I just had a new experience.  How do I begin to describe this?

This movie is going to be in my head for awhile, and it’s firmly and permanently put itself into my list of all time favorite movies.

목소리, which is Korean for “voice”, is the only horror movie that has – to my memory – ever brought me to tears.  Not tears of fright.  Not tears of laughter.  But tragic, moving tears.  I’m not saying that I cried my eyes out.  No, that’s not accurate, but cried I did.

The actresses done a fantastic job, and the director brought the talent together wonderfully.  The writing, the acting, the directing – it was all amazing.

It wasn’t until toward the end of the movie that it brought out the tears.  Like I said, it’s not like there was sobbing involved.  But perhaps it’s more beautiful because of this?  I was watching it, and that was it.  The tears flowed, and I was just kind of like, “Damn it…” but there wasn’t any other reaction that was more appropriate.

Then the ending of the movie – which I won’t spoil – but seeing the credits rolling and.. well, then the part that I won’t spoil.  It was powerful.

So, even though they will probably never read this, to the actresses and the writer and the director:  You were all incredible.

To explain the movie to those who may be curious, the movie is a part of a series called “Whispering Corridors” (여고괴담).  Voice / 목소리 is the 4th in the series.  Each of the movies are only connected via their theme.  They do not rely on each other to continue one long story, so you can watch any of them.  I’ve seen two:  The first and the fourth.  They’re decent movies.  I recommend them, and I would like to see the others.

The theme is that they take place in a high school, and the ghost is always stuck in the high school.  In the two that I have seen there is always a friend who has some sort of connection with the ghost, but how this plays out appears to be different for each of the films.

Voice takes place from the point of view of the ghost.  What is existence like for her?  This tale grows from the first moment that she becomes a ghost until the story’s conclusion.  It’s not all from her point of view, of course, but by and large that is perspective of the movie.

Really, I don’t want to describe too much because these movies also have an element of mystery to them.  Talking about the movie in any sort of detail runs a real risk of giving away some part of the story.

If you watch Asian movies at all, then you definitely need to see 목소리.

In so far as being a horror movie, it’s definitely not as scary as others that I have seen.  However, it’s obvious that it was never the goal of this movie to be the most frightening horror movie.  No, this is definitely a horror movie and it is definitely still creepy, but more important, there is an element of raw humanity in 목소리 / Voice that is portrayed subtly, yet, in the end, very powerfully.

Wow.

I’m going to watch the ending credits again.  Later folks.

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