거울 속으로 (Into the mirror) 2003: Review

거울 속으로 (geoul sokeuro) which translates to 'Into the mirror' is a 2003 South Korean horror film. After accidentally causing the death of his partner in a hostage situation by shooting into a mirror, Wu Young-Min quits the police force to work for his uncle as head security of a department store 'Dreampia'. The department store is currently in the final stages of rebuilding, since a fire 5 years ago which had destroyed parts of it. The re-opening was scheduled in a few days, that is before strange murders of employees begin to occur in Dreampia. It would seem that the victims all committed suicide.


 Young-Min is suspicious about the police explanation 'It was suicide or a serial killer as the victims were right handed, but were killed in a left handed way', He starts his own investigation. Unfortunately an old acquaintance, Ha Hyun-Su is in charge of the investigation. Hyun-Su still blames Young-Min for the death of their friend and does not want to cooperate with him. The further into the investigation they go, the more unnatural the truth becomes.

Directed by Kim Seong-Ho, Screenplay by Kim Seong-Ho

Length:113mins 

Release date in South Korea: 14th august 2003

Trailer

In the opening, the scene mainly focus's on the first victim. Purposely several mirrors and reflective surfaces have been added to the opening to add suspense.The character is leaving work, and also stealing a present for her friend.

The lighting is poor to create a dark feel to the department store. If you look carefully you can also notice a few shadows moving in the mirrors. We start the film with a zoom out from her pocket mirror. There aren't many sounds, Only the diegetic sound of her voice and footsteps as she walks around the building. As she stares at the escalator the camera pans downwards as if someone is behind her.

She looks up to where a CCTV camera aught to be. (close up shot). Non diegetic music and drones begins to play to add suspense. She then starts to rush through the building, whilst the music gets slightly louder and faster. The irony is that the camera lingers on a few of the headless mannequins for a while, as her death is also to do with her neck. The lighting in the mannequins is also significant as the light mainly focuses just on the tip of the neck.

She is caught by the security guard who directs her to the employee's exit. As she walks through she spots a mirror and takes out the blade she had picked up earlier. She notices that her reflection isn't following her. 

 The left picture is of her reflection cutting her neck, but it also affects the character in the real world (right) even though she hasn't picked the blade back up.

You can see in this picture that the blade in the real world has no blood on it at all. The non diegetic music continues to play whilst the film enters a title sequence.

Wu Young-Min dies in the real world after solving the investigation, and finding out that it was Director Choi who had murdered Lee Ji-Hyun's twin sister. He is shot by Director Choi and falls through and mirror, but gets back up to fight. After Ji-Hyun's sister temporarily steps out of the mirror and murders Director Choi as revenge, Young-Min dies in the ambulance. However we don't realise that he is in the mirror until he steps out of the hospital and takes a look at his surroundings.

'If you die in the real world, you can still be alive in the mirror.

However if you die within the mirror, You will have no reflection'.

Chroma-Key or 'Green screen' effects were used here to make sure the young girl had a reflection but Young-Min did not, just to leave viewers wondering on that though. The shot type is a mid shot which zooms outwards and tilts downwards, giving the feel that someone is watching from a distance. 


This film is based on fear, compared to American films which rely of a physical form for a thriller. Although Into the mirror didn't so much as fit the genre of horror, it is definitely a thriller worth watching.