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Epitaph (film)
Encyclopedia
Epitaph is a 2007
South Korea
n film directed by brothers Jung Sik and Jung Beom-sik. The movie is a horror film set primarily in 1942, while South Korea was under the colonial rule of Japan
. It is framed by scenes set in 1979.
plot twist
in A Tale of Two Sisters
and the three-episode structure from Three Extremes and other similar examples. Slant Magazine reviewer Nick Schager wrote that the genre "cannibalizes itself until there's nothing left except the tattered remains of once-effective conventions and the rapidly fading memories of superior scares gone by." Schager also called attention to Epitaph's convoluted plot, characterised by "jumbled chronology, dull repetitions, corny otherworldly melodrama."
Nonetheless, the cinematography, directing and acting by K-Horror mainstays Kim Eung-su and Ye Soo-jeong have earned the film praise as "visually as well as intellectually impressive, with some gorgeous cinematography and wonderfully composed shots." and "a significant contribution to rehabilitating K-horror's international reputation"
.
2007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n film directed by brothers Jung Sik and Jung Beom-sik. The movie is a horror film set primarily in 1942, while South Korea was under the colonial rule of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It is framed by scenes set in 1979.
Plot
Dr. Jung Nam finds a photo album dating back to his days as an intern at the Ansaeng Hospital. This triggers memories of his life. In 1942, as a young medical intern, Jung-Nam's arranged marriage ended when his fiancée, whom he had never met, committed suicide. Later he was assigned to monitor the morgue late at night. There he fell in love with a corpse, which is later revealed as the body of his deceased fiancée. Soon other mysterious events take place in the hospital, involving a young girl haunted by ghosts and a serial killer targeting Japanese soldiers.Critical reception
Whilst "Epitaph" has not been widely reviewed in the English-speaking press, the few critics who have reviewed it have criticized it as derivative, and for incorporating numerous formulaic genre tactics from more famous films, such as the dissociative identity disorderDissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
plot twist
Plot twist
A plot twist is a change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of a film, television series, video game, novel, comic or other fictional work. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation...
in A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters
A Tale of Two Sisters is a 2003 South Korean psychological horror film written and directed by Kim Ji-woon...
and the three-episode structure from Three Extremes and other similar examples. Slant Magazine reviewer Nick Schager wrote that the genre "cannibalizes itself until there's nothing left except the tattered remains of once-effective conventions and the rapidly fading memories of superior scares gone by." Schager also called attention to Epitaph's convoluted plot, characterised by "jumbled chronology, dull repetitions, corny otherworldly melodrama."
Nonetheless, the cinematography, directing and acting by K-Horror mainstays Kim Eung-su and Ye Soo-jeong have earned the film praise as "visually as well as intellectually impressive, with some gorgeous cinematography and wonderfully composed shots." and "a significant contribution to rehabilitating K-horror's international reputation"
Awards
The film's production designers, Min-bok Lee and Yu-jeong Kim, were nominated for a 2008 Asian Film Award for their work in Epitaph, although the award ultimately went to The Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway about a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early and enduring modernist novel, it received...
.