
A new and disturbing case awaits Detective Min So-young (Song Yoon-ah). In the 2006 crime-chiller Arang, a man’s charred corpse is discovered in the remains of a house fire, but his autopsy reveals he died before the fire broke out. And the reason for his death was a heart attack caused by prussic acid. What makes an already strange death even stranger is the addition of a second victim; another man later died from the same cause. So-young and her new partner Hyun-ki (Lee Dong-wook), a young transferee from Forensics, now have what looks to be a spree killer on their hands.
The mystery in Arang becomes more complicated and eerie after it’s revealed the first two victims not only knew each other, they, along with their friends, killed a teenage boy named Joon-ho (Baek Min-hyun) at a rural salt storehouse ten years ago. The girlfriend of the deceased, Min-jung (Kim Hae-in), then disappeared a year later without a trace; it’s rumored she killed herself. So-young naturally deduces the current murders have to do with the past, but with Joon-ho dead and Min-jung presumably dead as well, it’s unclear who could be carrying out the revenge now.
There is a hard line between the real and supernatural worlds in Arang. While Director Ahn is adamant about his movie being of the horror genre, and he has frequent sequences backing up his case, it’s rare to see the uncanny interact with fact. Any time the paranormal does show up, it’s contained to unimaginative scare sequences before reality sets back in. Early on, schoolgirls get a big fright when they visit the notorious salt storehouse. And most importantly, a crawly female ghost with long black hair and a rotting complexion steadily preys on her male targets. This is of course after each victim opens an email linking him to a creepy website called Min-jung’s Salt Village. Based on these scenes, the movie has a hard time setting itself apart from its contemporaries.
Weird as it may seem, Arang is more enjoyable when the ghost isn’t on screen and So-young is hunting for leads in the physical world. Detective Min’s ongoing investigation keeps the audience on their toes; she persists regardless of conflicted feelings about her own past. So-young’s intuition kicks in with little stimulus or warning, and how she uncovers certain clues is almost as unnatural as the malevolent force at hand. Despite how random So-young’s hunches come across, those arbitrary eureka moments lead to more favorable twists and turns. The movie admittedly failed to make a unique horror antagonist, yet its hero is engaging to watch.
Knowledge of Arang’s basis, an old Korean folktale of the same name, may seem like a spoiler, but the writers were choosy with what they used, and nothing they did include gives away the movie’s ultimate ending. Ahn cleverly hid clues along the way before spelling everything out in the last act and hoodwinking even the most shrewd of mystery fans. From there the story goes from average to remarkable as So-young realizes who is tying up loose ends.
What Arang lacks in genuine frights it makes up for in ability. Ahn and everyone aboard this Korean haunter took a hoary idea and delivered something refreshing. The abundance of horror clichés ultimately conceal a better story. So long as audiences can forgive any minor trickery, they should be pleased with how everything turns out on the mystery front. Song Yoon-ah plays a compelling detective whose potential for angst, given her backstory, is never blatantly manifested, but there is a satisfaction knowing she too received some closure. Lee Dong-wook is exceptional in his debut role as a sensitive rookie, and he is easily the movie’s breakout performer.
With such a steady output of Korean horror at the time, there were bound to be movies that got lost in the shuffle. Ahn Sang-hoon’s first feature can be considered a modest hit at the box office, and it received an international release, but the movie eventually fell through the cracks like so many others. Someone might blame a reliance on prevailing tropes for Arang’s current obscurity, although despite all appearances, this is neither a typical K-Horror nor an average crime-thriller.
Horrors Elsewhere is a recurring column that spotlights a variety of movies from all around the globe, particularly those not from the United States. Fears may not be universal, but one thing is for sure — a scream is understood, always and everywhere.
